Date: May 30th, 2026 9:34 AM
Author: UN peacekeeper
As for the story of the postmortem experiment
with Lagrange, no mention is made of it in any of the
reputable biographies of Lavoisier (1-3). On 8 May
1794 Lavoisier, his father-in-law, and most of the other
members of the Ferme were taken to the Place de la
Revolution where they were rapidly guillotined, their
heads falling into a common sack and their torsos being
tossed into a wagon. After the execution, their remains
were carted away and buried in an unmarked
mass grave. Lagrange and a small group of other scientists
were present at the execution but were standing at
a distance in one corner of the square, separated from
the guillotine by a line of gendarmes. To have actually
performed the experiment, Lagrange would have had
to of been at the base of the guillotine examining each
head as it fell into the sack. This “urban myth” apparently
started with a special on the guillotine that aired
on the Discovery Channel several years ago - a source
not exactly known for either its reliability or skepticism.
Indeed, it even became the subject of a popular
syndicated newspaper question-answer column (4).
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5870039&forum_id=2,#49907492)