LA METTRIES DEATH, OR: THE NONSENSE

OF AN ANECDOTE
The definition of anecdote probably changed during the course of the
eighteenth century. An anecdote no longer refers only to a secret or
unpublished history but also to what so far has been known as gossip. The
Oxford Dictionary quotes a passage from Gullivers travels, in which
Swift speaks of an anecdote in the traditional sense as a secret history.
Swifts novel was published in 1727. In a letter from 1789 James Boswell
states that his Life of Johnson will certainly be full of literary and char-
acteristical anecdotes (which word, by the way, Johnson always con-
demned, as used in the sense that the French, and we from them, use it, as
signifying particulars). Samuel Johnson himself had still defined an
anecdote as something yet unpublished; secret history2. Only by this
change of meaning did it become possible that an anecdote could cause
confusion between story and history as demonstrated by the following
example.
Un homme fort gai, qui sappelait Not1 et qui ttait le cusinier unique et tr& chirie de Sa
Majestt Prussienne ce roi navait quun cuisinier, et No&l navait quun seul aide de cuisine
ou marmiton.... Sans Noel le pire, ou plut8t saris lhabiletk de cet artiste culinaire, le fameux
Lamettrie, ce mkdecin athke, ne wait pas mort dindigestion; car le pltk dont il mangea zi
outrance chez lord Tyrconel avait ktk fair par NOEL... II mourait en riant, quoiquon prttende
quil ny a point de mort plus ptnible que celle qui provient dune indigestion.,
When Casanova refused to become a Prussian teacher, a job which had
been offered to him by Frederick the Great in August 1764, the French
physician and philosopher Julien Offray de La Mettrie had already been
dead for 13 years. In Berlin, not the materialist philosopher himself, rather
the anecdote about his death was kept in blessed memory. Casanova, of
course, was not the originator of this anecdote of which the sources cant
be elicited.
In 1746, La Mettrie fled the pursuit of the medical faculty in Paris and
French censorship as well by escaping to Holland. After the famous book
by La Mettrie, his LHomme machine was published in 1747 at Leyden,
both the author as well as his publisher Elie Luzac thought it would be
advisable to prevent the new (self caused) endangerment by an escape to
Prussia. Maupertuis, a mathematician and like La Mettrie born at St.
Malo and since 1740 president of the academy of sciences in Berlin, was
able to convince the Prussian king to allow his compatriot to take resi-
dence in Prussia. La Mettrie died on November 1 lth, 1751, only three
years after his arrival at the Prussian court. Soon after his death the above
mentioned anecdote circulated through nearly all the papers, notes and
books published on La Mettrie.
For example, Lessing, who reviewed several of La Mettries books,
informs the reader of his Critische Nachrichten aus dem Reiche der Ge-
Neophilofogus 75 ( 199 1) 194- I99
Stephan Dressler - The Nonsense of an Anecdote
195
lehrsamkeit: Wir haben unseren auswlrtigen Lesern abermals eine
Nachricht, welche den Herrn de la Mettrie betrifft, mitzuteilen. Ohne
Zweifel vermuthen sie eine kleine witzige Thorheit, die er schon wieder
begangen hat. Es ist so was; ja: wenn sie nur nicht auf seiner Seite etwas
allzuernsthaft ausgefallen ware. Er ist gestorben.4
The character of an anecdote is mainly, if not at all, designed by the
personal attitude which it usually takes. An anecdote does not only refer
to persons, but first of all, it is told by persons. Thus, anecdotes gain a
subjectivity and imply a personal, if not biased aspect. The one who tells
an anecdote is consequently being referred to as an anecdutier in French.
As far as La Mettrie is concerned it is rather unlikely that Frederick II.,
known as the Great, himself was the first anecdotier, even when he already
wrote on November 21st 1747 to his sister Wilhelmine: Nous avons perdu
le pauvre La Mettrie. 11 est mort pour une plaisanterie, en mangeant tout
une pate de faisan; aprb avoir gagnt une terrible indigestion, il sest avist
de se faire saigner, pour prouver aux mtdecins allemands quon pouvait
saigner dans une indigestion. Cela lui a ma1 reussi; il a pris une fievre vio-
lonte qui, degeneree en fievre putride, la emportC.5 Who wonders that
the Eloge, which Frederick the Great dedicated to La Mettrie in the acad-
emy of sciences about a couple of months later, contained nothing else but
a very friendly appraisal of the French philosopher? Probably those, who
already had made eager use of the anecdote about the gai, bon diable6
by themselves, were surprised by the Kings altered attitude. Whoever
knew La Mettrie now knew the anecdote about his death. Voltaire had
already communicated this anecdote on November 13th 1751, two days
after the death of the philosopher, to Louis Armand Francois Du Plessis,
due de Richelieu: Ce la Metric, cet homme machine, ce jeune medecin,
cette vigoureuse Sante, cette folle imagination, tout cela vient de mourir
pour avoir mange par vanite tout un pate de faisan aux truffes. Voyla, mon
heros, une de nos farces achevees.
Voltaire did even know, that the p&P was delivered from far abroad to
Berlin and contained spoiled bacon. And, what becomes a point of the
uttermost importance for Voltaire: La Mettrie was the only one among the
guests of the French ambassador Tyrconnell, who consumed an excessive
of that p&t. The consequences of such a lack of moderation are obvious
and need not be pointed out, at least for Voltaire: the value of La Mettries
philosophy can be considered by taking his dining-manners into regard.
These dining-manners evidently correlate with his thoughts and writings.
Since this anecdote has been modified by Voltaires plume it has gained a
somewhat pointed manner and now owns a significant aspect, which will
prohibit any serious discussion of La Mettries works for the next decades.
Truffle pie and materialism - the latter being a nuisance to the French
maitre penseur ever since-are now linked in a way, which will always
allow to adduce truffles as an irrefutable argument against La Mettries
materialism. In addition, and Voltaire might have taken this into consider-
196 Stephan Dressier - The Nonsense ofan Anecdote
ation as well, it is a fact that the one who tells an anecdote does tell a story
rather than history. Instead of his thought and philosophy. only the story
of La Mettries death remains known.
Very brief, but not without a cynical breeding is what Johann Georg
Zimmermann notes about La Mettriess death in his famous Albrecht von
Haller biography. Zimmermann can be considered as one of the most
faithful pupils Albrecht von Haller ever had. Since La Mettrie put a satir-
ical dedication to Albrecht von Haller in front of his LHomme machine,
there were many quarrels between the famous physiologist and the French
physician-philosopher and it is not surprising at all that Zimmermann has
nothing good to say about La Mettrie:
Der Tod des Herrn de La Mettrie
erfolgte in Berlin, den 10. Nov. 1751, nachdem er sich bey dem Franzo-
sischen Abgesandten, Mylord Tirconnel, an einer Pastete krank gegessen
hatte. Von seinen lezten Stunden sol1 niemand nichts riihmen.
It is significant that Friedrich Albert Lange gives the reader the impres-
sion in his Geschichte des Materialismus that he himself would like to do
without the anecdote on La Mettrie. And it is a characteristic as well,
which shows the self-dynamics of an anecdote, that Lange cant do with-
out it. But he is trying to make the best of it: La Mettries Hinscheiden im
Fieberdelirium infolge des Verschlingens einer grogen Triiffelpastete ist
eben ein Gegenstand, der geeignet ist, den engen Horizont eines Fanati-
kers so vollstandig auszufiillen, dal3 keine andere Vorstellung mehr Platz
hat. ijbrigens ist die ganze Geschichte, welche so vie1 Aufsehen gemacht
hat, was die Hauptsache betrifft, nlmlich die eigentliche Todesursache,
noch nicht einmal fiber den Zweifel erhaben.
The truth of an anecdote cant always be proven and even more often,
the truth shall not be proven since this would almost equal an invalidation
of the anecdote. Emil duBois-Reymond, the attentive and careful German
physiologist, tried to find out the truth about La Mettries death. After
citing Lange not without sympathy, duBois-Reymond continues:
Scheinbar vijllig wohl, nimmt er (La Mettrie) an der Mahlzeit teil; es wird
eine Fasanenpastete mit Triiffel aufgetragen; er allein il3t davon sehr viel;
gleich nach Tische fiihlt er sich so unwohl, da13 er im Gesandschaftshotel
zu Bette gebracht wird; er verfallt in heftiges Fieber, verordnet sich selber
Aderlag und warme Blder, stirbt aber, trotz Cotenius und Lieberktihns
Beistand, drei Tage darauf, am 11. November 1751, nicht ganz 42 Jahre
alt, bis zum letzten Hauche seinen uberzeugungen und seiner Art, sie zu
BuBern, getreu.O The amount of historical sources reviewed by duBois-
Reymond in order to enlighten the affair can be gathered from a footnote,
which refers to the passage from Casanova quoted above: Es wurde
darauf die mir brieflich mitgeteilte Vermutung gegriindet, die Pastete sei
Noels beri.ihmte Bombe a la Sardanapale gewesen, ein gefiillter Kohlkopf
und angeblich Friedrichs Leibgericht, wozu das Rezept in Gustav Par-
theys Jugenderinnerungen sich tindet. Indes spricht nichts fur diese
Vermutung; auf das bestimmteste widerlegt wird sie aber sogar dadurch,
Stephan Dressler - The Nonsense of an Anecdote
197
dab Friedrich selbst in den jiingst erschienen Gesprlchen mit de Catt die
Pastete un pate de pirogues,... eine Austernpastete nennt. Finally, even
duBois-Reymond would have to admit despite all research: Vom heutig-
en Crztlichen Standpunkte lal3t sich aus den Nachrichten iiber La Mettries
Leiden kein verstlndliches Krankheitsbild zusammensetzen.2
Oyster, truffle, pheasant or cabbage-pie - the anecdote always exper-
iences new variations and will be enriched by quite a few details, while
being communicated from one generation of scientists and researchers to
the next. The different versions of this anecdote have been compiled with
an astonishing thoroughness, which cant be easily excelled. by Jakob
Elias Poritzky, who focusses on the religious and philosophical implica-
tions of the anecdote. Poritzky reports the futile efforts of the Irish
clergyman Mac-Mahon who during the three days of La Mettries disease
tried to bring him back to Christianity: Auch Maupertuis versuchte.
Lamettrie von seinen rationalistischen Prinzipien abzubringen; aber, das
war verlorene Liebesmiih. Was wiirde man von mir sagen. wenn ich wie-
der gesund wiirde! antwortete der ihm kurz.3
Nicolai, Voltaire, Desormes, La Beaumelle, Marquis dArgens and
many others are cited by Poritzky. But finally the reader gets the impres-
sion that all the material which was collected by Poritzky overwhelms the
painstaking author in his thesis. What does one do with all these aus
sicheren Quellen stammenden Anekdoten14? What does one do with
numerous anecdotes, which all do have an identical value, once you start
reconstructing a historical truth from them? The best idea would probably
be what Poritzky decided to do: he augmented the many versions of the
anecdote with even more versions from sources so far unknown or disre-
garded. In doing so, Poritzky managed to avoid the evaluation of truth,
reliability and value of the anecdote as a historical source and on the other
hand, he gained a security, which is definitely very welcome, when telling
anecdotes.
While Poritzky has to deal with much more than one anecdote, Wilhelm
Dilthey briefly resumes: Als dann le pauvre La Mettrie so friihzeitig der
vie1 erorterten Fasanenpastete erlegen war, hat der K&rig ihm die Dank-
rede in der Akademie gehalten.5
Evidently, the shorter an anecdote, the less its factual contents: Am 11.
November 175 1 stirb La Mettrie, Opfer einer Nahrungsmittelvergiftung
durch eine Triiffelpastete.
That is certainly true, but who could really tell it was a truffle-pie? An
den Folgen einer Triiffelpastete, mit der er sich den Magen iiberladen
hatte, ist der philosophierende Gourmand 175 1 gestorben.17
So it was not food-contamination at all? Proof, or at least the attempt to
seek proof as duBois-Reymond has undertaken it is completely lacking
now. But one must admit that duBois-Reymond himself has demon-
strated how futile such research can be. But, and this is more important as
far as the anecdote is concerned: the last two of the authors cited above
198 Stephan Lkessler - The Nonsense of an Anecdote
dont even say that they are communicating an anecdote. The story itself is
taken for history, what might be a part of the self-dynamics of an anecdote
as well. After more than 230 years since La Mettries death Martin Fontius
remains the only one who has given a solemn assessment of the death of a
philosopher.*
It is one strategy to emphasize the importance of an anecdote by point-
ing to its history and presenting its famous unecdotiers like Voltaire or
Frederick the Great. The anecdote concerning La Mettries death may
serve as an example for the rather poor aspect of anecdotes, and in a cer-
tain sense it may even serve as an example for the contingency and bounds
of possibility of anecdotes in general. The anecdote communicated here
raises gossip to the rank of biographical or historical data and is used
excessively to discredit someone whose materialistic philosophy was dis-
liked anyway. An obscure pie is attached to a certain philosophy: the effect
is first of all a surprise. The clever Voltaire was probably the only one who
understood what hed done by telling this anecdote; at least he understood
the character of an anecdote very well: Lanecdote quon vous a corntee
de Mtrope et de Lanoue, est comme bien dautres anecdotes, il ny a pas un
mot de vrai. Only after Friedrich Albert Lange pointed out the ques-
tionable character of this anecdote, it slowly started to loose some of its
former importance.
On the other hand this anecdote doesnt show disadvantages only. It is
an entertaining anecdote, which is told in a superb style every once and a
while and can make the reader smile. Placed somewhere in between story
and history, the anecdote concerning La Mettries death is at least a plai-
doyer not to take a story for history. The EncyclopPdistes were well aware
of this risk already: Mais outre ces histoires secretes p&endues vraies, la
plupart des terns fausses ou du moins suspectes, les critiques donnent le
nom danecdotes a tout ecrit de quelque genre quil soit, qui na pas encore
ttC publie.
Berlin STEPHAN DRESSLER
Notes
I James Boswell. The Oxford English Dictionary (James A. H. Murray, Henry Bradley,
W. A. Craigie, C.T. Onions, eds.), Vol.1, Oxford, Clarendon, 1933, p. 319-320
2. Samuel Johnson, Anecdote, in: A Dictionary of the English Language (London, W.
Strahan 1755). Vol.1, Reprint Hildesheim, Olms, 1968 (no pagination)
3. Giacomo Casanova, Mimoires. Tome troisieme. 1763- I774 (Robert Abirached ed.),
Paris, Gallimard, 1960, p. 389-390
4. Gotthold Ephraim Lessmg. (Nachricht vom Tode La Mettries): in: Siimtliche Schrif-
ten Band 4 (Karl Lachmann ed.7. Stuttgart, G.J. Goschen, 3.Auflagd1889, p. 279
5. Frederic le Grand, Lettre 232 a la Margrave de Baireuth: in: Oeuvres de Frederic le
Grand. Tome XXVII, 1 (Correspondance), B&n, Rodolphe Decker, 1856, p. 203. S. Eloge
de M. de La Mettrie, in: Oeuvres de Frederic le Grand. Tome VII (Oeuvres historiques),
Berlin 1847, Rodolphe Decker. pp. 22-27
6. Frederic le Grand loc.cit.
Stephan Dressier - The Nonsense of an Anecdote 199
7. BestD4605, in: Les oeuvres complete de Voltaire 96 (= Correspondence and related
documents, Theodor Bestermann ed.), Institut et Musee Voltaire, Les Delices, Geneve 1971,
p. 313
8. Johann Geora Zimmermann, Das Leben des Herrn von Haller. Zurich, Heideager,
-
--
1755, p. 237
9. Friedrich Albert Lange. Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in
der Gegenwart (Alfred Schmidt ed.), Erstes Buch, Frankfurt/M., Suhrkamp, 1974, p. 376
10. Emil duBois-Reymond, La Mettrie; in: Vortrage iiber Philosophie und Gesellschaft
(Siegfried Wollgast ed.), Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1974, p. 87f.
Il. duBois-Reymond loc.cit. p. 263
12. duBois-Reymond loc.cit. p. 88
13. Jakob Elias Poritzky, Julien Offray de Lamettrie, Berlin, F. Diimmler, 1900, p. 36f.
14. Poritzky loc.cit. p. 39
15. Wilhelm Dilthey, Friedrich der GroSe und die deutsche Aufklarung; m: Gesammelte
Schriften Band 3 (Paul Ritter ed.), Stuttgart/Giittingen, TeubneriVandenhoek & Ruprecht,
3.Auflage 1962, p. 94
16. Leo Mendel, La Mettrie. Arzt, Philosoph und Schriftsteller. Leipzig 1965, Leipziger
Universititsreden 30, p. 10
17. Georg Holmsten, Friedrich II, Reinbek, Rowohlt, 22.-25Tsd. 1976, p. 91
18. Martin Fontius, Der Tod eines philosophe. Beitrlge zur Romanischen Philologie
VI. 1967, Heft 1, p. 5-28, Heft 2, p. 226-251
19. Best.D20857, Voltaire to Jean Francois de La Harpe, 25.10.1777. in: Les oeuvres
complete de Voltaire 129 ( = Correspondence and related documents, Giles Barbed ed.), The
Voltaire Foundation, Thorpe Mandeville House, Banbury, Oxfordshire 1976, p. 68
20. Art. Anecdotes, in: Encyclopedic ou Dictionnaire raisonnt des Sciences, des Arts et
des Metiers, Tome premier (Paris 1751) Reprint Stuttgart/Bad Cannstatt, Frommann-Holz-
boog, 1966. p. 453