To Benjamin Franklin from Bailly, 17 June 1784
From Bailly
AL: American Philosophical Society
a chaillot ce jeudi 17 juin après midi [1784]
Mr Bailly presente ses respects a Monsieur Franklin. Il est chargé de le remercier au nom de Mrs les commissaires, qui se rendront chez lui samedi avant midi, et auront l’honneur de profiter de son invitation.9 Les commissaires sont au nombre de huit, Mrs Majault, sallin Guillotin, d’arcet medecins; Mrs lavoisier, le Roy, de Bory1 et Bailly academiciens. La commission compte assez sur les bontés de Mr Franklin pour prendre sur elle de lui mener, non seulement Mr deslon, et le jeune homme qui a eté deja le sujet d’une experience;2 mais encore trois dames Mad de Bory, femme de notre confrere, et mesd. de Romagni et de Moret, qui sont deux malades de mr deslon. Cela fait en tout treize personne; et la commission renouvelle ses excuses a Mr Franklin de cet embaras.
Mr Bailly se rendra a passy vers dix heures du matin samedi pour faire part a Mr Franklin du plan d’experiences projetees, et preparer sous ses yeux tout ce qui sera necessaire pour les executer.3
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur Franklin ministre / plenipotentiaire des etats unis de / l’amerique en son hotel / a passy
Notation: Bailly 17 Juin 1784—
9. BF must have invited the commissioners to dine with him that day; Bailly here announces additional guests who will need to be accommodated. For the experiments conducted at Passy on Saturday, June 19, see the second extract of the commissioners’ report, [Aug. 11].
1. It is not known when Gabriel de Bory joined the commission as a fifth representative of the Académie des sciences. Bory was a marine astronomer and a former governor of St.-Domingue: XXIV, 325; DBF.
2. The boy was the subject of experiments conducted at Passy on May 22; see extract (III) of the commissioners’ report, [Aug. 11].
3. The plan for these experiments is published in Œuvres de Lavoisier (6 vols., Paris, 1862–93), III, 511–13, and includes the names of the two patients, Mme de Roumagné and Mme Moré. The experiments bear some similarity to those described in the third extract of the commissioners’ report, [Aug. 11], in which two female patients were placed in separate rooms at Passy and one of the commissioners pretended to be Deslon. However, the abbreviated names and social class of the two women in the report do not match those mentioned in the plan and the present letter. Either the experiments on June 19 did not proceed as planned, the identities of the women were obscured, or the experiments described in the report were made on a different date.