15.4.2020

Was Dr. Guillotine guillotined?

A popular meme says that Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotine invented the execution device for the French king, and then the king tested it on the doctor himself, who did not need payment because the machine was effective.

However, this story is not true. Dr. Guillotine did not invent the machine.

He was a member of the Estates-General Assembly, and as a humanist he proposed a more egalitarian form of execution -- before that, the noblemen were executed by sword and others were hanged, both of which methods the French executioners often botched, apparently not having enough practise with the sword and not having a well-researched Official Table of Drops. But in fact Dr. Guillotine was opposed to the death penalty.

The actual "guillotine" machine was designed by a man called Tobias Schmidt. Doesn't that sound very German? Always causing trouble for the French.

After the revolution, Dr. Guillotine resumed his medical profession, studied the works of Edward Jenner and became the President of the Committee for Vaccination in Paris.


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