Jean Baptiste Coffinhal du Bail
(1762 - 1794)
French lawyer and politician.
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Science Quotes by Jean Baptiste Coffinhal du Bail (1 quote)
The republic has no need of scientists [savants].
Apocryphal remark; supposedly the judge’s reply to Lavoisier when he appealed at his trial for more time to complete his scientific work.
Apocryphal remark; supposedly the judge’s reply to Lavoisier when he appealed at his trial for more time to complete his scientific work.
— Jean Baptiste Coffinhal du Bail
Cited in H. Guerlac, 'Lavoisier', in Charles Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1973), 8, 85. However, Jean-Pierre Poirier and Rebecca Balinski (trans.) in Lavoisier: Chemist, Biologist, Economist (1998), 379, says about the remark that “It is now known that the statement is apocryphal” [meaning it is of questionable authenticity], and that “Jean Noel Halle, in the name of the Advisory Board for Arts and Trades, had sent the judges a long report detailing the services Lavoisier had rendered to the Republic, but Coffinal [president of the Revolutionary Tribunal] had refused to acknowledge it.” Thus, Lavoisier was guillotined on 8 May 1794. Coffinhal was himself guillotined on 6 Aug 1794.