Again, I'm delighted to see you doing research and telling us about it! Akakia is definitely on my list, but as Selena says, we lack so much context.
Alas, this sounds like just the job for a royal detective, but the royal detective is AWOL. Fortunately, it should be just a few more days until I can be more active in salon again.
Fontenoy: I don't actually know this one, and Wiki's not helping. All I can find is that Saxe was too ill with edema to sit a horse, so he had to be carried in a wicker chair. However, I have on my Kindle a sample of a book about Fontenoy, since I know so little about it for someone with an interest in the military history of this point, and I'll bump it up in priority for you, once I get back to reading more. ;)
The one thing I do know about Fontenoy and Voltaire is that it was one of the few occasions on which Voltaire got to act in his most longed-for role: court poet/historian. He wrote an officially comissioned poem praising the French victory. Louis XV was present and nominally in command, so Voltaire writing a poem was both a chance for Louis to get some bragging rights in Europe as warrior king, and a chance for Voltaire to try to advance his career by flattering Louis.
So there may or may not be some allusion to that, I'm not sure. And I haven't read Voltaire's poem, but it's one of the things a good detective would look into. ;)
did Maupertuis also talk about doctors and biology?
I knew Selena was going to bring up the vivisection, and so it came to pass. :)
let him not upon every occasion, whether to the purpose or not, mention the polar circle.
Hahahaha, let me put it this way: if *I* had led the polar expedition to measure the circumference of the Earth, you woudl be hearing about it on every occasion, whether to the purpose or not. :'D
Re: The Diatribe of Doctor Akakia
Alas, this sounds like just the job for a royal detective, but the royal detective is AWOL. Fortunately, it should be just a few more days until I can be more active in salon again.
Fontenoy: I don't actually know this one, and Wiki's not helping. All I can find is that Saxe was too ill with edema to sit a horse, so he had to be carried in a wicker chair. However, I have on my Kindle a sample of a book about Fontenoy, since I know so little about it for someone with an interest in the military history of this point, and I'll bump it up in priority for you, once I get back to reading more. ;)
The one thing I do know about Fontenoy and Voltaire is that it was one of the few occasions on which Voltaire got to act in his most longed-for role: court poet/historian. He wrote an officially comissioned poem praising the French victory. Louis XV was present and nominally in command, so Voltaire writing a poem was both a chance for Louis to get some bragging rights in Europe as warrior king, and a chance for Voltaire to try to advance his career by flattering Louis.
So there may or may not be some allusion to that, I'm not sure. And I haven't read Voltaire's poem, but it's one of the things a good detective would look into. ;)
did Maupertuis also talk about doctors and biology?
I knew Selena was going to bring up the vivisection, and so it came to pass. :)
let him not upon every occasion, whether to the purpose or not, mention the polar circle.
Hahahaha, let me put it this way: if *I* had led the polar expedition to measure the circumference of the Earth, you woudl be hearing about it on every occasion, whether to the purpose or not. :'D