Jacques BOUCHER DE PERTHES (1788-1868) prehistorian. 2 L.A.S., Abbeville 1833-1859, to his "dear and good friend" Charles Desmoulins, "President of the Linnaean Society of Bordeaux" 3 and 4 pages in-8, the 1st with address. 29 May 1833. He asks his "dear friend" to find out all he can about a property near Bordeaux whose sale has been announced, the land of Castelnau, which seems to him to be very advantageous and of the greatest interest to him... He is currently busy printing the Mémoires de la Société d'émulation d'Abbeville, which he will send him as soon as it is published. "I have obtained from the town, as president, an annual exhibition of industrial products"... An extract from this "letter from the Director of Customs in Abbeville" is attached... 12 October 1859. He thanks his "dear colleague and friend" for sending him his books and works, which are "always interesting and useful". He took a bath in Aix, then went to Switzerland and Italy to visit the Great Lakes. He stopped off at Zurich to say hello to the Duchess of Parma [Louise d'Artois, daughter of the Duc de Berry], "whom I have always seen as courageous and good, bringing up her children and waiting for justice to be done. She relies on France, on the Emperor, and on the good sense of her subjects, to whom she has always done nothing but good"... He has finally won his case "on the antediluvian question. Three English research commissions [...] found bones and axes in the virgin soil". The Académie des Sciences sent Mr Gaudry, who acknowledged in his report that he was right. But although the Académie admitted the existence of the antediluvian axes, it refused to acknowledge that it was he who had discovered them twelve years ago: "it drew a line under the past, crossed out my name and even the title of my book", which greatly outraged Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. He was treated in the same way for the Universal Exhibition: "It was public knowledge, because twenty printed documents proved it, that in 1833 and then 1835 I was the first to invent and propose this exhibition. [Prince Louis Napoleon never wanted my name to appear in the report". He was even refused a ticket to see the medals being distributed: "In this world it is good to die to obtain justice"...