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By the time Le Ribault and Duffaut first met, Duffaut had been evidence to support it, legally served on the minister. Duffaut and treating people for years and was well known in the southwest of Le Ribault received no reply. France and even in Paris. Duffaut had created NDR, the Norbert In November 1993, Duffaut was found dead in his bed by Duffaut Remedy, and had manufactured many litres for thousands neighbours who noticed he had not been out of his house that day. and thousands of patients. Despite the fact that Duffaut was in his early seventies and had Whether to avoid the regulatory agencies or simply out of sheer died in bed, a post-mortem was held and potassium cyanide was cussedness, Duffaut refused to keep any records of his transac- found in his system. Although no letter was found, and despite tions. "He absolutely refused to keep a record of anything which the fact that witnesses had seen Duffaut the night before in good he did," says Le Ribault. "He would say, 'We are right; we will spirits, the police concluded that he had committed suicide. win in the end’." Initially Le Ribault accepted the suicide of his colleague, but By 1958 Duffaut had begun clinical work with Dr Jacques later he began to have doubts. His principal doubt is that Duffaut, Janet, a gastroenterologist, and had also begun treating people, a highly trained chemist, would have chosen potassium cyanide as very successfully, for arthritis. However, Duffaut was sure that a vehicle for suicide, knowing that it would occasion an incredi- cardiovascular work and blood circulation work were the most bly painful death. important therapeutic goals in relation to Duffaut's writing prior to his death did organic silica. So in the 1960s Duffaut show a despondency clearly brought about worked with Dr Rager, a cardiovascular by continual disappointment and frustration. surgeon, who used organic silica for post- His last notes contained the sentence, "The operative recovery. authorities have condemned my discovery In 1967, Rager was awarded the J. Levy out of hand without having even tested it". Bricker Prize by the French Academy of Medicine for his work on the use of organic . RESEARCH INTO ORGANIC SILICA silica in the treatment of man. Rager's work By the mid-1 990s, THERAPEUTICS also determined that organic silica helped A As his k ssed with Duffaut, sees cieems? | Le Ribault and Duffaut |, °° nests Le Ribault and Duffaut had more in com- between them had there were few academic considerations on mon than a passion for silica. Duffaut, in the therapeutic uses of organic silica. He his sixties, was considered by many to be an treated well over 1 0,000 was prevecupied throughout the 1980s and impossibly difficult man. Le Ribault, people firstly with early 1990s with trying to make the organic speaking with sadness but with his oar . silica, which Duffaut had been using usual humour, says of Duffaut: organic silica poultices for compresses, drinkable. "He was less diplomatic than me. A and then with a "One of the most serious difficulties lot less diplomatic than me! Can you . . was trying to make G5 drinkable. The imagine? He was impossible. He drinkable tonic. solution we had created was slightly considered that the system was made toxic, alright for using on the skin but up of stupid people; he was right, of not for drinking. Perhaps no more course, but he said it to them on many toxic than red wine, but I didn't want it occasions. He was eccentric, very to be at all toxic." much an individualist. I guess I was When Le Ribault discovered the the only person able to work with effect of organic silica on his psoriasis, him." he was sceptical about the long-term Like Le Ribault, Duffaut also used therapeutic value of his discovery. humour to shield himself from the However, after two or three years of deeper conflicts. "Duffaut was a very, working with a number of doctors who very clever man, really a genius, a high-level chemist who was used the discovery on patients and after his years of work with always singing and joking and smiling, all the day long—every Duffaut, he decided that he was in a position to send files to the day!" Le Ribault fondly remembers an unmarried man, utterly Ministry of Health, asking it to carry out trials on the basis that he immersed in his scientific work, cut off from the humdrum inter- would supply the solutions for free. course of the everyday world to such an extent, Le Ribault jokes, He did not receive answers to his many communications. The that he was "on the Moon" for much of the time. private treatment of patients did not fit with either Le Ribault's or Duffaut had been testing his synthetic organic silica molecule Duffaut's ideas about health care, so both wanted the French gov- therapeutically for 15 years by the time he met Le Ribault, and ernment to take up the idea of organic silica. had frequently offered his invention free to the French State and By the mid-1990s, Le Ribault and Duffaut between them had its medical research organisations. All his approaches had been treated well over 10,000 people, firstly with organic silica poul- met with utter, seemingly deliberate, silence. tices and then with a drinkable tonic. In 1985, Duffaut and Le Ribault took out an international patent Determined to make his findings of public consequence, Le to protect the therapeutic use of organic silica. And in 1987, like Ribault arranged personal meetings in America with the chairmen many other publicly concerned scientists outside the pharmaceuti- of the main pharmaceutical laboratories; he travelled to visit exec- cal companies, they made representations to the French minister utives in Canada, and the length and breadth of France. for research, asking that he consider their discovery for trials in All the people he met showed interest and most told him they cases of AIDS-related illnesses. would be in touch within weeks. As he now says, "I have been So determined were they to force government recognition of the waiting fifteen years for a reply". One executive of a pharmaceu- health-giving qualities of silica that they had their request, and the tical company offered him £1,000,000 just to bury his discovery. evidence to support it, legally served on the minister. Duffaut and Le Ribault received no reply. In November 1993, Duffaut was found dead in his bed by neighbours who noticed he had not been out of his house that day. Despite the fact that Duffaut was in his early seventies and had died in bed, a post-mortem was held and potassium cyanide was found in his system. Although no letter was found, and despite the fact that witnesses had seen Duffaut the night before in good spirits, the police concluded that he had committed suicide. Initially Le Ribault accepted the suicide of his colleague, but later he began to have doubts. His principal doubt is that Duffaut, a highly trained chemist, would have chosen potassium cyanide as a vehicle for suicide, knowing that it would occasion an incredi- bly painful death. De ffan ath Aid By the mid-1990s, Le Ribault and Duffaut APRIL — MAY 2005 NEXUS = 21 between them had | drinkable tonic. www.nexusmagazine.com