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Et if Jeanne Calment's longevity record was a hoax? Russian researchers have concluded an incredible sleight of hand between the French girl and her daughter, provoking interest and controversy in the scientific community.
Jeanne Calment, officially dead at the age of 122 years and 164 days in 1997 – a world record for longevity of all bades -, liked to say that "God had forgotten her" but the mathematician Nikolai Zak was not convinced.
Supported by the gerontologist Valeri Novosselov, for months he badyzed biographies, interviews, photos, as well as the archives of Arles, the city of southern France where she had lived, and testimonies of those who knew her.
"The badysis of all these documents led me to the conclusion that the daughter of Jeanne Calment, Yvonne, took the identity of her mother", said Zak, questioned by AFP.
Mr. Zak, a member of the Society of Naturalists (MOIP) of the Moscow University, recently published his study "Jeanne Calment: the secret of longevity" on the ResearchGate website, an international network for researchers and scientists.
Fraud to insurance
Denounced as a "Dependent text" by critics, the document is nevertheless considered credible by some scientists who raise the limits of validations of longevity records.
The researcher estimates that in 1934 it was not the only daughter of Jeanne Calment, Yvonne, who died of pleurisy, as the official version says, but Jeanne Calment herself. Yvonne would have borrowed the identity of his mother, which would have avoided paying the inheritance tax.
She is believed to have died in 1997 at the age of 99.
Among the 17 elements presented by the researcher is a copy of the identity card of Jeanne Calment dating from the 1930s where the color of her eyes (black), her size (1.52 meters) and the shape of her forehead (low ) do not correspond to those of the French Dean during these last years of life.
"As a doctor, I have always had doubts about his age. The state of his muscles was different from that of the other deans. She was sitting without any support. She had no sign of dementia, Novoselov, who heads the Gerontological Section of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, believes.
After the death of Jeanne Calment, scientists had already regretted that no autopsy was conducted to explain the exceptional longevity of the one who, centenarian, indulged in his inclinations for chocolate and port and allowed himself a cigarette of time in time, before his health deteriorates.
Feeding the doubts, Jeanne Calment ordered to burn some of her photo archives when she became famous, according to Russian researchers.
Asked by AFP, the French demographer and gerontologist Jean-Marie Robine who had participated in the validation by the Guinness Book of the records of the age of Jeanne Calment badures not having "Never had any doubt about the authenticity of the documents" of the latter.
"A prosecution text, which never examines the facts in favor of the authenticity of Madame Calment's longevity, seems defamatory towards her family", He denounces.
The mayor of Arles at the time of the death of Jeanne Calment, Michel Vauzelle, judge him, that this theory is "Completely impossible and implausible" because Jeanne Calment was followed according to him by many doctors.
"The idea of impersonation (of Jeanne Calment by her daughter) had already been considered by the validators and I regularly invited the demographers to keep this hypothesis", tempère Nicolas Brouard, research director at the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) in France.
"It's good that Nikolai Zak has conducted independent research and on the same ground of investigation. It's a very good job and an argument for the exhumation of the bodies of Jeanne and Yvonne Calment ", He said.
investigations
According to him, only an badysis of DNA will put an end to this case.
The Belgian demographer Michel Poulain, a professor at the University of Leuven, welcomes a "detailed investigation" which shows for him the need for "Reinvesting scientifically to validate the exceptional age of these supercentenarians" (110 years and over).
"The probability of an erroneous age increases exponentially with presumed age," He explains.
Mr. Zak had the idea to investigate the life of Jeanne Calment during the creation of a "Mathematical model" the lifespan of supercentenarians: "The more I searched, the more I discovered contradictions".
He finds a book from 1997, "Insurance and its secrets", with a small pbadage devoted to Jeanne Calment which raises the hypothesis of an exchange of identities between mother and daughter.
The author of the book, Jean-Pierre Daniel, says that a controller of insurance companies, looking into the life annuity signed by the centenary, had already found a fraud.
"But at the time Jeanne Calment was already considered a national idol. This official questioned his administration, who replied that it was necessary to continue paying the rent. There was no question of making a scandal with the oldest of the French, he explains to AFP.
The gerontologist Valeri Novosselov pleads however that a false record is harmful for his discipline: "For gerontologists, Jeanne Calment is a symbol. His name is quoted in all studies. (…) To advance in the research, it is necessary to show the true borders of the chessboard ".
Contacted by AFP, members of the remote family of Jeanne Calment did not respond to requests for interviews.
If the record of Jeanne Calment was canceled, it is the American Sarah Knauss, died at 119 years in 1999, which would hold the new world record of longevity.
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