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One of the first scientists to study the shroud was Yves Delage.
He was an accomplished biologist and discovered the purpose of the semicircular canals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_DelageYves Delage (13 May 1854 – 7 October 1920) was a French zoologist known for his work into invertebrate physiology and anatomy. He also discovered the function of the semicircular canals in the inner ear.
He was a zoology professor at Sorbonne (University of Paris), director of the Museum of Natural History and a member of the Academy of Sciences.
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi41part4.pdf
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi10part5.pdfNow besides having doctorates in Medicine and Natural Sciences (with a degree which earned him the Grand Prix of the Physical Science Institute of the Paris Academy of Sciences), Delage was professor of zoology, anatomy and comparative physiology at the Sorbonne from the time he was 32 years old. He was also Director of the Roscoff international laboratory of biology. Delage was a professed "freethinker".
He was also an agnostic.
http://www.stgeorgesnews.org/1999/05f15.htm
On Monday, 21 April 1902, Yves Delage presented to the Academy of Sciences his assessment of the Shroud of Turin. He had worked with Paul Vignon on studying the photographs Pia took of the shroud in 1898.
At the Academy session, Delage stated the shroud was the image of Jesus Christ and postulated the image was formed by vapor from the body.
https://theshroudofturin.blogspot.com/2021/07/Should I speak of the identity of the person who left his image on the shroud? ... On the one hand we have the shroud, probably impregnated with aloes-which brings us to the East outside Egypt-and a crucified man who had been scourged, pierced on the right side and crowned with thorns. On the other hand we have an account - pertaining to history, legend and tradition - showing us Christ as having undergone in Judea the same treatment as we decipher on the body whose image is on the shroud. Is it not natural to bring together these two parallel series and to refer them to the same object? Let us add that, in order that the image should be produced and not later destroyed, it is necessary that the body should remain in presence of the shroud at least twenty- four hours, the time necessary for the formation of the image, and at most a few days, after which there supervenes putrefaction which destroys the image and finally the shroud. Now this is precisely what tradition - more or less apocryphal, I admit - asserts to have happened to Christ who died on Friday and disappeared on Sunday ... I consider Christ as a historical person, and I see no reason why anyone should be scandalised if there exists a material traces of his existence.
The Academy took issue with mentioning Jesus Christ and told Delage to redact his paper to take out all references to Jesus. What's ironic about all this is Delage was an agnostic. He had no religious agenda with mentioning Jesus and was simply referring to him as a historical figure.
It caused quite a stir afterwards and was accused of "intellectual ineptitude" and "conspiracy".
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi41part4.pdfThe events of April 21 sent great repercussions through scientific, philosophical, and literary circles. A sort of hysteria overtook some of the journalists. One of the most rabid was Maurice Vernes, Associate Director of the School of Higher Studies, Department of Religious Sciences, at the Sorbonne.
In Revue Scientifique, the journal that hosted these exchanges, Paul Vignon responded to an article by Vernes. "He preceded his paper by a sort of pamphlet that appeared in the May 4 issue of Raison," Vignon lamented. "There he wrote a lot about 'mystification', of 'intellectual ineptitude', even of a 'conspiracy'.
Delage responded:
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi41part4.pdf"I have been faithful to the true scientific spirit, treating this argument with the sole intention to find the truth, without worrying whether I have served the interests of this or that other religious sector. Those, instead, who allowed themselves to be influenced by such concerns are the ones who have betrayed the scientific method. I have not made a clerical work, because clericalism and anticlericalism have nothing to do in this affair. I consider the Christ to be an historical personage and I do not see why anyone should be scandalised that there exists a material trace of his existence."
A comment from the press:
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi41part4.pdf"I have here before me, since an hour ago, two photographic images, exhibited at the Academy of Sciences by Monsieur Yves Delage, Professor of Zoology at the Sorbonne. By tomorrow, their story will have gone around the world, for they are the most mysterious, the most improbable, the most impressive pictures that one could possibly imagine. How can I tell, how can I express to others the emotion they arouse in me?"
Horace Blanchon's article in Figaro of 23 April 1902
Yves Delage, though he was an agnostic and received great criticism from the scientific community, was among the first bona fide scientists that studied the shroud and was instrumental in the scientific advancement of the study of the TS.
https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi41part4.pdfFrom this emerged a paradoxical situation. "It was through. Delage, an agnostic in religion," Walsh continues, "that the younger man [Vignon], a Catholic, came finally to his work on the Shroud. In the end, it was Delage, ironically, who compelled the world of science to pay heed to the relic."
