416 Kant: A Biography
they should avoid blowing their noses and coughing (respiration through the nose).
The word "Fußstapfen" (foot print) is false. It should be "Fustappen (also just foot
print)" The nitrogen azote is the basis of nitrate and it has acidic powers. The winter
fluff (flomos), which the sheep of Angora get, and which even the pigs grow that are
combed in the heights of the mountains of Cashmere, where they are combed, is sold
for much money under the name "shawls." Similarity of women to a rose bud, a rose
in bloom, and a haw (fruit of a hawthorn)...^129
This is the stuff that Hasse's Notable Remarks by Kant is made of. Other
works are also full of trite, droll, or sad sayings that reveal Kant's weakness.
Even Wasianski, who genuinely seems to like Kant, trades in these stories.
There is much about the spelling of words, their etymology, and their
meaning. This is evidence that Kant felt his language skills going and was
struggling against this loss. In any case, a few months later he even had to
circumscribe words like "bedroom" and was reduced to using (not-so) def¬
inite descriptions to make himself understood. Wasianski claimed that only
those who knew him well could understand him any longer. His cognitive
skills slowly diminished, perhaps eradicated by a series of small strokes.
After a while Wasianski began to make little notebooks for Kant to re¬
place the many small notepapers he was carrying around.^130 This helped
him to remember. His decline was not stopped, of course. He began to de¬
velop a number of strange theories, based on observations that were either
completely false or distorted. For instance, when many cats inexplicably
died in the city of Basel, Kant developed the theory that this was due to
electricity, because cats are very "electrical" animals. Indeed, the pressure
that he constantly felt in his head was also due to electricity.^131 When
someone died relatively young, he declared: "He probably drank beer." Was
someone sick, he asked: "Does he drink beer in the evening?" Beer was, he
thought, a slow-acting poison.^132 Wasianski summed up: "Kant the great
thinker now stopped thinking."^133 Many of the anecdotes about Kant's
scurrilous views and habits derive, of course, from this period. They in¬
dicate nothing about his philosophy or about his true personality.^134 They
are, if you will, post-philosophical.
Motherby was the only one whom Kant still visited during these years,
but he became seriously ill and died in 1801.^135 Motherby's dying affected
Kant deeply. Jachmann had to report to him twice daily how Motherby
was doing and what the prognosis of the doctors was. When he heard
Motherby had died, Kant asked: "Must I see every one of my friends go
to the grave before me?"^136 After Motherby's death, Kant "rarely, if ever"
left his house.