In this paper, I examine the paradox created by the empiric and scientific epistemology of the nineteenth century, which, far from reaffirming the ideals of the Third Republic, undermines their foundations, systematically calling them into question. Civilisation, Science and economic progress no longer stand as a bulwark against social and physical pathologies. Indeed, they become a catalyst for these pathologies through theories such as atavism and heredity which promote nature’s determinism, thus establishing almost unsurmountable limits as to the future potential of lesser social groups via education. Through the concept of stigma, developed by the American sociologist Erwing Goffman, I will illustrate the ambiguities and the consequences of this paradox and its associated discursive shifts in Jean-Louis Dubut de Laforest’s les Derniers Scandales de Paris.