sentences:  Voltaire retorted with a lampoon entitled "Le Préservatif, ou critique des Observations sur les écrits modernes" ["The Condom, or criticism on Observations on modern writing"] (1738), which Desfontaines answered anonymously with a short satirical writing entitled "La Voltairomanie" (1738), which compiled all the scandalous anecdotes defaming its author at the time.This last saw a libel action which Voltaire only gave up after Desfontaines repudiated the work in the "Amsterdam Gazette" of 4 April 1739.The war continued several years, so that today the memory of Desfontaines is only perpetuated by the epigrams of Voltaire, and those of Alexis Piron, a one-time ally of Voltaire who promised to bring the abbé an epigram every morning, and did so for fifty days.