Note 8 — Chapter V · ORIGIN OF THE FLYING BUTTRESS
Florence Simmonds translation
These flying buttresses, in themselves insufficient for the task laid upon them, and worn by the destructive action of the weather, were pushed entirely out of shape by the constant pressure from within, the thrust of the vault being aggravated by the circular plan of the building, while the vaults themselves became dislocated by reason of their insufficient abutments. It became necessary to reconstruct the buttresses in 1880, to avert the total collapse of the south transept.
The reconstruction of these flying buttresses, and of many others of the same period, furnishes us with a criticism ad hominem upon the system.