^4 Xii/Jf and Writings of Lavoijief, 



of crop than was obtained by the ufual method. In Ihe 

 courfe of nine years jiis produce was doubled ; but as the 

 (^apital he laid out did not produce him five per cent., he was 

 thence induced to form a plan for lowering the intereft of 

 capitals, and extending leafe* to the period of i-j years. 



The committee of the conlHtuent aflembly of 1791, ap- 

 pointed for the purpofe of fettling the taxes, having requefted 

 Lavoifier to aflift them by his knowledge in accomplifliing 

 the object which they had in view, his ideas were of great 

 aHiflance to them in the formation of a plan by which the 

 whole fyftem of income and expenditure was gready fmipli, 

 ficd. In order that he nitght give the committee the necef- 

 fary informaiion on this ii;hje6l, he communicated to them 

 an extrrK!"! from a very large vi'ork on tiie different produc- 

 tions of the countr) , and their confumption, for which he 

 had been long employed in colledling materials. This ex* 

 tra6l was printed by the National Affcmbly, under the title 

 of Kichejfes territoriales fie la Fratice, and is undoubtedly the 

 beft work on the fubjcCt. 



In the year 1791 he was appointed a commiffioner of the 

 national treafury ; and, without abandoning the iludy of the 

 faiences, he introduced into this department fuch order and 

 regularity, tliat the proportion between the income and the 

 ^ e^xpenditure in all the branches of government could be feen 

 at one view every evening. 



In the great and important undertaking of eftablifhing in 

 trance a new fyftem of weights and meafures, with which 

 the academy had been occupied for fome time, none of the 

 members was more a6live or more ufeful than Lavoifier. 



In order that he might diffufe new light on the important 

 but not fufficiently illuftrated doArine of the expanfion of 

 metals by heat, he con{lru6led an apparatus by which metal 

 rods immerfed in water and expofed to different degrees of 

 heat, put in motion a telefcope, which fliovvcd on a diilant 

 objeft the fmalleft degree of expanfion. 



In the year 1793, it being neceffary to have a bafis mear 

 fured with the greateft accuracy, in order to determine the 

 length 6f an arc of the meridian, he ere6led in his garden 

 fods of platina and copper, which he employed as metallic 



V - ' thermometers^ 



