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ils inns, ;ui(l tli.it tlii' ri-nl artiitn cunsists in tlio I'xchaniic of cliarjiji's of elt'ctricity 

 bi'twiH'ii aloius of liydrogeii ami atoms of the mi'tal, tlu' atoms of the iiu'tal, witli 

 their newlv aeiiuired eliarge, becoiuiiio; ions in tlie solution. Wliatever may he 

 the trntli of the matter, the views of Lavoisier were of very great value in the 

 development of ehemistry. Thi-y contrihnted to a clearer eoncejjtion of the 

 nature of salts, and they laid tlu' foundation for a rational nomenclature, which 

 was introduced for th«' tirst time in connection with Lavoisier's system, though the 

 piiucipies of the nomeutdature seem to have ])vvu proposed hy De Morvcau, and 

 Berthollet and Fourcroy aided Lavoisier in their develoi)ment. 



Beside the theories of eoml)iistion and oxidation and of the relations of acids, 

 oxides and salts, which must he considered as his greatest contriimtion to science, 

 Lavoisier worked successfully in a number of other directions. He paid close 

 attention to the heat relations involved in combustion ; he studied carefully the 

 alcoholic fermentation and gained a very tdose and correct concej)tion of the 

 process and mack' some attempts to determine the quantitative composition of 

 organic bodies. Thcst' attempts were not very successful, but the methods used 

 were correct in principle and laid the foundation for the better work which was 

 done years afterwards. In the domain of pliysiological chemistry and in piiysics 

 Lavoisier also did some excellent work. 



His literary activity consisted chieHy in tlic preparation of papers describing 

 his work. No less than sixty communications of this kind were published in the 

 Memoirs of the Paris Academy from 17()S to 17S7. Not till toward the close of 

 his life did he gather the results of his work together in a systematic treatise on 

 chemistry, which appeared in 17>^!i. 1 I'an not refrain from (juoting two extracts 

 from this book, which give us a glimpse of the character of the man and show us 

 something of the secret of liis wonderful power. The tirst is from his preface. 



After calling attention to tlu- fact that in every day affairs our mistakes are 

 constantly checked and corrected by the unpleasant effects which f(dlow them, 

 he goes on to say : 



■"In the study and practice of tlie sciences it is (piite different; the false 

 judgmetits we form neitiier affect our existence or our welfare and we are not 

 forced by any physical necessity to correct them. Imagination, on the contrary, 

 which is ever wandering beyond the lioiinds of truth, joined to self-love and that 

 self-contidence we are so apt to indulge, jirompt us to draw concdusions which are 

 not immediately derived from facts; so that we become in some measure interested 

 in deceiving ourselves. Hence it is by no means to Ite wondered that in the 

 science of physics in general men have often made suppositions instead of forming 

 ■conclusions. Those suppositions, handed down fromone age to another, acipiire 



