292 LAVOISIER. 



been treated with a more scanty measure of the like 

 justice than perhaps any of their cotemporary disco- 

 verers.* It is proposed to examine with the same 

 minuteness the particulars in M. Lavoisier's history, 

 upon which some controversy has at different times 

 arisen. 



Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born at Paris, 13th of 

 August, 1743, the son of an opulent family, his father 

 having been a fermier-general. No expense was spared 

 upon his education; and in the college of Mazarin, 

 where he studied, he gained many prizes for proficiency 

 in classical acquirements. It was, however, to the 

 sciences that he soon devoted himself, and first to the 

 severer ones, having made considerable proficiency 

 in the mathematics and astronomy under La Caille, in 

 whose observatory he studied upon leaving the col- 

 lege. He studied botany under Jussieu, and che- 

 mistry under Rouelle. As from his earliest years 

 he appears to have been wholly consecrated to scien- 

 tific pursuits, so no one ever entered upon his course 

 with a more fervid courage. The earliest of his 

 inquiries of which we have any knowledge was an 

 analysis of gypsum, presented to the Academy of 

 Sciences in 1765, and published in the collection of 

 'Memoires de divers Savans,' 1768. In 1764 a 

 prize had been proposed by M. de Sartine, the cele- 

 brated chief of the police of Paris, for the best method 

 of lighting a great town, so as to combine illumination 

 with economy, and with facility of service. After the 

 lapse of twelve months no dissertation had been pre- 

 sented which satisfied the conditions of the programme, 

 and the prize was doubled, being raised to 2000 livres; 

 and next year, 1766, the conditions remaining still 

 unsatisfied by the candidates, the prize was divided 



*^ When any reference is made to the Eloges of the French Academy, 

 jvistice requires me to add that those of M. Arago form a most striking 

 exception. They are strictly historical, as well as philosophical. That of 

 Watt is a model. 



