LAVOISIER. 293 



among the three best, while a Memoir of great merit, 

 by M. Lavoisier, was honourably mentioned and or- 

 dered to be printed. The King, too, on M. de Sartine's 

 recommendation, directed a gold medal to be bestowed 

 upon the author, who was presented with it at the 

 public sitting of the Academy in April, 1766. In 

 1769 he obtained the place of a fermier-general, by a 

 kind of hereditary title ; and in 1771 he married 

 Marie-Anne Paulze, whose father likewise belonged 

 to the same financial class. In 1768 he had been 

 admitted a member of the Academy, at the early age 

 of twenty-five. His paper on the lapis specularis, 

 related to the composition of the great strata forming 

 the basin of Paris. 



He appears for some years to have occupied himself 



Erincipally with geological inquiries; he made minera- 

 Dgical journeys in various parts of France in company 

 with M. Guettard ; and he had collected materials for 

 an extensive work on the revolutions of the globe, when 

 the recent progress of another science gave a new 

 direction to his pursuits. His paper on gypsum con- 

 tains a number of experiments, which show it to be 

 a neutral salt, soluble in a great proportion of water, 

 and composed of sulphuric acid united to a calcareous 

 base. This and almost every other position in his 

 paper was well known before. M. Montigny had, in 

 the 'Memoirs of the Academy,' 1762, shown its solu- 

 bility, and M. MargraafF, in the * Berlin Memoirs,' as 

 far back as 1750, had proved both this and its compo- 

 sition, M. Lavoisier refers to these long-published 

 works in a note appended to his paper, but states that 

 he had not seen MargraafF 's till after his own was read 

 before the Academy. He also states that M. Baume 

 had published researches similar to his in a journal, 

 but that he was not aware of this till he had made 

 considerable progress with his paper. It is unfortu- 

 nate that this eminent person should have begun his 

 works with this kind of doubt hanging over his origi- 



