LAVOISIER. 297 



point was discussed and all difficulties encountered by 

 their lights as well as his own, he devoted the rest of 

 his praiseworthy life to his favourite science, repeating 

 the experiments of others, varying them with the 

 suggestions of his own mind, and, in some instances, 

 devising new ones which he successfully conducted. 

 We are now to consider the fruits of these glorious 

 labours. 



In 1768 and 1769 he made a number of very labori- 

 ous and very accurate experiments, with the view of 

 ascertaining the correctness of an opinion long enter- 

 tained, and among others by Bonde and Margraaff, that 

 water may, by repeated distillations, be converted into 

 earth; and also of determining whether or not there was 

 any foundation for the opinion that water can, by re- 

 peated distillations, become so elastic and aeriform as 

 to escape through the pores of vessels : an opinion 

 entertained by Stahl, the celebrated author of the 

 phlogistic theory. M. Lavoisier satisfactorily dis- 

 proved both these positions, and showed that the earth 

 which had misled others was a portion of the vessels 

 used in performing the distillation. The account of 

 these experiments was given to the Academy in 

 1770, and published in 1773. It may give us some 

 idea of the pains with which they w^ere performed, 

 to state that one of the processes lasted a hundred 

 and one days. 



In the year after these inquiries were carried on, 

 his attention appears to have been turned aside from 

 chemical studies, by the reports which he made to the 

 Academy upon the means of supplying Paris with water, 

 at an economical rate. A question having arisen be- 

 tween the Government and M. Parcieux, a learned 

 mechanical projector, on the comparative expense of 

 bringing the water of the rivulet Yvette by canal and 

 wheel engines, or by steam engine, M. Lavoisier ex- 

 amined the subject, and showed that the latter mode 

 was the most expensive. His Memoir appeared in the 



