6 BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



produced when the two gases hydrogen and oxygen are 

 exploded together, it would yet appear that he did not 

 fully grasp the fact that water is a compound of these two 

 gases ; it was left to Lavoisier to give a clear statement 

 of this all-important fact, and thus to remove the last 

 prop from under the now tottering but once stately edifice 

 built by Stahl and his successors." 



The nouvelle chimie, based on the theory of combustion 

 or oxidation, was not accepted by the older chemists, 

 and many distinguished workers remained followers of 

 Stahl and his phlogistic doctrine, but unprejudiced and 

 younger minds readily accepted the teachings of Lavoisier 

 certainly a revolution on the older views of chemical 

 theory. This revolution brought upon him much odium 

 and obloquy so much so that his effigy was burnt at 

 Berlin as a protest against his antiphlogistic doctrines ; yet 

 the same Prussian savants and students a few years later 

 readily accepted the nouvelle chimie, and now his philo- 

 sophy is the bulwark, the very foundation stone, of 

 modern chemistry. 



The following words of a well-known living scientist 

 are applicable in Lavoisier's case : " It is extraordinary 

 how slow people are to appreciate enthusiasm on the part 

 of real workers ; and it is a terrible crime to upset pre- 

 conceived ideas. However, it is satisfactory to feel that 

 one has helped to advance truth and upset falsehood, 

 even should the effort prove painful to a certain section 



