10 BIOGKAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



Keign of Terror caused his downfall. He held the post 

 of a fermier general until 20th March 1791, when the 

 Assemble Nationale suppressed the institution. 



Lavoisier was wrongfully accused of mixing with the 

 tobacco " water and other ingredients harmful to the 

 health of the citizens" ; and in May 1794 1'an deuxieme 

 de la Re"publique he and twenty-seven of his colleagues 

 were arrested ; and on 2nd May Dupin * (a member of the 

 Government) brought the charges against the twenty- 

 eight officials, and they were condemned to death. 



The accused passed the night of 5th May in the dungeons 

 of the Conciergerie, and were to be fed on black bread, 

 but a generous friend, supposed to be Madame Lavoisier, 

 secretly bribed the jailers, and provided the inmates 

 of the prison with better food. This was no easy task, 

 as the sentries were a double row of gendarmes one on 

 foot, the other on horses and the passages were poorly 

 illuminated by torches. This was the precaution taken 

 to prevent the escape of the prisoners. Some were located 

 in dungeons, where horrors of the most revolting kind had 

 been perpetrated. Lavoisier and others were placed in 

 the dungeon previously occupied by Marie Antoinette. 

 The night was horrible. Only a few had obtained folding- 

 beds, without mattresses or bedclothes, and others rested 

 on the bare earth of the dungeons ! 



1 Dupin was renowned for his inclination for the pleasures of the 

 table. 



