CHEMISTRY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 369 



FlG. 175. GUYTON DE MORVEAU. 



of it section by section, each section having its refutation appended 

 at the end. So clear and convincing were the arguments adduced 

 by the French chemists, that Kirwan acknowledged that these argu- 

 ments could not be withstood, and he now candidly declared himself 

 a convert to the very doctrines his essay was intended to oppose. 

 This defection to the enemy's camp drove the British phlogistonists 

 from the field ; and, in fact, chemistry had for a time but few active 

 cultivators in this country, while France became the scene of new, 

 discoveries and the source of all knowledge of the science for some 

 years, so that even the manuals of elementary instruction were all 

 translations of French works. 



In illustration of the reluctance with which Lavoisier's new ideas 

 were adopted by men of science in Britain, might be quoted the objec- 

 tions raised by Dr. T. Thomson : Though, said he, the new nomen- 

 clature was well adapted to the state of the science in 1787, new facts 

 will be discovered from time to time which will make a systematic 

 nomenclature more and more imperfect, and in a few years cause it to 



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