148 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 



received generalizations of the phlogistic theory 

 had thrown all such narrower explanations into 

 obscurity. The merit of Lavoisier consisted in his 

 combining the generality of Stahl with the verified 

 conjectures of Rey and Mayow. 



No one could have a better claim, by his early 

 enthusiasm for science, his extensive knowledge, 

 and his zealous labours, to hope that a great dis- 

 covery might fall to his share, than Lavoisier. His 

 father 4 , a man of considerable fortune, had allowed 

 him to make science his only profession; and the 

 zealous philosopher collected about him a number 

 of the most active physical inquirers of his time, 

 who met and experimented at his house one day 

 in the week. In this school, the new chemistry 

 was gradually formed. A few years after the pub- 

 lication of Priestley's first experiments, Lavoisier 

 was struck with the presentiment of the theory 

 which he was afterwards to produce. In 1772, he 

 deposited 5 with the secretary of the Academy, a 

 note which contained the germ of his future doc- 

 trines. " At that time," he says, in explaining this 

 step, " there was a kind of rivalry between France 

 and England in science, which gave importance to 

 new experiments, and which sometimes was the 

 cause that the writers of the one or other of the 

 nations disputed the discovery with the real author." 

 In 1777, the editor of the Memoirs of the Academy 

 speaks of his theory as overturning that of Stahl ; 



* Biogr. Univ (Cuvier.) * Thomson, ii. 99. 



