A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



ing, not only because of the enormous amount of work 

 involved and the skill he displayed in his experiments, 

 but because all the time the chemist was handling, 

 smelling, and even tasting a compound of one of the 

 most deadly poisons, ignorant of the fact that the sub- 

 stance was a dangerous one to handle. His escape 

 from injury seems almost miraculous; for his experi- 

 ments, which were most elaborate, extended over a 

 considerable period of time, during which he seems to 

 have handled this chemical with impunity. 



While only forty years of age and just at the zenith 

 of his fame, Scheele was stricken by a fatal illness, prob- 

 ably induced by his ceaseless labor and exposure. It 

 is gratifying to know, however, that during the last 

 eight or nine years of his life he had been less bound 

 down by pecuniary difficulties than before, as Berg- 

 man had obtained for him an annual grant from the 

 Academy. But it was characteristic of the man that, 

 while devoting one-sixth of the amount of this grant 

 to his personal wants, the remaining five- sixths was 

 devoted to the expense of his experiments. 



LAVOISIER AND THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN CHEMISTRY 



The time was ripe for formulating the correct theory 

 of chemical composition: it needed but the master 

 hand to mould the materials into the proper shape. 

 The discoveries in chemistry during the eighteenth cen- 

 tury had been far-reaching and revolutionary in char- 

 acter. A brief review of these discoveries shows how 

 completely they had subverted the old ideas of chem- 

 ical elements and chemical compounds. Of the four 

 substances earth, air, fire, and water, for many cen- 



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