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Lavoisier (1743-1794) the French chemist and scientist and 
mathematician, was the first to form a new combustion 
theory, namely, the taking up of oxygen, and from this time 
the phlogiston theory was quickly discarded. Lavoisier laid 
great stress on the use of the balance as a reliable guide 
in chemical work. He turned the science of his day into a 
new path, and it is with his name that the aims of the chemists 
of the present day are associated. In a summarised form 
these aims are now to find out the composition of substances 
either by analysis or synthesis, and to find out the laws regu- 
lating the chemical combination of matter. 
During the course of the evening Mr. Walton performed 
experiments of an interesting character for the purpose of 
illustrating the points of his paper. 
