172 
those who affect particular sciences and modes of contempla- 
tion he bears rather hardly on the chemists, who, “ from a few 
experiments conducted in the furnace, construct a phantastic 
philosophy of little account.”* 
3. This was true enough in his day, but it has been well 
shown by our illustrious colleague, M. Wurtz, what an altera- 
tion has taken place in the science, through the discoveries of 
Lavoisier.f He was at once the author of a new theory and 
the creator of the true method in chemistry. He first esta- 
blished the elementary nature of the metals, and fixed in 
general the notions of simple bodies. He recognised as such 
those bodies which yield only one kind of matter, and when 
subjected to the action of all available forces remain constantly 
the same,J indestructible, undecomposable. Having thus 
impressed on a large number of primordial substances the 
seal of a peculiar individuality, he finally recast the ancient 
notions on the nature of elements, and put an end to the hope 
of effecting transmutations. 
4. The elementary bodies thus defined are represented by 
Lavoisier as endowed with the power of uniting together, so 
as to form compound bodies, this union taking place without 
loss of substance, and in such a manner that all the ponderable 
matter of the constituent bodies is found in the compound. 
These great principles form the basis of chemistry. Now that 
they are universally adopted they appear to us so simple and 
indisputable that we feel compelled, as it were, to admit 
them as maxims. But they were not so at the time in 
question. 
“ And if anything could vie in importance with the dis- 
coveries of the great master, it would be his method, — that 
method which consists in applying the balance to all chemical 
phenomena ” 
5. Thus the “ fantastic theory” of “phlogiston” § vanished 
before the light of real science; just as the notion of the 
“ transmutation of species ” would disappear if we could but 
* Novum Organum, lib. i., liv. 
t Hist of Chem. Theory , by A. Wurtz, Membre de l’lnstitut (Aca. des 
Sciences). 
X So also Lucretius : — 
“ Sunt igitur solida primordia simplicitate, 
Nec ratione queunt alia, servata per fovom, 
Ex infinito jam tempore res reparare.” 
Lib. i., lines 549, &c. 
§ “ The principle of inftampiability.” 
