MORVEA U. 
48 
fix years afterwards, dill the dudy and the refearches, 
which the execution of his engagement demanded, fur- 
nifhed him with immediate and very confid’erable occu¬ 
pation. 
A new doctrine, (baking to its very foundation the 
theory of Stahl, had been by this time publicly avowed 
by Layoilier, then judly confidered as the mod: eminent 
of the French chemifts. He had long exprefied his 
doubts refpefiting the exidence of phlogilton, and its in- 
i’ufficiency to explain the various chemical phenomena. 
Led by the refearches of Bayen, and the experiments of 
jean Rey, he had been induced to confider the atmofphe- 
ric air as materially contributing to the phenomenon 
of combuftion ; and the experiments he made to al'certain 
the reality of his conjefitures, proved that a certain por¬ 
tion of the atmofpheric air difappeared during the corn- 
bullion of bodies, and particularly of the metals. When 
this fact was announced to the Royal Academy of Sciences, 
a divilion enfued amongd the leveral chemids of Europe, 
fome of whom undertook to ridicule it, and to defend the 
Stahlian principles; while others, on the contrary, with¬ 
out any hefitation, embraced the new dofilrine, of which 
the fa fit advanced by Lavoifier was the principal foun¬ 
dation. 
About this period, chemiltry derived effential aid from 
Guyton himfelf. The nomenclature of that fcience was 
oblcure and barbarous; and he foon perceived that lie 
fliould in vain endeavour at perfpicuity, while the lan¬ 
guage remained thus abfurd and inefficient. With Guy¬ 
ton this coniideration alone would have checked the 
ardour of his purfuit, had not his own genius fuggeded 
the idea of reforming a nomenclature, till then the op¬ 
probrium of chemiltry. To this, therefore, he direfited 
his attention ; and in 178a was publiffied his fil'd efiay on 
a new chemical nomenclature, forming the bafis of all 
thole l’ubfequent changes from which we have derived fuch 
iubdantial benefit, and by the affidance of which, che- 
midry has grown from a pigmy to a colodus. No fooner, 
however, did this projefit reach the capital, than feveral 
of the members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, of 
which he was a correfponding member, inconfiderately 
undertook to oppofe it; and the zealous propofer, as he 
himfelf ufed to fay, was aecabU d' objections in every point 
of his enterprile. Macquer himfelf, who, on fird learning 
his friend’s projefit, had written to him “ that, finding it 
excellent, he had determined to adopt it,” did not, in the 
prefent indance, dare to defend him againd the multiplied 
attacks of fuch numerous and powerful opponents. Un- 
difmayed, however, and full of zeal, Guyton, with a 
view to obviate every difficulty, and to anlwer in perfon 
the objefitions that might be made, went to Paris, and 
prefented himfelf before the Academy, where he not 
only fucceeded in fhowing the neceflity of the reform, 
but ultimately induced the mod eminent chemids of the 
capital, fuch as Lavoifier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy, to 
join him in rendering that reform more complete and 
fuccefsful. No fcience, indeed, requires more precifion 
in its various denominations than chemidry ; and, if any 
thing had yet been wanting, fully to perfuade us of the 
neceffity of reforming thofe that exided at the epoch in 
which Guyton began his chemical dudies, we need only 
confider the falfe analogies to which thofe denominations 
often gave rife, the continued errors committed when 
fpeaking or wi'iting on that fcience, and the confufion 
which enfued, to be fatisfted, that in merely conceiving 
the fird idea of that reform, which, by the abidance of 
others, he was afterwards enabled to complete, Guyton 
rendered one of the mod important fervices to the fcience. 
It would be folly to deny, that the immenfe progrefs 
Jince made in chemidry—the multiplied difcoveries—the 
luminous mode in which that fcience is now' taught and 
ftudied, and its rapid extenfion, are owing to the zealous 
exertions of Guyton, as difplayed in his Plan of a Metho¬ 
dical Chemical Nomenclature, read at the Academy of 
Sciences of Paris in 17S7. See our article Chemistry, 
vol. iv. p. 148. Another circumdance deferving atten¬ 
tion is, that from the repeated conferences held with 
Lavoifier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy, for the purpofe of 
receiving their obfervations, and corrections of his origi¬ 
nal propofition, the fcience derived great advantages: 
for, while the latter were adopting the ideas of the former, 
Guyton became convinced of the truth of Lavoifier’s new 
dofilrine, and hadened to abjure the phlogidic theory, 
and to embrace the more luminous tenets of his illudri- 
ous countryman. 
In 1783, in confequence of the favourable report made 
by Macquer to government, Guyton obtained permiffion 
to eftablifli a manufafitory of foda; and in the fame year 
he publiffied his Collefilions of Pleadings at the Bar, 
among which we find his Difcours fur la Bcnhomie, 
delivered at the opening of the feffions of Dijon, and 
with which he took leave of his fellow-magidrates, fur¬ 
rendering the infignia of odice, having determined to 
quit juridical avocations. 
On the 25th of April, 1784, Guyton, accompanied by 
the prefident Virly, afcended from Dijon in a balloon, 
wdiich he had himfelf condrufited, and repeated the ex¬ 
periment oil the iatiiofjune following, with a view of 
afcertaining the poffibility of direfiling thofe aerodatic 
machines, by an apparatus of his own contrivance. He 
had been led to this, by the intereding and important 
experiments of MM. Charles and Robert, the former of 
whom made the firft application of the hydrogen gas to 
the purpofes of aerodation. While employed in pre¬ 
paring for his aerial excurfions, he was vifited by the 
unfortunate Rozier, who had then fcarcely recovered 
from an accident he had met with in a recent experiment 
with a Montgolfier at Lyons, and to a repetition of" which 
he afterwards fell a lamented vifitiin. The efl'efit pro¬ 
duced by this bold undertaking by two of the mod dif- 
tinguidied charafiters of the town, was beyond defcrip- 
tion. This experiment was then quite new, and looked 
upon with a kind of reverential awe, that tended to aug¬ 
ment confiderably the admiration which the Bourguig- 
110ns already felt for their illudrious countryman. Though 
M. Morveau failed in edablifliing the mode of direfiling 
thofe aerial vefiels, his method was ingenious, and one 
of the bed which had been till then imagined; and our 
countryman Kirwan, who, like the other correfpondents 
of M. Guyton, begged him to fpare a life, already fo pre¬ 
cious to fcience, and not again to rifle it in fuch frail 
machines, dated to him that lie thought his mode-of 
directing the balloon extremely plau-fible. See the article 
Aerostation, vol. i. 
At length the fird part of the volume of chemidry of 
the Encyclopaedia made its appearance, and was feized 
upon with avidity by every one who took an intered in 
the progrefs of that fcience. This work is too well and 
too generally known to need any eulogium. The article 
Acid, alone, is a complete hiltory of the fcience. The 
erudition difplayed in it, and the numerous and well- 
digeded fafits to be found throughout; the clear expofi- 
tion of the various dofitrines announced and fupported 
by the different authors who have written on chemidry ; 
and finally, the accurate and full details of the various 
experiments that had been made in almod every part of 
Europe, down to the time of Guyton’s writings; are in 
themfelves fufficient to enfure him an everlading fame.’ 
It was Guyton’s good fortune to have a man as emi¬ 
nent as himfelf for a fucceffor in this undertaking. Four¬ 
croy, at the exprefs invitation of Guyton, was applied 
to, by the publidier, to continue the chemical part of 
the Encyclopaedia; and having accepted the propofition, 
on condition that Guyton fhould communicate to him 
his vocabulary—notes—articles ready begun—extrafils—■ 
trandations, and drawings; the latter, with that liberality 
which ever didinguiffied him, lod not a moment in fend¬ 
ing him every thing he had afked for, together with the 
2 Entire 
