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man who had both the ability and the means for a scientific career, he was nominated adjoins chimiste to the Academy, and in that capacity made numerous reports on the most diverse subjects, from the theory of See also:

COLOURS, MILITARY

colours to water-See also:

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

supply and from invalid chairs to mesmerism and the See also:

DIVINING

divining See also:

rod. The same See also:

YEAR

year he obtained the position of adjoins to Baudon, one of the farmers-See also:

general of the See also:

revenue, subsequently becoming a full titular member of the See also:

BODY

body. This was the first of a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of posts in which his administrative abilities found full See also:

SCOPE (through Ital. scopo, aim, purpose, intent, from Gr. o'KOaos, mark to shoot at, aim, o ic07reiv, to see, whence the termination in telescope, microscope, &c.)

scope. Appointed regisseur See also:

des poudres in 1775, he not only abolished the vexatious See also:

SEARCH, or VISIT AND SEARCH

search for See also:

SALTPETRE (from the Lat. sal, salt, Petra, a rock)

saltpetre in the cellars of private houses, but increased the See also:

PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

production of the See also:

salt and improved the manufacture of See also:

GUNPOWDER

gunpowder. In 1785 he was nominated to the See also:

COMMITTEE (from commute, an Anglo-Fr. past participle of commettre, Lat. committere, to entrust; the modern Fr. equivalent comite is derived from the Eng.)

committee on See also:

agriculture, and as its secretary See also:

drew up reports and instructions on the cultivation of various crops, and promulgated schemes for the See also:

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement, late Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

establishment of experimental agricultural stations, the See also:

DISTRIBUTION (Lat. distribuere, to deal out)

distribution of agricultural implements and the See also:

ADJUSTMENT (from late Lat. ad juxtare, derived from juxta, near, but early confounded with a supposed derivation from justus, right)

adjustment of rights of pasturage.

Seven years before he had started a See also:

MODEL (0. Fr. modelle, mod. modele; It. modello, pattern, mould; from Lat. modus, measure, standard)

model See also:

FARM

farm at Frechine, where he demonstrated the advantages of scientific methods of cultivation and of the introduction of See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good breeds of See also:

CATTLE (Norman Fr. catel, from Late Lat. capitale, wealth or property, a word applied in the feudal system to movable property and particularly to live stock, and surviving in its wider meaning as " chattel " or " chattle ")

cattle and See also:

sheep. Chosen a member of the provincial See also:

ASSEMBLY, UNLAWFUL

assembly of See also:

Orleans in 1787, he busied himself with plans for the improvement of the social and economic conditions of the community by means of savings See also:

banks, See also:

INSURANCE

insurance See also:

SOCIETIES, LEARNED

societies, canals, workhouses, &c.; and he showed the sincerity of his philanthropical work by advancing See also:

MONEY

money out of- his own See also:

POCKET

pocket, without See also:

INTEREST

interest, to the towns of See also:

BLOIS

Blois and See also:

ROMORANTIN

Romorantin, for the See also:

PURCHASE

purchase of See also:

BARLEY (Hordeum sativum)

barley during the See also:

FAMINE (Lat. fames, hunger)

famine of 1788. Attached in this same year to the caisse d'escompte, he presented the See also:

REPORT (O.Fr. report or raport, modern rapport, from O.Fr. reporter, mod. rap porter, Lat. reportare, to bring back, in poetical use only, of bringing back an account, news, &c.)

report of its operations to the See also:

NATIONAL

national assembly in 1789, and as See also:

COMMISSARY (from Med. Lat. commissaries, one to whom a charge or trust is committed)

commissary of the See also:

TREASURY

treasury in 1791 he established a See also:

SYSTEM

system of accounts of unexampled punctuality. He was also asked by the national assembly to draw up a new See also:

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

scheme of See also:

taxation in connexion with which he produced a report De la richesse territoriale de la France, and he was further associated with committees on See also:

HYGIENE (Fr. hygiene, from Gr. ir'taivety, to be healthy)

hygiene, coinage, the casting of See also:

CANNON (a word common to Romance languages, from the Lat. canna, a reed, tube, with the addition of the augmentative termination -on, -one)

cannon, &c., and was secretary and treasurer of the See also:

COMMISSION (from Lat. commissio, committere)

commission appointed in 1790 to secure uniformity of weights and See also:

MEASURES

measures. In 1791, when Lavoisier was in the See also:

MIDDLE

middle of all this See also:

OFFICIAL (Late Lat. QJicialis, for class. Lat. apparitor, from officium, office, duty)

official activity, the suppression of the farmers-general marked the beginning of troubles which brought about his See also:

DEATH

death. His membership of that body was alone sufficient to make him an See also:

OBJECT

object of suspicion; his See also:

ADMINISTRATION (Lat. administrare, to serve)

administration at the regie des poudres was attacked; and See also:

MARAT, JEAN PAUL (1743-1793)

Marat accused him in the Ami du Peuple of putting Paris in See also:

PRISON (derived through the Fr. from the Lat. prehensio, seizure)

prison and of stopping the circulation of See also:

air in the See also:

CITY (through Fr. cite, from Lat. civitas)

city by the mur d'See also:

OCTROI (0. Fr. octroyer, to grant, authorize; Lat. auctor)

octroi erected at his See also:

SUGGESTION

suggestion in 1787. The Academy, of which as treasurer at the See also:

time he was a See also:

con- he assigned to dephlogisticated air the name See also:

OXYGEN (symbol 0, atomic weight 16)

oxygen, or " See also:

ACID (from the Lat. root ac-, sharp; acere, to be sour)

acid-producer," on the supposition that all acids were formed by its See also:

union with a See also:

SIMPLE

simple, usually non-metallic, body; and having verified this notion for See also:

PHOSPHORUS (Gr. 4ws, light, sPEpety, to bear)

phosphorus, See also:

SULPHUR

sulphur, See also:

CHARCOAL

charcoal, &c., and even extended it to the See also:

VEGETABLE

vegetable acids, he naturally asked himself what was formed by the See also:

COMBUSTION (from the Lat. comburere, to burn up)

combustion of " inflammable air " (See also:

HYDROGEN [symbol H, atomic weight x-oo8 (0=16)]

hydrogen). This problem he had attacked in 1774, and in subsequent years he made various attempts to discover the acid which, under the See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence of his oxygen theory, he expected would be formed. It was not till the 25th of See also:

JUNE

June 1783 that in See also:

CONJUNCTION (from Lat. conjungere, to join together)

conjunction with See also:

LAPLACE, PIERRE SIMON, MARQUIS DE (1749—1827)

Laplace he announced to the Academy that water was the product formed by the See also:

COMBINATION (Lat. combinare, to combine)

combination of hydrogen and oxygen, but by that time he had been anticipated by See also:

Cavendish, to whose See also:

prior work, however, as to that of several other investigators in other matters, it is to be regretted that he did not render due See also:

ACKNOWLEDGMENT (from the old acknow, a compound of on- and know, to know by the senses, which passed through the forms oknow, aknow and acknow; acknowledge is formed on analogy of " knowledge ")

acknowledgment. But a knowledge of the See also:

composition of water enabled him to See also:

storm the last defences of the phlogistonists. Hydrogen they held to be the phlogiston of metals, and they supported this view by pointing out that it was liberated when metals were dissolved in acids. Considerations of See also:

WEIGHT

weight had See also:

long prevented Lavoisier from accepting this See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine, but he was now able to explain the See also:

PROCESS

process fully, showing that the hydrogen evolved did not come from the See also:

metal itself, but was one product of the decomposition of the water of the dilute acid, the other product, oxygen, combining with the metal to See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form an See also:

OXIDE

oxide which in turn See also:

UNITED

united with the acid.

A little later this same knowledge led him to the beginnings of quantitative organic analysis. Knowing that the water produced by the combustion of See also:

ALCOHOL

alcohol was not pre-existent in that sub-stance but was formed by the combination of its hydrogen with the oxygen of the air, he burnt alcohol and other combustible organic substances, such as See also:

wax and oil, in a known See also:

VOLUME

volume of oxygen, and, from the weight of the water and See also:

CARBON (symbol C, atomic weight 12)

carbon dioxide produced and his knowledge of their composition, was able to calculate the amounts of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen See also:

PRESENT

present in the substance. Up to about this time Lavoisier's work, mainly quantitative in See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character, had appealed most strongly to physicists, but it now began to win conviction from chemists also. C. L. Berthollet, L. B. Guyton de Morveau and A. F. See also:

FOURCROY, ANTOINE FRANCOIS, COMTE DE (1755-1809)

Fourcroy, his collaborators in the reformed system of chemical terminology set forth in 1787 in the Methode de momenclature chimique, were among the earliest French converts, and they were followed by M. H. See also:

Klaproth and the See also:

German Academy, and by most See also:

ENGLISH

English chemists except Cavendish, who rather suspended his See also:

JUDGMENT

judgment, and See also:

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH (1733-1804)

Priestley, who stubbornly clung to the opposite view.

Indeed, though the partisans of phlogiston did not surrender without a struggle, the See also:

HISTORY

history of science scarcely presents a second instance of a See also:

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

change so fundamental accomplished with such ease. The spread of Lavoisier's doctrines was greatly facilitated by the defined and logical form in which he presented them in his Traite elementaire de chimie (presente daps un ordre nouveau et d'apres See also:

les decouvertes modernes) (1789). The See also:

list of simple substances contained in the first volume of this work includes See also:

LIGHT

light and caloric with oxygen, azote and hydrogen. Under the See also:

head of " oxidable or acidifiable " substances, the combination of which with oxygen yielded acids, were placed sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, and the muriatic, fluoric and boracic radicles. The metals, which by combination with oxygen became oxides, were See also:

ANTIMONY (symbol Sb, atomic weight 120.2)

antimony, See also:

SILVER

silver, See also:

ARSENIC (symbol As, atomic weight 75.0)

arsenic, See also:

BISMUTH

bismuth, See also:

COBALT (symbol Co, atomic weight 59)

cobalt, See also:

COPPER (symbol Cu, atomic weight 63.1, H=1, or 63.6, O = 16)

copper, See also:

TIN (Lat.- stannum, whence the chemical symbol " Sn "; atomic weight =117.6, 0=16)

tin, See also:

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

iron, See also:

MANGANESE (symbol Mn; atomic weight, 54.93 (0=16)], a metallic chemical element. Its dioxide (pyrolusite)

manganese, See also:

mercury, See also:

MOLYBDENUM [symbol, Mo; atomic weight, 96 (0=16)]

molybdenum, See also:

nickel, gold, See also:

PLATINUM [symbol Pt, atomic weight 145.0 (0=16)]

platinum, See also:

lead, See also:

TUNGSTEN [symbol W, atomic weight 184.o (0=16)]

tungsten and See also:

ZINC

zinc; and the " simple earthy salifiable sub-stances " were See also:

lime, baryta, See also:

MAGNESIA

magnesia, alumina and See also:

SILICA

silica. The simple nature of the alkalies Lavoisier considered so doubtful that he did not class them as elements, which he conceived as substances which could not be further decomposed by any known process of analysis—les molecules simples et indivisibles qui See also:

corn posent les See also:

CORPS (pronounced as in French, from which it is taken, being a late spelling of tors, from Lat. corpus, a body; cf. " corpse ")

corps. The union of any two of the elements gave rise to binary compounds, such as oxides, acids, sulphides, &c. A substance containing three elements was a binary See also:

compound of the second See also:

order; thus salts, the most important compounds of this class, were formed by the union of acids andoxides, iron sulphate, for instance, being a compound of iron oxide with sulphuric acid. In addition to his purely chemical work, Lavoisier, mostly in conjunction with Laplace, devoted considerable See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention to See also:

PHYSICAL

physical problems, especially those connected with See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat. The two carried out some of the earliest thermochemical investigations, devised apparatus for measuring linear and cubical expansions, and employed a modification of See also:

Joseph See also:

Black's See also:

ICE (a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. Eis)

ice calorimeter in a series of determinations of specific heats. Regarding heat (matiere de See also:

feu or fluide igne) as a See also:

PECULIAR

peculiar See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind of imponderable See also:

MATTER

matter, Lavoisier held that the three states of See also:

AGGREGATION (from the Lat. ad, to, gregare, to collect together)

aggregation—solid, liquid and See also:

gas—were modes of matter, each depending on the amount of matiere de feu with which the ponderable substances concerned were interpenetrated and combined; and this view enabled him correctly to anticipate that gases would be reduced to liquids and solids by the influence of See also:

COLD (in O. Eng. cald and ceald, a word coming ultimately from a root cognate with the Lat. gelu, gelidus, and common in the Teutonic languages, which usually have two distinct forms for the substantive and the adjective, cf. Ger. Kolte, kalt, Dutch koude

cold and pressure. He also worked at See also:

FERMENTATION

fermentation, respiration and See also:

animal heat, looking upon the processes concerned as essentially chemical in nature.

A See also:

paper discovered many years after his death showed that he had anticipated later thinkers in explaining the cyclical process of animal and vegetable See also:

LIFE

life, for he pointed out that See also:

PLANTS

plants derive their See also:

food from the air, from water, and in general from the See also:

MINERAL

mineral See also:

KINGDOM

kingdom, and animals in turn feed on plants or on other animals fed by plants, while the materials thus taken up by plants and animals are restored to the mineral kingdom by the breaking-down processes of fermentation, putrefaction and combustion. A See also:

COMPLETE

complete edition of the writings of Lavoisier, Euvres de Lavoisier, publiees See also:

PAR (Lat. par, equal)

par les soins du ministre de l'instruction publique, was issued at Paris in six volumes from 1864-1893. This publication comprises his Opuscules physiques et chimiques (1774), many See also:

MEMOIRS

memoirs from the Academy volumes, and numerous letters, notes and reports See also:

RELATING

relating to the various matters on which he was engaged. At the time of his death he was preparing an edition of his collected See also:

WORKS

works, and the portions ready for the See also:

PRESS (through Fr. presse from Lat. pressare, frequentative of premere, to crush, squeeze, press)

press were published in two volumes as Memoires de chimie in 18o5 by his widow (in that year married to See also:

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

Count See also:

RUMFORD, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT (1753-1814)

Rumford), .who had See also:

DRAWN

drawn and engraved the plates in his Traite elementaire de chimie (1789). See E. Grimaux, Lavoisier 1743-1794, d'apres sa correspondance, ses See also:

MANUSCRIPTS

manuscripts, &c. (1888), which gives a list of his works; P. E. M. See also:

BERTHELOT, MARCELLIN PIERRE EUGENE (1827–1907)

Berthelot, La Revolution chimique: Lavoisier (1890), which contains an analysis of and extracts from his laboratory notebooks. LA VOISIN. See also:

CATHERINE MoNvolsIN, known as "La Voisin " (d.

168o), French sorceress, whose See also:

MAIDEN, or MAID

maiden name was Catherine See also:

DESHAYES, GERARD PAUL (1795–1875)

Deshayes, was one of the See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief personages in the famous affaire des poisons, which disgraced the reign of See also:

Louis XIV. Her See also:

HUSBAND

husband, Monvoisin, was an unsuccessful jeweller, and she practised See also:

CHIROMANCY (from Gr. Xeip, hand, and yavreia, divination)

chiromancy and See also:

FACE (from Lat. fades, derived either from facere, to make, or from a root fa-, meaning " appear "; cf. Gr. cbatvstv)

face-See also:

READING

reading to retrieve their fortunes. She gradually added the practice of See also:

WITCHCRAFT

witchcraft, in which she had the help of a renegade See also:

PRIEST (Ger. Priester, Fr. pretre)

priest, See also:

ETIENNE, CHARLES GUILLAUME (1778-1845)

Etienne Guibourg, whose See also:

PART

part was the celebration of the " black See also:

mass," an abominable See also:

PARODY (Gr. s-apybia, literally a song sung beside, a comic parallel)

parody in which the See also:

HOST

host was compounded of the See also:

BLOOD

blood of a little See also:

child mixed with horrible ingredients. She practised See also:

MEDICINE

medicine, especially midwifery, procured See also:

ABORTION (from Lat. aboriri, to fail to be born, or perish)

abortion and provided love powders and poisons. Her chief See also:

ACCOMPLICE (from Fr. complice, conspirator, Lat. complex, a sharer, associate, complicare, to fold together; the ac- is possibly due to confusion with " accomplish," to complete, Lat. complere, to fill up)

accomplice was one of her lovers, the magician Lesage, whose real name was See also:

Adam Ceeuret. The See also:

GREAT

great ladies of Paris flocked to La Voisin, who accumulated enormous See also:

WEALTH

wealth. Among her clients were Olympe See also:

MANCINI, PASQUALE STANISLAO (1817-1888)

Mancini, comtesse de See also:

SOISSONS

Soissons, who sought the death of the See also:

king's See also:

MISTRESS

mistress, See also:

LOUISE [AUGUSTE WILHELMINE AMALIE LUISE] (1776-1810)

Louise de la Valliere; Mme de See also:

MONTESPAN

Montespan, Mme de See also:

Gramont (la belle See also:

Hamilton) and others. The bones of toads, the See also:

TEETH (O.E. Eel); plural of tooth, O.E. top)

teeth of moles, See also:

CANTHARIDES, or SPANISH FLIES

cantharides, iron filings, human blood and human dust were among the ingredients of the love powders concocted by La Voisin. Her knowledge of poisons was not apparently so thorough as that of less well-known sorcerers, or it would be difficult to See also:

account for La V alliere's See also:

IMMUNITY (from Lat. immunis, not subject to a munus or public service)

immunity. The See also:

art of poisoning had become a See also:

REGULAR

regular science. The death of Henrietta, duchess of Orleans, was attributed, falsely it is true, to See also:

POISON

poison, and the crimes of See also:

MARIE

Marie Madeleine de Brinvilliers (executed in 1676) and her accomplices were still fresh in the public mind. In See also:

APRIL

April 1679 a commission appointed to inquire into the subject and to prosecute the offenders met for the first time.

Its proceedings, including some suppressed in the official records, are preserved in the notes of one of the official rapporteurs, See also:

GABRIEL (Heb. SKns, man of God)

Gabriel See also:

Nicolas de la Reynie. The See also:

REVELATION, BOOK OF

revelation of the treacherous intention of Mme de Montespan to poison Louis XIV. and of other crimes, planned by personages who could not be attacked without See also:

SCANDAL

scandal which touched the See also:

THRONE

throne, caused Louis XIV. to See also:

close the chambre ardente, as the See also:

court was called, on the 1st of See also:

OCTOBER

October 1680. It was reopened on the 19th of May 1681 and sat until the 21st of See also:

JULY

July 1682. Many of the culprits escaped through private influence. Among these were Marie See also:

Anne Mancini, duchesse de See also:

BOUILLON

Bouillon, who had sought to get rid of her husband in order to marry the See also:

DUKE (corresponding to Fr. duc, Ital. duca, Ger. Herzog)

duke of See also:

Vendome, though Louis XIV. banished her to See also:

NERAC

Nerac. Mme de Montespan was not openly disgraced, because the preservation of Louis's own dignity was essential, and some See also:

HUNDRED

hundred prisoners, among them the infamous Guibourg and Lesage, escaped the See also:

scaffold through the suppression of See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence insisted on by Louis XIV. and See also:

LOUVOIS, FRANCOIS MICHEL LE TELLIER, MARQUIS DE (1641–1691)

Louvois. Some of these were imprisoned in various fortresses, with instructions from Louvois to the respective commandants to flog them if they sought to impart what they knew. Some See also:

innocent persons were imprisoned for life because they had knowledge of the facts. La Voisin herself was executed at an early See also:

STAGE (Fr. 6/age; from Lat. stare, to stand)

stage of the proceedings, on the 20th of See also:

FEBRUARY

February 168o, after a perfunctory application of See also:

TORTURE (from Lat. torquere, to twist)

torture. The authorities had every See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason to avoid further revelations. See also:

THIRTY

Thirty-five other prisoners were executed; five were sent to the galleys and twenty-three were banished. Their crimes had furnished one of the most extraordinary trials known to history.

See F. Ravaisson, Archives de la See also:

BASTILLE (from Fr. bastir, now bdtir, to build)

Bastille, vols. iv.-vii. (187o–1874) ; the notes of La Reynie, preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale; F. Funck-See also:

Brentano, Le Drame des poisons (1899); A. See also:

Masson, La Sorcellerie et la science des poisons an X VIP siecle (1904). See also:

SARDOU, VICTORIEN (1831-1908)

Sardou made the affair a background for his Affaire des poisons (1907). There is a portrait of La Voisin by Antoine See also:

COYPEL

Coypel, which has been often reproduced.

End of Article: LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT (1743-1794)

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