LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT (1a-ywa-zya), a French chemist, one of the founders of modern chemistry; born in Paris, France, Aug. 16, 1743. He demonstrated experimentally the acidi fying action of "dephlogisticated air," or, as he renamed it, "oxygen gas." He was the first to analyze water, and to obtain by synthesis "fixed air," or as he called it, "carbonic acid." He first gave system to cnemistry, and not least of his services to science was his part in devising—with Guyton de Pvlorveau—a consistent scheme of chemical nomenclature. Besides pa pers contributed to the proceedings of learned societies, he wrote an "Elemen tary Treatise on Chemistry" (1789). He was a farmer-general of taxes, and was guillotined in Paris, May 8, 1794.
LAW, a term variously defined, ac cording to its application. The laws of nature, as expounded by men of science, are general propositions as to the order in which physical events have occurred, and will probably recur; the moral law, or the law of God, is a body of truth thrown into the form of rules for the guidance of human conduct. But when we speak of law we usually mean to indicat,e the law which is set and en forced by civilized states. Law, in this sense, derives its sanction, or binding force, from the penalties by which men are constrained to obey it or punished for breaking it. The earliest source of law
is custom; the customary rules of a primitive community formed the basis of the civil law at Rome, as they form the basis of the common law in England and the United States. Customary law is rigid and formal; in a progressive so ciety it is relaxed and improved by the use of legal fictions, by the influence of equity, and by legislation. The civil law, amended and rationalized by successive praetors and emperors, has furnished most of the nations of modern Europe with the greater part of their legal rules and ideas; even England, while refusing to borrow directly from the Corpus Juris Civilis (body of the civil law), has de rived no small part of her law from that source. Scotch law has largely drawn its principles and nomenclature from Roman law.
It is usual to disting-uish public law (constitutional and criminal) from pri vate law (which applies to personal status, family relations, property, and contract). Constitutional law is of espe cial importance in the United States. Canon law is not received, as an entire system, by any modern state; but its rules are followed in defining the powers and functions of ecclesiastical persons. The law of nations, or international law, is also divided into public and private.