LAVOISIER, ANTHONY LAWRENCE, the celebrated French chemist, was horn at Paris, on the 26th of Au gust, 1743. His father, being in opulent circumstances, gave his son every advantage which a liberal education could bestow ; and the genius of Lavoisier was directed, at an early period, to the study of the physical sciences, which he cultivated with great zeal and success. In the year 1764, he drew up a memoir, m answer to a ques tion proposed by the French government, on the best r R 0 and most economical means of lighting the streets of a gi :.t ci y which obtained tor him the prize of a gold me ted. and was printed at the expellee of the Academy of So, ice s, of %illicit he was elected a metnuer on the 1.3it tai .N1.1), 1768. During this period, he d.stinguiahed hltn sell as the au hoc of several valuable treatises on philoso phical subjects, %%loch were printed in various periodical works. II is observations on the experiments made with a view to pt oi e the possibility of converting water into earth, will be found in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1770. In the course of various journies through different dis tricts 01 France, he louad opportunities of collecting co pious materials for the mineralogy of that kingdom, which served as the foundation of a work on the of the globe, and the formation of the strata of the earth, of which he gave interesting sketches in the Memoirs of the French Academy for 1772 and 1787.
The 6eietiano discoveries in chemical science which were made, about this period, particularly by the Bri tish philosophers, attcrated the attention of Lavoisier, who seems to have been hilly aware of the great impor tance ol these discoveries in the further prosecution of physical research. In his O/iuscules Chynnques, which were published in 1;74, he exhibited a clear and eleg nt view ol the history of pneurna is chemistry, along with some ingenious and accurate experiments of his min. In the year 1778, he entered into an examination of Dr. Prte•iley's dephlogisticated air, and published his proofs that this substance is a constituent principle ol all acids ; and to this principle, therefore, he gave the name of oxygen. This was the first great step in his progress towards a new system of chemical science He next pro, ceded to make experiments on the production of wa ter, by burning oxi gen gas with hydrogen gas, and on its decomposition into the same elements ; and he at length completed his system, by his theories of combustion and oxydatiom his analysis of atmospherical air, his doctrine of caloric, &c. In the year 1789, he published his Ele ?nem dr Chynne, a work which has been much admired as a model of scientific composition. In these elements,
the author completely overthrew the previous theory of Stahl ; and, by a beautiful chain of logical ressoning, es tablished one more consistent with the recent discoveries. The system of Lavoisier, however, was not received with out opposition ; but its merit has at length been gener ally acknowledged, and its principles were ultimately adopted by the most eminent chemists of France and Great Britain. In order to complete the revolution in chemical science, Lavoisicr and his associates invented a new nomenclature, which, after a violent controversy, has been pretty generally adopted.
The talents and scientific acquirements of Lavoisier pointed him out, upon several occasions, as a person whose services might be employed for the benefit of the public. In the year 1776, he was engaged by that en lightened minister. Turgot, to superintend the manufac ture of gunpowder ; and his chemical investigations of the proper mode of preparing this article, were so suc cessful, that he increased its explosive force by one fourth ; while, by reforming the existing regulations with regard to the collection of materials for the manufacture, he quintupled the produce. To the sciences, arts, and manufactures, he rendered many other most important services, both in a public and private capacity. Having been appointed to the office of treasurer to the academy, he introduced order into the accounts, and economy into the expenditure. He was a most active promoter of all useful plans and inquiries; and when the new system ofmea sures was proposed, he endeavoured to throw some light on that subject, by contributing some new and accurate experiments on the expansion of metals. At an early pe riod, his attention was directed towards agricultural pur suits, and he allotted a track of 24u arlienrs of land, on his estate in the for the purpose of experimental farming. He was con:anted by the National Convention with regard to the best method of manufacturing assignats and of securing them against forgery. Having been invi ted by a committee of the Constituent Assembly, in 179 t, to draw up a plait for rendering more simple the collec tion ol the taxes, he produced a most valuable memoir on the various productions of the country, and their consump tion, which was alterwards minted by order of the assem bly, under the title of Rzchesses territuriales de la France. Ater having been one of the administrators of the Caisse D'Escompte, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the tuitional treasury ; and into this department he in troduced he greatest order and regularity.