BIOGRAPHIES
OF SCIENTIFIC MEN
1743–1794
AT the time when so many countries were at war concerning the succession to the Austrian throne, there was born at Paris, on 26th August 1743, Lavoisier, who was destined in after years to revolutionize chemistry and ultimately to perish, or rather was murdered by the French communists, during the Reign of Terror which accompanied the first French Revolution. Our hero's father was a wealthy merchant, of a scientific bent of mind, and who encouraged the pursuit of knowledge in the son. Lavoisier was educated at the College Mazarin, where he studied several sciences; and the knowledge gained in early years was invaluable for his future career. By dint of his genius there rose a nouvelle chimie: "La nouvelle chimie est toujours celle de Lavoisier." Lavoisier is, without doubt, the father of modern chemistry, as he overthrew Stahl's, or the phlogistic, theory; although every science is the accumulation of truths discovered by numerous workers in all ages.
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