Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)

... you have heard of the new chemical nomenclature endeavoured to be introduced by Lavoisier, Fourcroy &c. other chemists of this country, of equal note, reject it, and prove, in my opinion, that it is premature, insufficient, & false. These latter are joined by the British chemists; and upon the whole I think the new Nomenclature will be rejected after doing more harm than good. There are some good publications in it, which must be translated into the ordinary chemical language before they will be useful ...

(TJ to Dr. James Currie, 20 December 1788)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbc3&fileName=rbc0001_2007jeffca...… (plus d'informations)

Lavoisier set out to establish a new foundational organization to what was then known about chemistry. His Preface stands alone as a solid scientific work, including a review of the literature that exemplifies well the stage setting of progress based on an expansion of what has been previously written. He then articulates the process of experimentation used and the results for a variety of substances. In particular, he classifies, acids, salts, and metals. It was interesting to see how often he criticized his predecessors (not having a common basis for explaining acids) and yet made equivalent leaps himself. Lavoisier was guillotined as part of the French revolution.… (plus d'informations)