Volume 1

Elements of chemistry, in a new systematic order, containing all the modern discoveries. ... / by Mr. Lavoisier. Translated from the French by Robert Kerr.

  • Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794.
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of chemistry, in a new systematic order, containing all the modern discoveries. ... / by Mr. Lavoisier. Translated from the French by Robert Kerr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/432
    in a treatife upon the éléments of chemiftry, there fhould be no chapter on the conftituent and elementary parts of matter ; but I may here obferve, that the fondnefs for reducing ail the bodies in nature to three or four éléments, pro- ceeds from a préjudice which has defceqded to us from the Greek Philofophers. The notion of four éléments, which, by the variety of their proportions, compofe ail the known fubftances in nature, is a mere hypothefis, aflumed long be- fore the firft principles of experimental philofo- phy or of chemiftry had any exiftence. In thoie days, without poiïefling fads, they framed fy- ftems ; while we, who hâve colleded fads, feem determined to rejed even thefe, vvhen they do not agréé with our préjudices. The authority of thofe fathers of human philofophy ftill carry great weight, and there is reafon to fear that it willeven bear hard upon générations y et to corne. It is very remarkable, notwithftanding thç number of philofophical chemifts who bave fup- ported the dodrine of the four éléments, that there is not one who has not been led, by the évidence of fads, to admit a greater number of éléments into their theory. The firft Chemical authors, after the revival of letters, confidered ... T Rjlphur