Oxygen, Acids, and Water: Eight Chapters from the Elementary Treatise on Chemistry

One of the most revolutionary scientific works ever written, and also one of the most accessible, Lavoisier’s Elementary ­Treatise on Chemistry established the constancy of weight in chemical reactions, revealed the composition of water, and set forth a clear concept of the nature of gases. The Treatise cemented a new, ­rational nomenclature that accurately expressed the nature of materials, overthrowing such colorful but deceptive names as “flowers of sulfur” and “butter of arsenic.” Impre...