Biography

Antoine - Laurent de Lavoisier was born on Monday, August 26, 1743, in the Cul-de-sac Pecquet, Paris. According to devout Catholic customs, he was christened on the day of his birth in the parish church of ST. Merry. He was baptized Antoine as the eldest son s of the Lavoisier family were named so, for over two hundred years. Their ancestors were believed to origin from a place called Villers-Cotterets.Laurent was added after his godfather and great - uncle Father Laurent Waroquier, Principal of the Catholic College at Beauvais. Jean Antoine Lavoisier, his affluent and cultured father was a prosecutor at the Parlement de Paris, who had inherited his uncle, Jacques Waroquier's fortune, place as an attorney to the Parliament of Paris and his house at Cul-de-sac Pecquet.[br /]
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On June 14, 1742, Jean married Emillie Punctis, daughter of an advocate to the Parliament and secretary to the Marquis de Chateaurenault, vice admiral of France. Antoine' great-grandfather Nicolas turned successfully to trade thereby enabling his sons and grandsons to enter legal profession as also to get them married to daughters of wealthy lawyers with high official positions.[br /]
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The first five years of Antoine were passed in the house where he was born. The Marais, as the district was called was a quite part of Paris. with several aristocratic town like mansions having gardens and a monastery. Antoine' only sister Marie Marguerite Emilie, was born in 1745. In 1748, his mother Mme. Lavoisier died and his father took the family to the house of Antoine' grandmother Mme. Punctis. His grandfather had recently died, then, in Ruedu Four-St. -Eustache. The house was a short distance from Cul-de-sac Pecquet, the original home of Lavoisier'.[br /]
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Antoine' grandmother lived here with her younger daughter of 22 named Marie Marguerite Constance. She became so devoted to the children that she did not marry. This was the place where Antoine was to stay for the next 23 years until his marriage in 1771.[br /]
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Jean, his father in the meanwhile did not marry and was fully devoted to the upbringing of his children. He developed a kind of a special friendship that formed and left a lasting impression in the life of Antoine. It is a fact known that Antoine had very few friends besides his immediate family member and this relationship with his father had a deep bearing on the same. He tutored his son well in the study of mainly sciences.[br /]
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During his school years which ran in the period 1754 - 1760, he won several awards specially in languages, his favorites being Greek, Latin and French composition. It was during the second year at school that he was granted a special prize for industry at study, the first indication of that tireless energy that was to impress not only his generation but all those who became familiar with his work. The school known as the Collège des Quatre-Nations, also known as College Mazarin, is presently the Institutè de France. It was here that Lavoisier was accustomed to the rigorous reasoning of mathematicians. Besides he grew in his literary interests that led to his excelling at the school.[br /]
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The year 1760 was a sorrowful one for Antoine as he lost his sister Marie at 15. But the intellect and the praise gained by Antoine at school was the only redeeming factor for his family which was consoling the loss of Marie. Antoine became the sole passion for the family to look forward to in the absence of his sister. However, he left the college in 1761, without his graduation honors. On the advice of his father, he started studying Law, graduated in 1764 and began practice at the Parlement de Paris. Lavoisier’s interest in this profession did not last long, but was indebted to it for his precise language which became his forte.[br /]
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While in secondary school he was introduced to meteorology and science in which he was to later prove his intellect. He was also exposed to different disciplines in science, like botany, anatomy, electricity, mineralogy and geology. Lavoisier mastered all these sciences having acquired proficiency in all these subjects with an open mind and childlike curiosity. His legal knowledge enabled him to reason on/or about anything or everything that came his way.[br /]
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Lavoisier attended the Mazarin College from 1754 to 1761 studying chemistry, astronomy, botany and mathematics. His first publication in chemistry appeared in 1764. His writings though formal had an easy flow and were pleasant to read, because of its clarity and precision. His demonstrations were presented in a perfectly logical and didactic way. He took great care to present his discoveries with exactitude.[br /]
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Lavoisier had keen interest in geology too. He carried out a series of tests on mineral water and observed the work of miners and metallurgists.He discovered that there was a connection between geography, demography and economic activity. His vast readings made him formulate a theory on the boundaries of the sea and the arrangement of the continents.[br /]
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Lavoisier also specialized in meteorology. At 20, he had begun to note down barometric and atmospheric parameters and continued this activity throughout his life. The experiments carried out by using the prevalent thermometers did not satisfy him, so he formulated precise rules for the fabrication and graduation of thermometers.[br /]
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Much of Lavoisier’s work was the result of extending and coordinating the research of others. One among them was the ‘Theory of Phlogiston’. Its objective was to explain the combustion of bodies and the calcinations of metals. The theory found was that calcinations was meant to release the phlogiston contained in the minerals. This release was expected to cause reduction in the weight of the metal, but the contradictory happened. Lavoisier, who believed in the mathematical virtue of the scale, accepted neither the theory nor the hypothesis.[br /]
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A Swiss scientist Bengt Ferner attributed the steady lowering of the levels of the oceans, to a transformation of water into earth. Lavoisier attacked this myth of transmutation of water into earth. He carried out several experiments and suggested new methods that were scientifically proved right.[br /]
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In 1768, the death of Théodore Baron left the chemists position vacant at the Royal Academy of Sciences. Lavoisier occupied this seat for the next 25 years. His first papers were reports on analysis, studies of gypsum, diamond, meteorites, charcoal, lead and mineral waters. He perfected a new model of the hydrometer, which he used to measure the density of mineral water. His works were nothing short of being revolutionary.[br /]
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Before he would undertake any research subject, he would formulate a method by which to carry out his work. It was based on three principles. A chemical has to be weighed before the reaction and the new composition at its conclusion. The validity of a chemical analysis was to be confirmed by a synthesis. The principle of the conservation of matter is a mathematical law and it is verified by systematic use of scale.[br /]
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The paternity of the law of conservation is attributed to Lavoisier which says "Nothing is born or perishes, but already existing things combine, then separate anew." This is a closely worded statement to the present day widely accepted law of Conservation of Energy.To finance his investigations, in 1768, he accepted the office of farmer-general of taxes. Lavoisier’s role as an economist is little known, but his contribution to political and economic life in France was far more extensive.[br /]
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At the age of 25 he was very well to do and he became a stockholder in the General Farm – a private company which was in charge of collecting money for the Royal Treasury. The taxes were collected on salt, tobacco and alcohol.[br /]
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Lavoisier was appointed the regional inspector for the Tobacco Commission. He was in charge of eliminating the contraband and frauds being perpetrated by certain retailers. He pursued efficient industrial policy. He modernized the factories that eventually led to increased production. He imported tobacco from Virginia and introduced new grinding measures for the fabrication of snuff. The sale of putrefied tobacco, unfit for consumption, was the main cause for his unpopularity. He was also responsible for collecting duties on goods entering Paris. In order to put a check on infiltrators smuggling alcohol and tobacco, he had an impenetrable barrier built around the city. This wall was met with wide-spread hostility. As an urban planner, Lavoisier also had plans of building a boulevard beyond the wall; had plans of installing slaughterhouses on the outskirts of the city. All his dreams were shattered when the wall was demolished as it became highly controversial, with the public in general.[br /]
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Lavoisier’s interest in science kept him involved in scientific discoveries. In 1775, he carried out his famous experiment to study the calcination of metals. In this process he learnt that the gas released had remarkable qualities. It activated combustion and sustained animal respiration – it was oxygen based. The theory of acids was made clear from these discoveries. They found that on burning of sulphur in oxygen, sulphuric acid was obtained. The definition of the composition of air was made possible through this program of research. It was discovered that atmospheric air is not an element but a mixture of several gases. Priestley had defined the properties of oxygen and Lavoisier had identified it as an element. [br /]
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Apart from being a scientist, Lavoisier was also an acknowledged physiologist. Lavoisier’s theory explaining the five circumstances in which oxygen was released from chemical bodies that is; vegetation, respiration, combustion and chemical combinations that helped find a medical application for his research activities.[br /]
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In May 1777, he published his Experiments on Animal Respiration and the changes occurring when air passes through the Lungs. He explained that it is the atmospheric air that furnishes the oxygen necessary for combustion. The blood provides the fuel and its oxidation in the lungs explains the change in color. This combustion produces carbonic gas and water. This combustion is also the source of body heat. He proved that nourishment and respiration were part of one large process encompassing much of the animal economy.[br /]
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His findings on respiration helped him formulate new theories on perspiration. Lavoisier assumed that perspiration continuously drew water from the organism and combined it with calorie to transform it into vapor; the loss of the calorie led to a cooling which maintained the constant temperature of the body. He also explained that humidity from the body escaped not only through the skin, but also through the exhaled air.[br /]
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Lavoisier’s interest in science always ran parallel with his other achievements in life. Lavoisier was also a pioneer in public health. Lavoisier’s system of working, envisaged links between medicine, public health, food hygiene, hospital administration and prison reform; all of these benefited from his contributions to the Royal Society of Medicine.[br /]
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Throughout his career as an academician, Lavoisier studied numerous problems related to public health, while referring to food hygiene; he was concerned with problems concerning different fields. He was always voicing many of his opinions. It dealt with the purification of oils and sugar, the adulteration of cider, the diseases affecting wheat, parasites in flour and the use of zinc, tin, silver and copper as linings for saucepans. He studied ways of storing drinking water in wooden barrels on sailing ships and tested foods that would survive and sustain life on long sea voyages.[br /]
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Lavoisier was appointed by a commission to look into the evils of Hôtel Dieu. Lavoisier in his observation said that the hospital was located in a congested place, occupying a very small area. The patients were crammed in the same bed, due to which the mortality rate was high.The hospital treated about 3,000 to 4,000 patients daily and during epidemics the numbers would swell between 6,000 to 7,000. For want of space the contagious and the insane were thrown together. Such conditions facilitated the spread of infectious diseases.[br /]
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The operation theatres were exposed to the dust of the streets and the din of traffic. The final report read "the transfer of the Hôtel Dieu has been repeatedly recommended by all enlightened persons." It was decided that the existing hospital be closed, and be replaced by four new ones. Louis XVI adopted the academician’s conclusions in June 1787. A competition was organized for the construction of the four hospitals. Bretemil launched a fund-raising campaign, but he immediately clashed with the established interests, in particular with the church, and left the government. The Hospital Commission was disbanded and everything was left in abeyance.
The other contributions of Lavoisier linked to the hospital are, he used the densimeter to determine the nutritive value of meat bouillons given to hospitalized patients. He explored techniques for feeding abandoned newborns with cow or ewés milk; he also drew up old age insurance plans.[br /]
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Lavoisier was also involved with the theoretical aspects of medicine. He wrote two papers to the Royal Society of Medicine. The first paper dealt with the medical effects of ether, in particular its analgesic effect on migraine. The second explored the changes in air brought about by the respiration of large numbers of people in confined spaces, such as theatres and hospitals.[br /]
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The other area in which he ventured as a pioneer in public health was the prisons. He was appointed by the Academy of Sciences in 1780 to study prison reforms. He along with eight of his colleagues was asked to inspect the prisons of Chàtelet, the Abbaye Hôtel de la Eorce, Bicétre, Salpètrière and the Conciegerie. In his final report, he called for cleaner environment, adequate supply of water and proper ventilation.[br /]
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He suggested large airy windows for proper ventilation, cleaner floors, frequent change of clothes for prisoners. He was of the opinion that the prison premises be disinfected at least once a year. More water should be made available by constructing canals. Latrines and cesspools be far removed from the cells.[br /]
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Covered galleries be built for the prisoners to exercise even in adverse conditions, seating arrangements be duly provided. The inmates must be fed by the state and not left at the mercy of citizens. Martial Law offenders had to be separated from civil ones and those imprisoned for debts, away from criminals. Every prison was to house an infirmary.[br /]
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Lavoisier’s line of thoughts pertaining to the changes suggested in all walks of life portrays him as a sociologist and precursor of Gustave Lebon.[br /]
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One of his contributions to science was to identify the product obtained from the combustion of hydrogen in the presence of oxygen. Cavendish and Priestley had already identified it, but Lavoisier was to demonstrate it for the first time in an irrefutable way.[br /]
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In February 1785, he achieved in a single experiment the analysis and then the synthesis of water. He demonstrated this experiment to a large audience. He passed water vapor over incandescent iron, which decomposed it into hydrogen and oxygen. The two gases were collected in a separate gasometer and then mixed in a gas balloon and ignited by an electric spark. Water was reconstituted.[br /]
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Lavoisier’s success in the scientific field was due to his hard work, meticulous experimental method, his fortune and costly instruments at his disposal, his influence at the Academy of Sciences, his membership in ‘enlightened circles’, his wife’s talent at public relations, the Monday dinners at the Arsenal and the political role at Paris and Europe in general, did the rest.[br /]
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In 1776, Lavoisier was appointed one of the four commissioners for Gunpowder and Saltpeter Administration. A private company had been nationalized because of its mis-management. It also owed France’s defeat in the Seven Years War.[br /]
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The company produced gunpowder for different purposes. One was for military and the other, to be used by hunters and quarry workers. 75 per cent of gunpowder contained saltpeter, which was not available in France, had to be imported from India. Saltpeter was obtained from efflorescence's of potassium nitrate, which develops on demolition of rubble and old humid walls.[br /]
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Lavoisier tried to develop an industrial production of saltpeter. In order to attract investors, he published a manual giving the details of how to select sites with soils containing saltpeter. He also instructed them in the method of constructing sheds and the process to refine the product using potash. There were not many takers for it for the bourgeois were under the spell of speculating at stock exchanges. The nitrate factories created were those belonging to the Gunpowder Administration.[br /]
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Lavoisier succeeded, however in bringing about a dramatic increase in gunpowder production and quality wise it became the best in Europe. Simultaneously, the production of saltpeter rose and a part of the gunpowder was exported to Holland, Spain and America.[br /]
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Lavoisier was also on the committee for agriculture. To slow down imports of English cotton fabrics, he encouraged the cultivation of flax. He created prototype spinning mills throughout the country and improved the quality of French cloth. He also developed an industrial plan for whitening unbleached cloth. A new company was formed amongst the stockholders themselves. Lavoisier observed, "This budding enterprise is all the more interesting, since it substitutes the raw material flax and hemp produced in the kingdom." This was only an experimental venture and it did not reach industrial level.
In 1778, Lavoisier became an influential landowner with successive acquisition of land summing up to 1,129 hectares. It was named as "Lavoisier à Villefrancoeur Champigny at Freschines". He wanted to carry out experiments in scientific agronomy, and test his ideas as an economist. He wrote, "It is not just from an arm chair that one can study economics, it is only by the well thought-out investigation of a vast agricultural enterprise, by calculations, pursued over many years of the distribution of recurring riches, that one can form valid ideas, on what contributes to the prosperity of a large kingdom."[br /]
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Lavoisier was convinced that agriculture was the principal source of wealth and ought to spearhead all other productive activities of a nation. Some landowners had set up modern farms with new agricultural techniques and they encouraged the peasants to clear their abandoned lands and drain the marshes. The peasants already overburdened by taxes did not show any interest to supplement their income. The local agricultural scenario was disastrous in effect. The average wheat yield was only five times that of the seeds sown. The soil was of good quality, but the farmers owned limited livestock and could only use organic fertilizer and that too sparingly.[br /]
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Lavoisier applied his scientific approach. His habitual use of the balance sheet was perfectly suited to the situation. Everything was classified according to expenses and income. It was counted and weighed, just as for a laboratory experiment. He had very precise maps and plans showing the average and use of each parcel of land. Thus, he could compare yields. He checked the weight of 10 or 20 sheaves from every cart and calculated an average. For experimental cultivation, each sheaf was weighed at thrashing time and the weight of the grain, chaff and straw were all recorded. This precise measurement allowed him to estimate the production of each field and to assess the quantum effects of his improvements.[br /]
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He called his contemporaries ‘armchair agronomists’ because they were only keen in promoting scientific aspects, whereas Lavoisier stood apart from them. As an orthodox Physiocrat, he determined the farmers’ net income after deducting all his expenses, the salaries of the cutters, harvesters and threshers, the upkeep of livestock, the cost of seed, supplies and food needed by the farmer and his family, the rent paid to the landlord and the indirect land taxes.[br /]
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He concluded that the "landowner takes about a third of the harvest, taxes about as much and there remains about a third for the farmer’s upkeep, food, operating costs, interest payment on loans and other expenses." Lavoisier believed that agriculture did not allow for the brilliant speculation of stock market, but it brought altruistic satisfaction.[br /]
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Lavoisier’s contribution as a civil servant in many institutions had provided him with a wealth of information. His association with the intellectual circles had developed in him a keen interest of analyzing political and economic situation in France. His close liaison with the Comptroller General of Finance induced him to participate in the revitalization of the economy, which the enlightened bourgeoisie was dreaming.[br /]
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In September 1787, the Provincial Assembly was created as an attempt towards decentralization. The French at last obtained regional representation to participate in the administration of their provinces. Lavoisier as a member of the Commission for Public Welfare and Agriculture, presented a number of proposals for economic and social reform. His papers, the most important of which dealt with taxes, were published, but the one dealing with the abolishment of the corvèe met with disapproval from the nobility. In February 1789, as a candidate to represent Bloisat, he introduced a Register of Grievances, in which he put forward his proposals regarding individual liberty and fairer tax system, and reforms in judiciary and regional administration. He summarized them in six points. (1) The salaries of the country priests should be included in the clergy’s general budget. (2) A single standard for weights and measures should be used throughout the kingdom. (3) A plan for national education should be established for all classes of society. (4) Titles of nobility should not be purchased, but accorded only on recognition of services rendered to the king and thus the state. (5) Domestic custom duties should be abolished. (6) The system of harsh military punishments should be abolished and reformed.[br /]
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Lavoisier being well versed in the field of finances headed the Discount Bank. It was a private bank, which lent money to the Royal Treasury. When the loans to fill the empty coffers of the State exceeded 150 million livres, plans were put forward to nationalize the bank and replace it by Banque de France. Lavoisier suggested that the stockholders be reimbursed by a special bank, which would have funds supplied by regional grants and the issuing of assignments guaranteed by confiscated church property. The Constituent Assembly opposed to having such a powerful institution in the hands of the royal power, refused nationalization and moved towards the uncontrolled creation of paper money.[br /]
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In 1793, Lavoisier devoted three months at the Advisory Boards for Arts and Trades for perfecting the fabrication of non-counterfeit paper currency. Drawing on his banking experience, he defined the principles, that the currency should be easily identifiable by everyone. A great number of unconventional techniques had to be used in their fabrication. Lavoisier perfected this technique, by collecting samples of papers. He compared their quality, strength and cost and then chose a specific paper of each denomination. He gathered the knowledge of bleaching paper; he carefully chose the inks, the color paper and also learned the techniques for engraving, typography and producing watermarks. He recommended printing by polytypage, which used steel plate and made it possible to produce rapidly up to 20,000 proofs at a time.[br /]
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In 1791, after the abolishment of general farm tax, Lavoisier was one of the commissioners of the Public Treasury. This company was to manage all the revenues and expenses of the state. Lavoisier assumed considerable responsibilities. He organized the administration and introduced modern management methods. He verified the receipts and expenses, centralized the book-keeping, paid out pensions and the interest on debt, oversaw the payments to the Special Bank, ensured the exchange of assignments, and bought currency from English, Belgium and Dutch banks. It was he who assessed the yield of the new fiscal policy based on a general direct tax, presented the first assessments of the national income and the first budget estimate.[br /]
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As an economist, his document on ‘The territoride wealth of the kingdom of France’ was an important contribution. He had suggested setting up of two new institutions for France. A National Bureau of Statistics and a center for centralized accounting. The radicals and the royalists were against his ideas and he was forced to quit from the Discount Bank and the Public Treasury. Lavoisier was not at all deterred by the turn of events. He placed himself in public service and proved that a scientist could be socially useful too.
Local government and administration in the Provinces of France was handled by the Provincial governors, who in general, knew little of and cared less for the needs or the sufferings of the people. Under the authority of a central power that had conferred on them an almost limitless jurisdiction they ruled as despots. The first Provincial Assembly was instituted in 1778. It had representatives from three orders – The Clergy, Nobles and the Third Estate.[br /]
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Lavoisier through his purchase of Fréchines, was a landowner in Orleans but, although a noble and ranked as an Esquire through his father’s purchase of an office that carried the privilege of hereditary nobility, he was elected as a representative for the Third Estate for the little town of Romorautin.[br /]
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Lavoisier put forth many proposals in the assembly. One was the forced free labor on the construction and maintenance of roads and compulsory provision of horses and vehicles for transport that had been abolished. The tax on road was collected only from the commoners and the nobles escaped payment.[br /]
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Lavoisier was stirred by this long continued injustice. In his memoir he made it clear "that there is neither in our history nor in our national law any ground for casting upon a single class of tax payers a burden that, in justice alone, should be borne by all and perhaps ought preferably to bear more heavily on those to whom it is most profitable." Faced with opposition it was withdrawn from the Assembly.[br /]
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Lavoisier also presented proposals for the establishment, under the authority and control of the Provincial Assembly, of charity workshops to provide employment to those not fit for full time labor and to the genuinely poor, and for other workshops for vagrants in order to reduce the numbers of those who made begging their trade. These suggestions received due approval from their committees.[br /]
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Before adjourning, the Assembly nominated Lavoisier as one of the six members to serve on the Intermediary Commission. This commission continued to meet until the end of 1790, but the Provincial Assembly never held another session. All such generous and competent activities, such able and devoted labors, were a complete loss. Events began to move too quickly to a climax. Evolution gave way to Revolution. The Publication of a Royal Edict in August 1788 for the assembling of State General in the following year dwarfed all interest in these local activities. The work of the Provincial Assemblies was overshadowed by other important and urgent national summons.[br /]
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Once the effects of Revolution had died down, Lavoisier took oath at the bar of the National Assembly. The bitter taste that the Revolution had left behind made him comment, "We have been compelled to arm the people and to put weapons into the hands of every citizen that it is inexpedient to put power into the hands of those who ought to obey." He regretted that the state of affairs in France had retarded the ongoing progress of science.[br /]
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The National Assembly had become used to consulting scientists on all sorts of subjects, and then having them share parts in its action. Craftsmen, for example needed guidance and members of science gladly provided it. Thirty voluntary members including Lavoisier met regularly at the Louvre.[br /]
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Lavoisier now turned his attention to science education. He set up The Lycee de Arts, a place where all science related subjects were taught. According to the rules, the professors were to distance themselves absolutely from the aristocracy of the Academy, banish the sluggish and narrow educational reforms prevalent in private schools. Lavoisier underlined the importance of courses in economics and agriculture, history and geography and the mechanical arts.[br /]
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On July 7, 1793, a petition was sent to the Convention on Public Education signed by Lavoisier and Desandry. The text proposed adding technical instruction adapted to the needs of farmers, craftsmen and factory employees and to the elementary school curriculum. Lavoisier also suggested the setting up of technical school throughout France, which would impart education through practical courses in the evenings, on holidays and Sundays to the adults. Lavoisier’s dream was to make France the richest country in Europe by spreading technical education.[br /]
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His deep love for humanity has been evident from the many social reforms he had suggested and planned and especially in his attitude to the freedom from taxation enjoyed by the privileged orders. "If it is allowable," he said, "to make exceptions in favor of any class, especially with regard to taxes it can only be in favor of the poor."[br /]
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The same humanity displayed towards his fellow men was when he helped younger scientists from his purse. He sold the produce of his farm at less than market prices so that those in need could easily purchase at cheaper rates and thus avoid the feeling of charity.[br /]
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In 1791, Lavoisier was nominated member of the Bureau of Consultation for Arts and Crafts. Since[br /]
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he was short of time for his experimental studies, he wished to abandon all public office and limit his services to the nation for unpaid work. He also refused the post in the Gunpowder Commission. Since the gunpowder commissioners were exposed to slanderous charges, they thought Lavoisier was prudent in turning down the offer.[br /]
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In this turmoil Lavoisier wished to abandon all public offices and resume his scientific work, in which he hoped to rediscover the peace and happiness of his yesteryear. He declined an invitation to become Minister of Public Revenues, a post to which the king wished to appoint him in appreciation and recognition of his indepth knowledge of finance, his integrity, and his devotion to the constitutional government.[br /]
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Lavoisier had unofficially continued his work on gunpowder. For some months, he had informed the minister that he would resign from his duties on August 15. On that day he left the Arsenal, his laboratory and moved to ‘No. 243, Boulevard de la Madeleine.’ The great laboratory which had seen the birth of modern chemistry, was dismantled, the vast collection of instruments and apparatus was packed and removed, never to be used again. Three days after his departure, the commissioners of the local section entered the Arsenal, sealed all papers, and resolved to imprison the three commissioners.[br /]
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After the trial of Louis XVI and his execution, the Convention turned its attention to the delay in the presentation of the accounts of the Tax-Farm. Popular imagination, however still credited the Farmers–General with vast and illegally acquired fortunes, which would be very useful to filling the empty coffers of the state. The searchers after completing their task, declared they had found nothing incriminating that could give rise to suspicion.[br /]
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At this time, Lavoisier was informed that the Royal Society of London had considered awarding him the Copley Medal, the highest distinction in the Society’s honors. This was later on postponed. Grimaux comments, "It was a time moreover, when the award of a medal from London would have been likely to bring, not distinction, but mortal peril to a Frenchman, especially one closely associated with the old regime. Council may well have been aware of this and may therefore have hesitated to endanger the life of the great chemist.[br /]
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On submission of the report of the revising commissioners, the Tribunal ordered that the Farmer–General be arraigned before the Revolutionary Tribunal. The trial was only a farce. A month later, to speed the course of justice, the worst law of the Terror was passed. He was charged with "incivism" in that he had damaged public health by adding water to tobacco. He and his companions, amongst them Jacques Alexis Paulze, his father-in-law, were condemned to death. Lavoisier, who was devotedly attached to him, was obliged to stand and see M. Paulze's head fall under the guillotine, May 8, 1794. Lavoisier was then 51 years old. His biographers say little as to his last hours. Grimaux relates that all the condemned men were silent and carried themselves with dignity and courage in the face of death. What Lavoisier's sentiments were can be assumed from a passage in Grimaux (p. 53) who had been the first biographer to obtain access to Lavoiosier's papers.[br /]
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Raised in a pious family which had given many priests to the Church, he had held to his beliefs. To Edward King, an English author who had sent him a controversial work, he wrote, 'You have done a noble thing in upholding revelation and the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, and it is remarkable that you are using for the defense precisely the same weapons which were once used for the attack.'[br /]
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His goods and chattels and all his scientific instruments were listed and appropriated on the day following his execution, though Mme Lavoisier succeeded in having some restored to her. She was childless and long survived him.[br /]
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Lavoisier in his last letter writes, "I have had a fairly long life, above all a very happy one, and I think that I shall be remembered with some regrets and perhaps leave some reputation behind me."[br /]
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Thus, perished Lavoisier, one of the greatest sons of France. It took only a moment to cut off of the head, that even centuries to come may not give us another like him.[br /]
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Lavoisier had witnessed in his own lifetime the acceptance of the new science that his genius had created. In 1943, an exhibition of Lavoisier’s scientific apparatus, papers, and personal relics, was held to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth in a celebration that breathed the spirit and the glory of France and the French intellect.[br /]
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