IN DEALING the deathblow to the incorrect phlogiston theory of burning, the brilliant French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier laid the foundations of modern chemistry. While much of Lavoisier's work involved interpreting and revising the experiments of other great investigators such as Cavendish and Priestley, his own experiments led to the theory of combustion which we accept today. His clear proof of the all-important role of oxygen in this process brought about a revolution in chemistry for which he will never be forgotten. Lavoisier gave the name "oxygen" to Priestley's "dephlogisticated air." He was also instrumental, together with three other chemists of his time, in establishing a new and logical system of naming chemicals according to their composition. This system of nomenclature is still in use.

Lavoisier's untimely death by the guillotine during the Reign of Terror which followed the French Revolution provoked another scientist to write: "It took only a moment to make this head fall, and a hundred years will perhaps not be enough to produce another like it."

From the book