Publication date 1789 Originally published 1789 Country France Language French | Published in English 1790 Translator Robert Kerr Genres Science, Textbook | |
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Similar The Sceptical Chymist, Elements of chemistry, New System of Chemical, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia, The Development of Chemi | ||
Numulite trait l mentaire de chimie 1789 parchemin
Traité élémentaire de chimie (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry) is an influential textbook written by Antoine Lavoisier published in 1789 and translated into English by Robert Kerr in 1790 under the title Elements of Chemistry in a New Systematic Order containing All the Modern Discoveries.
This book is considered to be the first modern chemical textbook.
The book defines an element as a single substance that can't be broken down by chemical analysis and from which all chemical compounds are formed, publishing his discovery that fermentation produces carbon dioxide (carbonic gas) and spirit of wine, saying that it is "more appropriately called by the Arabic word alcohol since it is formed from cider or fermented sugar as well as wine", and publishing the first chemical equation "grape must = carbonic acid + alcohol", calling this reaction "one of the most extraordinary in chemistry", noting "In these experiments, we have to assume that there is a true balance or equation between the elements of the compounds with which we start and those obtained at the end of the reaction."
The book contains a list of elements, which included oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, mercury, zinc, and sulfur, forming the basis for the modern list of elements. His list, however, also included light and caloric, which he believed to be material substances but are not elements.