Such is an epitome of the chemical labours of M. Lavoisier. When we consider that this prodigious number of experiments and memoirs were all performed and drawn up within the short period of twenty years, we shall be able to form some idea of the almost incredible activity of this extraordinary man: the steadiness with which he kept his own peculiar opinions in view, and the good temper which he knew how to maintain in all his publications, though his opinions were not only not supported, but actually opposed by the whole body of chemists in existence, does him infinite credit, and was undoubtedly the wisest line of conduct which he could possibly have adopted. The difficulties connected with the evolution and absorption of hydrogen, constituted the stronghold of the phlogistians. But Mr. Cavendish's discovery, that water is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen, was a death-blow to the doctrine of Stahl. Soon after this discovery was fully established, or during the year 1785, M. Berthollet, a member of the academy, and fast rising to the eminence which he afterwards acquired, declared himself a convert to the Lavoisierian theory. His example was immediately followed by M. Fourcroy, also a member of the academy, who had succeeded Macquer as professor of chemistry in the Jardin du Roi. M. Fourcroy, who was perfectly aware of the strong feeling of patriotism which, at that time, actuated almost every man of science in France, hit upon a most infallible way of giving currency to the new opinions. To the theory of Lavoisier he gave the name of _La Chimie Française_ (French Chemistry). This name was not much relished by Lavoisier, as, in his opinion, it deprived him of the credit which was his due; but it certainly contributed, more than any thing else, to give the new opinions currency, at least, in France; they became at once a national concern, and those who still adhered to the old opinions, were hooted and stigmatized as enemies to the glory of their country. One of the most eminent of those who still adhered to the phlogistic theory was M. Guyton de Morveau, a nobleman of Burgundy, who had been educated as a lawyer, and who filled a conspicuous situation in the Parliament of Dijon: he had cultivated chemistry with great zeal, and was at that time the editor of the chemical part of the Encyclopédie Méthodique. In the first half-volume of the chemical part of this dictionary, which had just appeared, Morveau had supported the doctrine of phlogiston, and opposed the opinions of Lavoisier with much zeal and considerable skill: on this account, it became an object of considerable consequence to satisfy Morveau that his opinions were inaccurate, and to make him a convert to the antiphlogistic theory; for the whole matter was managed as if it had been a political intrigue, rather than a philosophical inquiry.