Lavoisier, acid-base definition

Boyle (1661) attempted to provide a more definite concept and attributed the sour taste of acids to sharp-edged acid particles. Lemery, another supporter of the corpuscular theory of chemistry, had similar views and considered that acid-base reactions were the result of the penetration of sharp acid particles into porous bases (Walden, 1929 Finston Rychtman, 1982). However, the first widely accepted theory was that of Lavoisier who in 1 111 pronounced that oxygen was the universal acidifying principle (Crosland, 1973 Walden, 1929 Day Selbin, 1969 Finston Rychtman, 1982). An acid was defined as a compound of oxygen with a non-metal. 

Acids and bases were defined and described by early chemists, including Boyle, Lavoisier, Davy, Berzelius, Liebig, and Arrhenius. At the present time, depending on objectives, one of two definitions of acids and bases is likely to be accepted. These two definitions, by Bronsted and Lowry and by Lewis, were proposed about the same time. According to the Bronsted definition acids are substances having a tendency to lose a proton, and bases are those having a tendency to accept a proton. Thus, for an acid HA the acid-base half-reaction is... 

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