Lavoisier, Madame

The vessel forms a diagonal link with a fold in the rich red velvet of the tablecloth, leading to Madame de Lavoisier s arm draped over her husband. Lavoisier s cocked pen is almost parallel to the arm. The couple appears... 

The Flemish painter David Ryckaert s portrait of an alchemist (Figure i6) combines the untidy desk littered with vanitas symbols, the vase (here containing not urine, but the coming-to-form of a homunculus), and the wife. Like Madame de Lavoisier, the wife peers over the shoulder of her seated husband. In Ryckaert s work, the alchemist wears an expression of horror. The glass contains a little man, or perhaps the devil. The wife raises her hand in dismay. Meanwhile, in the corner, a child blows a pig s bladder, a common symbol of futility. 

Madame Lavoisier was less enthusiastic than her husband about the agricultural experiment. She much preferred Parisian society to life in the country. After a while she ceased to accompany Lavoisier when he left Paris for the farm. It was during one of Lavoisier s absences, in 1781, that she began an affair with one of the couple s closest friends, the economist Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours. Such affairs were common in Paris at the time. Young girls frequently married men much older than they were and after a few years were often attracted to men younger than their husbands. The men, in their turn, frequently took mistresses. 

Lavoisier conducting human respiration experiment while Madame Lavoisier takes notes. Image from Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, University of Pennsylvania Library. 

W. A. Smeaton, Monsieur and Madame Lavoisier in 1798 the chemical revolution and the French Revolution , Ambix, 1989, 36, 1-4. 

Richard Kirwan, An Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids (London, 1787) translated with comments by Lavoisier, Guyton, Berthollet, and Fourcroy, Essai sur le phlogistique et sur la constitution des acides (Paris, 1788) second English edition with the translation of French comments. An Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids (London, 1789) second edition (Cass, 1968). Keiko Kawashima, Madame Lavoisier et la traduction fran aise de I Essay on Phlogiston de Kirwan, Revue d histoire des sciences et leurs applications 53, 2000, 235-263. 

Kawashima, Keiko. Madame Lavoisier et la traduction fran aise de TEssay on Phlogiston de Kirwan. Revue 53, 2000, 235-263. 

Figure 163 is the title page of Stahl s famous 1723 textbook. It summarizes Stahl s views as early as 1684. Over a half-century later this book was ceremoniously burned by Madame Lavoisier dressed in the outfit of a Priestess (see our later discussion). In the sixteenth century Paracelsus was said to have burned texts of Galen and Avicenna—an earlier act in the theatre of invective. 

FIGURE 163. Title page of text by Georg Ernst Stahl who formulated the modem phlogiston theory. Madame Lavoisier, dressed as a Priestess, ceremoniously burned this book to mark the publication of Lavoisier s Traiti Elementaire de Chimie in 1789. 

FIGURE 208. Madame Lavoisier was instructed in painting by the famous artist Jacques Louis David. This is a photo of the oil portrait she painted of her close friend Benjamin Franklin. See color plates. (Courtesy of a relative of Benjamin Franklin.)... 

Madame Lavoisier was surely one of the most fascinating figures in the history of chemistryd She plays the central role in Oxygen, and a mysterious note long hidden in her necessaire solves, in the play at least, a chemical riddle more than two centuries old. As to who wins the first retro-Nobel —that is for you, gentle reader, to guess—but first read the play. 

FIGURE 213. Lavoisier was the first to demonstrate that respiration is in fact combustion. This is a drawing by Madame Lavoisier (depicted at right) of her husband conducting respiration experiments on his assistant Armand Seguin, completely enveloped in a mbber suit. Seguin survived and eventually became extremely wealthy as an army contractor. (Courtesy Professor Marco Beretta.)... 

FIGURE 214. Another drawing of Lavoisier s respiration studies on his assistant Seguin-the man in the rubber suit. Madame Lavoisier depicts herself drawing this scene. (Courtesy Professor Marco Beretta.)... 

FIG. 7. Lavoisier s experiments were illustrated in E/e-ments of Chemistry with drawings by Madame Lavoisier. (From Great Books edition)... 

Though born to French nobility Berthollet did not have the financial advantages of Lavoisier. He chose the profession of physician and studied chemistry in connection with his studies in medicine. Perhaps through family connections he made the acquaintance of the Duke of Orleans, a widower, retired from the king s service, with a passion for the theater, music, and a certain Marquise de Montesson. The duke recommended Berthollet as private physician to Madame de Montesson, and this position provided Berthollet with the support to marry and the leisure time to do chemical experiments in the duke s personal laboratory. Berthollet repeated experiments of Lavoisier, Priestley, and Scheele, and that work won him election to the Academy of Sciences. He then worked with Fourcroy, de Morveau, and the Lavoisiers on the promotion and dissemination of Lavoisier s new system of chemistry. 

Figure 13.2 One of Lavoisier s experiments on respiration with a human subject. This sketch is by Madame Lavoisier, who is portrayed taking notes on the experiment...

Seguin is breathing Air or Oxygen from a Jar standing in a Trough through a Tube fitted IN A Mask.. Madame Lavoisier is Seated at the Desk. 

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