Only an Instant to Cut Off That Head

Morris, Richard. The last sorcerers the path from alchemy to the periodic table. Washington (DC) Joseph Henry P, 2003. xii, 282 p. ISBN 0-309-08905-0 Contents Preface — 1. The four elements — 2. Prelude to the birth of chemistry — 3. The sceptical chymist — 4. The discovery of the elements — 5. A nail for the coffin — 6. "Only an instant to cut off that head" — 7. The atom — 8. Problems with atoms — 9. The periodic law — 10. Deciphering the atom — Epilogue the continuing search — appendix. A catalog of the elements — Further reading — Index... 

The trial was concluded in one day. When it ended, the prisoners were sent to the guillotine in the Place de la Revolution. It took 35 minutes to execute 28 farmers. The next day the mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange commented, It took them only an instant to cut off that head and a hundred years may not produce another like it. ... 

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