Lavoisier - Opuscules physiques et chymiques - 1774

LAVOISIER, Antoine-Laurent de (1743-1794).

Opuscules physiques et chymiques.

Paris: chez Durand neveu, Didot le jeune, Esprit, 1774.

In-8 [1] f. (title), XXX p. (dedication and preface), [1] f., 436 p., 3 folding plates engraved by Pierre-Claude de la Gardette.
Original edition (and the only volume published; a second tome was planned but never published).

The work is divided into two parts:
1. Historical précis on the elastic emanations that are released from bodies during combustion, during fermentation, and during effervescence (pp. 1-184): a broad review of previous work on gases and the “fixed air” (van Helmont, Boyle, Hales, Black, Cavendish, Priestley, etc.).
2. New investigations on the existence of an elastic fluid in some substances, and on the phenomena that result from its release or its fixation (pp. 187-436): account of Lavoisier’s own quantitative experiments on combustion, calcination, and fixation of air.

First great book by Lavoisier and first major publication by the author as a standalone work, Opuscules marks a decisive step in the genesis of the chemical revolution.
As early as February 1773, in his laboratory register, Lavoisier announced that his research on elastic fluids was “destined to bring about a revolution in physics and chemistry.” Written in a few months (September–November 1773) and published in January 1774, the work marks the passage from a chemistry still dominated by the phlogiston theory to a rigorous quantitative approach based on balance and precise measurement of masses.
Lavoisier already shows that air (or one of its constituents) actively participates in combustion and calcination, and that the weight gain of calcined metals is explained by the fixation of a portion of air. Although he does not yet attack the phlogiston theory head-on (which he will do more clearly from 1783), the Opuscules lay the experimental and conceptual foundations of his future antiphlogistic chemistry.
Regarded as a “pioneering work” (Duveen & Klickstein), it had a considerable influence on continental chemists and prepared the ground for subsequent discoveries (the role of oxygen, the composition of atmospheric air, the law of conservation of mass). It is one of the four great foundational texts of Lavoisier’s chemistry, alongside the Elementary Treatise of Chemistry (1789).

Modern full calfskin binding with a marbled appearance, imitation of the period.
Original publisher’s front cover preserved.
Very good condition, about a dozen pages browned; the work is well complete with the 3 folding plates which are not torn.