ABSTRACT
After Lavoisier’s execution, his legacy in the field of chemistry passed to a number of somewhat less talented figures, such as Nicholas Vauquelin, who was 21 years old when Lavoisier was executed in 1794. A native of Calvados, Vauquelin was of humble origins and did not speak any foreign languages, but in 1797 he discovered the element chromium, and gained high status in the new post-revolutionary society.1
