ABSTRACT
Lavoisier presented his ideology of chemistry in his famous book Traité élémentaire de chimie, first published in French in 1789, by prefacing its practical chemical content, organised around apparatus and manipulative procedures, with remarks that integrated that content with a characteristically Enlightenment philosophy of empiricism. Chemical procedures were at the heart of many practical endeavours in the eighteenth century, such as dyeing, metallurgy, tanning, and the production of various pharmaceuticals. The importance of practical chemistry inevitably reflected on its theoretical understanding: Lavoisier wanted to be the vanguard of a revolution in chemistry that would restructure its basic concepts and its basic ingredients, and the practical importance of chemistry would guarantee the significance of that revolution. Lavoisier stressed the way in which sensory experience was the true source of our knowledge of the world, and how this knowledge was compiled in language.
