Elements of Chemistry

Modern chemistry begins, more or less, with this book. Lavoisier threw out phlogiston, the invisible substance chemists had used to explain burning, and put in its place oxygen and the balance: matter is neither created nor destroyed in a reaction, only rearranged, and the proof is in what things weigh. He also gave the science a language, a rational nomenclature in which the name of a compound tells you what it is made of, along with a table of the simple substances he judged elementary. The three parts cover gases and combustion, the composition of acids and salts, and the apparatus needed to do the work properly. Five years after publication the Revolution sent him to the guillotine. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.