How did Lavoisier classify elements known in his time?

Not that we are entitled to affirm, that these substances we consider as simple may not be compounded of two, or even of a greater number of principles; but, since these principles cannot be separated, or rather since we have not hitherto discovered the means of separating them, they act with regard to us as simple substances, and we ought never to suppose them compounded until experiment and observation have proved them to be so." [1]

He classified the known elements into four groups:

Elastic fluids

Lavoisier included light, heat, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen in this group.

Nonmetals

This group includes "oxidizable and acidifiable nonmetallic elements". Lavoisier lists sulfur, phosphorus, carbon, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, and boric acid.

Metals

These elements are "metallic, oxidizable, and capable of neutralizing an acid to form a salt." They include antimony and arsenic (which are not considered metals today), silver, bismuth, cobalt, copper, tin, iron, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, gold, platinum, lead, tungsten, and zinc.

Earths

Lavoisier's salt-forming earthy solid "elements" included lime, magnesia (magnesium oxide), baryta (barium oxides), alumina (aluminum oxide), and silica (silicon dioxide).

The list of elements was neither complete enough nor accurate enough to suggest periodic behavior at this point in history.

Here is Lavoisier's original table of elements, adapted from his Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, published in Paris in 1789. Note that the metallic elements should be listed as "salifiable", (salt-forming), not acidifiable.

		Noms nouveaux		Noms anciens correspondans
Subftances fimples qui appartiennent aux trois règnes & qu'on peut regarde comme les élémens des corps.		Lumière		Lumière
		Calorique		Chaleur Principe de la chaleur. Fluide igné. Feu. Matière du feu & de la chaleur.
		Oxygène		Air déphlogiftiqué Air emiréal. Air vital. Bafe de l'air vital.
		Azote		Gaz phlogiftiqué Mofète. Bafe de la mofete.
		Hydrogène		Gaz inflammable Bafe du gaz inflammable.
Subftances fimples non métalliques oxidables & acidifiables		Soufre		Soufre
		Phofphore		Phofphore
		Carbone		Carbone
		Radical muriatique		Inconnu
		Radical fluorique		Inconnu
		Radical boracique		Inconnu
Subftances fimples métalliques oxidables & acidifiables		Antimoine		Antimoine
		Argent		Argent
		Arfenic		Arfenic
		Bifmuth		Bifmuth
		Cobolt		Cobolt
		Cuivre		Cuivre
		Etain		Etain
		Fer		Fer
		Manganèfe		Manganèfe
		Mercure		Mercure
		Molybdène		Molybdène
		Nickel		Nickel
		Or		Or
		Platine		Platine
		Plomb		Plomb
		Tungftène		Tungftène
		Zinc		Zinc
Subftances fimples falifiables terreufes
		Chaux		Terre calcaire, chaux
		Magnéfie		Magnéfie, bafe du fel d'Epfom
		Baryte		Barote, terre pefante
		Alumine		Argile, terre de l'alun, bafe de l'alun
		Silice		Terre filiceufe, terre vitrifiable

References

1. Table and quote from Antoine Lavoisier's Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, 1789, as quoted in J. R. Partington's A Short History of Chemistry (Dover, 1989, ISBN 0486659771). The preface to Lavoisier's text is available in HTML at Carmen Giunta's Classical Chemistry site. Giunta has also provided an English translation of Lavoisier's table.

Author: Fred Senese senese@antoinefrostburg.edu