Lavoisier and Mendeleev on the Elements

Author: Robin Findlay Hendry

Source: Foundations of Chemistry, Volume 7, Number 1, 2005 , pp. 31-48(18)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Lavoisier defined an element as a chemical substance that cannot be decomposed using current analytical methods. Mendeleev saw an element as a substance composed of atoms of the same atomic weight. These `definitions' do quite different things: Lavoisier's distinguishes the elements from the compounds, so that the elements may form the basis of a compositional nomenclature; Mendeleev's offers a criterion of sameness and difference for elemental substances, while Lavoisier's does not. In this paper I explore the historical and theoretical background to each proposal. Lavoisier's and Mendeleev's explicit conceptions of elementhood differed from each other, and from the official IUPAC definition of `element' of the 1920s. However, Lavoisier and Mendeleev both subscribed to – and employed – a deeper notion of a chemical element as the component of compound substances that (i) can survive chemical change, and (ii) explains the chemical behaviour of its compounds.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:FOCH.0000042886.65679.4e

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, 50 Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HN r.f.hendry@durham.ac.uk, Email: r.f.hendry@durham.ac.uk

Publication date: 2005-01-01