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Rh On 7th May, on the eve of his death, Lavoisier wrote a letter to his cousin Augez de Villiers in which he said:—

Lavoisier had made an enemy of no less a person than Marat. In 1780, the latter wrote a "détestable essai sur la nature du feu," and announced that it had received the approval of the Academy. Lavoisier flatly denied the assertion. This infuriated the hatred of Marat to such an extent that in his pamphlet, L'Ami du Peuple, written in 1791, he says: "Je vous dénonce le coryphée, le charlatan Lavoisier, chimiste, fermier général, régisseur