211 Years Ago Today...

On 8 May 1794, Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was guillotined. He was condemned for being one of the tax collectors of the Ferme Générale, accused of being a traitor to the Republic by the revolutionaries during the Reign of Terror in Paris. Sentenced to the guillotine, Lavoisier asked the court to be allowed to finish an experiment. It was then that the president of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Jean-Baptiste Coffinhal, pronounced the famous words:

La République n'a pas besoin de savants ni de chimistes;
le cours de la justice ne peut être suspendu.

(Which translates roughly as: The Republic does not need scientists or chemists; the course of justice cannot be suspended)

Lavoisier was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution, today Place de la Concorde, 211 years ago today...

8 May 2007

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