1789 - Science

Science

Elements of Chemistry (Traité élémentaire de chimi) by Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier is the first modern chemical textbook (see 1784). Lavoisier lists 23 elements but includes as an inorganic element a substance that he calls caloric (heat) (see 1794).

Genera Plantarum by French botanist Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, 41, improves on the Linnaean system of 1737 and begins the modern classification of plants.

German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, 46, at Berlin analyzes a gemstone from Ceylon and discovers a silvery grey element he calls Zirkonerde (from the Persian word zargun); it will be renamed zirconium and come into extensive use with corrosive agents in the chemical industry (see uranium, 1797).