First French edition of the work of Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), an English theologian and scientist among the key figures in the birth of modern chemistry. Stimulated by his meeting with Benjamin Franklin, he began important research on electricity, demonstrating, among other things, the conductivity of coal and the surface nature of electrification. From 1767, during his pastoral assignment in Leeds, he devoted himself to the experimental study of gases. The results of his research earned him admission to the Académie des Sciences in 1772. His most famous discovery remains the isolation of oxygen in 1774.