A work which was decisive "in the final overthrow of alchemy and the phlogiston theory ... by the use of the balance for weight determination at every chemical change and the building of a rational system of elements, Lavoisier laid the foundation of modern chemistry" (Dibner). Of the book's three parts, the first is of the greatest interest, as "it discusses, in some cases for the first time, the details of the new chemistry. The subject of heat, the composition of the atmosphere, the analysis of atmospheric air and its parts, the consideration of nomenclature, the composition of water are but a few of the topics included." Part two also has a revolutionary feature", its list of 33 elements forming what Duveen & Klickstein describe as "one of the mileposts of modern chemistry."