Lavoisier is shown experimenting on the respiration of a man at rest whilst his wife is taking notes. She later drew this illustration. Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze (1758-1836) married Antoine Lavoisier at the age of 14 (he was 28). It was a marriage of convenience contracted by her father to save her from a proposed match with an elderly and dissipated suitor. The union turned out to be happy and fruitful. Marie illustrated her husband's publications (she studied with the painter, Jacques Louis David, 1748-1825), assisted with his experiments, took all the notes, kept the laboratory records, and made their home a meeting place for scientists. In 1794, during the French Revolution, both Antoine Lavoisier and Marie's father were executed for tax-farming offences and Marie edited much of her husband's unfinished work. She married the American scientist, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753-1814) in 1805 but the marriage was unhappy and they separated after 4 years.

Heliogravure.Source: Edouard Grimaux. Lavoisier (1743-1794). Balliere, Paris 1888.