Marie-Anne Paulze

Marie-Anne Pierriette Paulze (1758-1836) was the wife of the great 18th century chemist Antoine Lavoisier whom she married when she was barely fourteen years old. She is the best known of Lavoisier's helpmates. She was a lively, sensible lady, well versed in her husband's chemical theories, which she could discuss with the greatest scientists of the time. Her salon was the gathering place for scientists, not only from France but from throughout Europe. She translated English language works needed by her husband, who did not know English, including the writings of Joseph Priestley and Henry Cavendish, as well as Richard Kirwan's Essay on Phlogiston, in which she pointed out scientific errors in the text. Madame Lavoisier prepared the plates for the illustrations in her husband's magnum opus Traité élémentaire de Chemie and edited and published her husband's Mémoires. She also took an active part in Lavoisier's experiments on the chemical nature of respiration. Without her aid, much information about her husband's revolutionary ideas might have been lost. Eleven years after the decapiation of her husband she remarried in 1805 with Count Rumford. The marriage broke up in 1809.

References

C. T. Eagle and J. Sloan, Marie Anne Paulze Lavoisier: The Mother of Modern Chemistry, The Chemical Educator vol. 3 (1998) Online