"The original edition of Rey's Essays, of which there is a copy in the library of the , was published at , a town about thirty miles S.E. of , in the year 1630. In 1777, it was reprinted with notes, by M. Gobet, at Paris, and published by Ruault, Rue-de-la-Harpe. The copies of this reprint disappeared in a very sudden and remarkable manner, and the work was so little known in this country, that Doctor James Curry, at the sale of whose library, in 1820, I purchased a copy of it, states in a note at the beginning of the work, apparently in his own hand-writing, that he had sought it, in vain, for more than ten years, in every bookseller's catalogue in London, till, at last, the present copy rewarded his trouble, and he adds, that he had seen but one other copy since. The suppression of this edition, almost immediately after its publication, which took place in about three years from the promulgation of Lavoisier's first experiments would naturally lead to the suspicion, that it was effected by that celebrated philosopher or his friends, to avoid the imputation of plagiarism, which might sully the brilliancy of his recent discoveries, and this imputation is, in the opinion of many, but too probable."