"Mr. Brande, however, has given an interesting note in his Dissertation on the Progress of Chemical Philosophy, prefixed to the third volume of the Supplement to the 4th and 5th editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica, containing a quotation from two scarce volumes of the posthumous works of Lavoisier, in Mr. Hatchett's library, in which Lavoisier expressly states, that he knew nothing of Rey's Essays, when, in 1772, he undertook a series of experiments on the different kinds of air or gas, disengaged during effervescence, and in many chemical operations; whence he learnt the true cause of the increase of weight, which metals acquire by the action of fire. At the end of that note, he further states a precaution he had taken in November, 1772, to secure to himself the sole merit of the new French theory, claiming it exclusively for his own."