"Rey's work was but little known during the 147 years which intervened between its publication and its reprint in 1777. It was published in a small and obscure town of Provence, and from the fact that at the time of the reprint it was extremely scarce, it is to be supposed that only a few copies were originally printed. Had it been better known, the theory of Phlogiston would never have been propounded, and would assuredly sooner have attained the rank of a science."