In this paper, I challenge the long-established view that the term phlogiston fails to refer. After a close examination of the references of phlogiston during Lavoisier's Chemical Revolution, I show that it referred throughout to a natural substance, the matter of fire. I claim that Lavoisier eliminated the term but not its referent, which he re-named caloric, and it is in the historical and cultural context of the Chemical Revolution that Lavoisier's intentions to refer to it must be understood. Even though I offer a brief description of what I understand as reference, this matter will be the subject of a separate investigation based on the case in the history of science developed here. The aim of this paper, therefore, is not to discuss problems that concern Linguistic Philosophy of Science but to establish a historical case that leads to a important qualification of a widely held assumption.
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