Abstract: In his book "Identité et réalité", Émile Meyerson argued for a philosophical a priori background in the case of all scientific conservation laws. This work discusses one of the specific cases he addressed, the conservation of mass in chemical reactions. It analyzes the attitudes of Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier and Hans Landolt regarding their own experiments concerning this law of conservation. This case study is relevant for the teaching of chemistry (and of science, in general),

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... use it clearly shows the influence of philosophical principles on the development of science, thereby providing a nice example against the inductivist view of science. Keywords: mass conservation; a priori laws; history of chemistry; philosophy of chemistry; philosophy of science; Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent; Landolt, Hans; Meyerson, Émile