Sentence:  In Berlin he published his views of the chemical <WSD>laws</WSD> of nature in German and this was issued in French translation ( Paris , 1813 ) under the title Recherches sur l ' identite des forces chimiques et electriques , a work held in very high esteem by the new generation of research chemists . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature