Étienne François Geoffroy
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Étienne François Geoffroy (February 13, 1672 - January 6, 1731), French chemist, born in Paris, was first an apothecary and then practised medicine.
After studying at Montpellier he accompanied Marshal Tallard on his embassy to London in 1698 and thence travelled to Holland and Italy. Returning to Paris he became professor of chemistry at the Jardin du Roi and of pharmacy and medicine at the College de France, and dean of the faculty of medicine. He died in Paris on the 6th of January 1731.
His name is best known in connection with his tables of "affinities" (tables des rapports), which he presented to the French Academy in 1718 and 1720. These were lists, prepared by collating observations on the actions of substances one upon another, showing the varying degrees of affinity exhibited by analogous bodies for different reagents, and they retained their vogue for the rest of the century, until displaced by the profounder conceptions introduced by CL Berthollet.
Another of his papers dealt with the delusions of the philosopher's stone, but nevertheless he believed that iron could be artificially formed in the combustion of vegetable matter. His Tractatus de materia medico, published posthumously in 1741, was long celebrated.
His brother Claude Joseph, known as Geoffroy the younger, was also a chemist.
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.ja:エティーヌ・F・ジョフロア
