Étienne François Geoffroy (13 February 16726 January 1731) was a French

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

, best known for his 1718 affinity tables. He first contemplated a career as an

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is an Early Modern English, archaic English term for a medicine, medical professional who formulates and dispenses ''materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms ''pharmacist'' and, in Brit ...

, but then decided to practice medicine. He is sometimes known as ''Geoffroy the Elder''.

Biography

Geoffroy was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. After studying at

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

he accompanied Marshal Tallard on his embassy to London in 1698 and thence travelled to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Returning to Paris he became professor of chemistry at the

Jardin du Roi The Jardin des Plantes (, ), also known as the Jardin des Plantes de Paris () when distinguished from other ''jardins des plantes'' in other cities, is the main botanical garden in France. Jardin des Plantes is the official name in the present da ...

and of

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

and medicine at the Collège Royal, and dean of the faculty of medicine. He died in Paris on 6 January 1731. His brother Claude Joseph, known as Geoffroy the younger, was also a chemist.

Works

His name is best known in connection with his tables of " affinities" (''tables des rapports''), which he presented to the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

in 1718 and 1720. Affinity-table

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

reagent In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...

s, 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 The philosopher's stone is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver; it was also known as "the tincture" and "the powder". Alchemists additionally believed that it could be used to mak ...

, but nevertheless he believed that

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

could be artificially formed in the combustion of vegetable matter. His ''Tractatus de materia medico'', published posthumously in 1741, was long celebrated.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geoffroy, Etienne Francois 1672 births 1731 deaths 18th-century French chemists Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the French Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society Scientists from Paris 18th-century French physicians 17th-century French chemists

Biography

Works

See also

References