Claude-Joseph Geoffroy
Claude-Joseph Geoffroy , also Geoffroy le Jeune (Geoffroy the Younger), (born August 8, 1685 in Paris , † March 9, 1752 ibid) was a French botanist , mycologist , chemist and pharmacist .
life and work
Geoffroy completed an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in 1703 and took over his parents' pharmacy in 1708. He also studied botany with Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and made botanical excursions with him to southern France, among other places. In 1711 he became a member of the " Academie Royale des Sciences " and from 1718 to 1720 was supervised the pharmacies of Paris . In 1715 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society at the suggestion of Isaac Newton . In 1731 he was appointed pharmacy inspector at the Hotel-Dieu hospital in Paris.
Between 1707 and 1751 Geoffroy published a series of articles in the Academy's Memoires de mathematique et physique, particularly on chemistry and botany, for example on the structure and function of the flower (“Observations sur la structure et l'usage des principales parties de fleurs” 1711 ). Among other things, he took the view that mushrooms would also form flowers. It is assumed that he based this view essentially on the findings of Rudolf Jacob Camerarius , who did not publish his discoveries about the sexuality of plants, but made them known in botanical circles.
He studied dyes and other ingredients in plants. In 1732 he developed a new method of producing boric acid used as a sedative (reaction of borax with sulfuric acid and crystallization). His three-volume Tractatus de materia medica from 1741 was the first modern scientific book on pharmacology. He realized that table salt , soda and borax contain a common element (sodium).
His brother Étienne François Geoffroy , Geoffroy the Elder, Geoffroy l'Ancien (1672-1731) was a French chemist and practicing doctor.
His son Claude François Geoffroy (1729–1753) is considered a co-discoverer of bismuth .
literature
- Winfried Pötsch u. a. Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pötsch u. a., Lexicon of important chemists , p. 166
Web links
- Entry for Geoffroy, Claude Joseph (1685 - 1752) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Geoffroy, Claude-Joseph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Geoffroy, Claude Joseph; Geoffroy the Younger; Geoffroy le Jeune (French) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French botanist, mycologist, chemist and pharmacist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 8, 1685 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 9, 1752 |
| Place of death | Paris |