Étienne François Geoffroy Geoffroy, Étienne François (ātyĕnˈ
fräNswäˈ zhôfrwäˈ) [key], 1672–1731, French physician and
chemist, also known as Geoffroy the Elder. He became a
pharmacist in 1694 and received an M.D. at Paris in 1704. He was
professor of medicine at the Collège Royal from 1709 until his
death and dean of the Paris Faculty of Medicine from 1726 to
1729. In 1718 he advanced the general proposition that if two
substances in combination encounter a third with which one of
the two has a greater affinity, that one will leave the original
combination and unite with the third substance to form a new
compound. He gave a 16-column table showing the order of many
such displacements, the first of many "Tables of Affinity."
Geoffroy was also largely responsible for a pharmacopoeia
published by the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1732. The Columbia
Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia
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