Antoine-Francois Fourcroy

Fourcroy, Antoine-François 

Born June 15, 1755, in Paris; died Dec. 16, 1809, in Paris. French chemist and political figure. Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1785).

Fourcroy worked with A. Lavoisier and others in developing a new system of chemical nomenclature. He was an opponent of the phlogiston theory in chemistry.

During the French Revolution, Fourcroy was a member of the Convention, and he served on the Committee on Public Instruction. He was a Jacobin and then a Thermidorian. Fourcroy helped organize the Institut National des Sciences et des Arts and a number of lycées and colleges. In 1801 he became director-general of public instruction; he organized more than 300 secondary schools. Fourcroy was a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1802).

WORKS

Système des connaissances chimiques, et de leurs applications aux phénoménes de la nature et de l’art, vols. 1–10. Paris [1800–02].
Khimicheskaia filosofiia ili osnovatel’nye istiny noveishei khimii, po novomu obraztsy raspolozhennye. Moscow, 1812. (Translated from French.)

REFERENCE

Smeaton, W. A. Fourcroy: Chemist and Revolutionary. 1755–1809. Cambridge [1962]. (Contains bibliography.)