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The Communal Context for Etienne-François Geoffroy's “Table des rapports”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Frederic L. Holmes
Frederic L. Holmes
Affiliation:
Section of the History of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
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Abstract

Etienn-François Geoffroy' Table des Rapports is generally regarded as a landmark in the evolution of chemistry during the eighteenth century. Issues have arisen among historians concerning the significance and originality of the Table that require fuller attention to the immediate context of chemical research in the Academie des sciences during the two decades that preceded its appearance. The present paper argues that, despite the transition from communal to individual research projects that marked the reorganization of the Academy in 1699, chemists continued to pursue shared problems within a communal ethos. The interactions between Wilhelm Homberg, Etienne-François Geoffroy, and Louis Lemery were particularly prominent. The paper traces one example of this interaction, involving the sulfur principle and its influence on one entry in Geoffroy's Table. Further such studies are needed to elucidate the relation between the concepts of chemical composition and reactions implied in Geoffroy's table and the concepts embodied in the previous work of Geoffroy and his associates in the Academy.

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Type
Controversy
Information
Science in Context , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1996, pp. 289 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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