FOURCROY, ANTOINE FRANcOIS, COMTE DE 1809), French chemist, the son of an apothecary in the house hold of the duke of Orleans, was born at Paris, on June 15, 1755. He took up medical studies on the advice of the anatomist Felix Vicq d'Azyr , and after many difficulties, due to poverty, obtained his doctor's diploma in 1780. His attention was specially turned to chemistry by J. B. M. Bucquet (1746-8o), professor of this subject at the Medical School of Paris, and in 1784 he was appointed lecturer in chemistry at the college of the Jardin du Roi. Fourcroy proved himself to be a teacher and an organizer rather than an original investigator, and his published papers, though numerous, are not important. He was one of the earliest converts to the views of Lavoisier (q.v.). Fourcroy died in Paris on Dec. 16, 1809, the very day on which he had been created a count of the French empire.