1778 in science
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The year 1778 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Lagrange delivers his treatise on cometary perturbations to the Académie française.
Chemistry
- Molybdenum discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
- Antoine Lavoisier, considered "The father of modern chemistry",[1] recognizes and names oxygen, and recognizes its importance and role in combustion.[2]
Earth sciences and exploration
- January 18 – On his third voyage, Captain James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, becomes the first European to view the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.[3]
- March 6 – October 24 – Captain Cook explores and maps the Pacific Northwest coast of North America from Cape Foulweather (Oregon) to the Bering Strait.
- James Rennell publishes a chart and memoir of the Agulhas Current, one of the first contributions to scientific oceanography.[4]
Medicine
- John Hunter publishes The Natural History of the Human Teeth.
- Samuel-Auguste Tissot begins publication of Traité des nerfs et de leurs maladies, including a classical account of migraine.[5][6]
- Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring describes the organization of the cranial nerves.
Technology
- Joseph Bramah patents an improved design of flush toilet in London.[7]
- The brothers Hans Ulrich and Johannes Grubenmann complete a bridge across the Limmat at Wettingen in Switzerland, a 60 m span which is the first known use of a true arch in a timber bridge.[8]
Zoology
- Petrus Camper publishes On the Points of Similarity between the Human Species, Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fish; with Rules for Drawing, founded on this Similarity, an early work of comparative anatomy.
- Johan Christian Fabricius publishes his Philosophia Entomologica in Hamburg.[9]
Awards
Births
- February 4 – A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist (died 1841)
- May 18 – Andrew Ure, Scottish industrial chemist and encyclopaedist (died 1857)
- December 6 – Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (died 1850)
- December 17 – Humphry Davy, English chemist (died 1829)
- December 25 (bapt.) – Joseph Aspdin, English inventor (died 1855)
- Maria Dalle Donne, Bolognese physician (died 1842)
- Anna Maria Walker, Scottish botanist (died 1852)
Deaths
- January 10 – Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, first to develop standard nomenclature for naming species (born 1707)
- February 20 – Laura Bassi, Italian scientist (born 1711)
References
- ^ "Lavoisier, Antoine." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 24 July 2007 [1].
- ^ Weisstein, Eric W. (1996). "Lavoisier, Antoine (1743–1794)". Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography. Wolfram Research Products. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
- ^ Collingridge, Vanessa (2003). Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer. London: Ebury Press. ISBN 0-09-188898-0.
- ^ Cook, Andrew S. (2004). "Rennell, James (1742–1830)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23369. Retrieved 2011-04-05. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- ^ Karbowski, K. (April 1986). "Samuel Auguste Tissot: his research on migraine". Journal of Neurology. 233 (2): 123–125. ISSN 0340-5354.
- ^ Pearce, J. M. (September 2000). "Samuel-Auguste Tissot (1728-1797) and migraine". Cephalalgia. 20 (7). Norway: 668–70. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2982.2000.00100.x. ISSN 0333-1024. PMID 11128826.
- ^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 331–332. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ Troyano, Leonardo Fernández (2003). Bridge Engineering: a Global Perspective. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. pp. 158–9. ISBN 0-7277-3215-3. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
- ^ Tuxen, S. L. (1967). "The entomologist J. C. Fabricius". Annual Review of Entomology. 12: 5. doi:10.1146/annurev.en.12.010167.000245. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
one of the most important books in entomology of all times