Urea becomes the first organic compound to be artificially synthesised, by Friedrich Wöhler, establishing that organic compounds could be produced from inorganic starting materials and potentially disproving a cornerstone of vitalism, the belief that life is not subject to the laws of science in the way inanimate objects are.[2][3]
The van Houten family of the Netherlands invent a press to remove about 50% of the cocoa butter from chocolate.[4]
April 17 – Royal Free Hospital, established as the London General Institution for the Gratuitous Care of Malignant Diseases by surgeon William Marsden, opens.
F. Maury publishes Traité Complet de l'Art du Dentiste, the first handbook of dentistry.[5]
Paleontology
January 7 – Rev. Henry Duncan describes his discovery of the fossil footmarks of quadrupeds (Chelichnus duncani) in Permian red sandstone in south west Scotland, the first scientific report of a fossil track.[6]
^Bevan, John (1996). The Infernal Diver: the lives of John and Charles Deane, their invention of the diving helmet and its first application... London: Submex. pp. 28–33. ISBN0-9508242-1-6.
^Welch, Henry (1837). Loudon, John Claudius (ed.). "On the Construction of Oblique Arches". Architectural Magazine. IV. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman: 90. The stones were cut, or dressed, previously to the erection of the centre
^Schofield, Reginald B. (2000). Benjamin Outram, 1764–1805: An Engineering Biography. Cardiff: Merton Priory Press. pp. 149–154. ISBN1-898937-42-7.
