1741 in science

The year 1741 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Exploration

• May - Vitus Bering sets out from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to map the coasts of Siberia and Alaska.

Medicine

• Nicolas Andry publishes Orthopédie, giving a name to the discipline of orthopedics.

Zoology

• July 20 - Georg Wilhelm Steller, physician on Bering’s Second Kamchatka Expedition, becomes the first European naturalist to set foot on Alaskan soil (Kayak Island), identifying many species for the first time, including Steller's Jay. On the return voyage he discovers Steller's Sea Cow (extinct by 1768).^[1]

Awards

• Copley Medal: John Theophilus Desaguliers

Births

• March 17 - William Withering, English botanist, geologist, chemist and physician who discovered digitalis (d. 1799)
• September 22 - Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist (d. 1811)
• probable date - Bryan Higgins, Irish-born chemist (d. 1818)

Deaths

• May 16 - Jacob Christoph Le Blon, German inventor of four-colour printing (born 1667)
• December 19 - Vitus Bering, Danish-born explorer (born 1681) (on Bering Island)

References