1794 in science

The year 1794 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Anatomy

• Antonio Scarpa publishes Tabulae neurologicae ad illustrandam historiam cardiacorum nervorum, noni nervorum cerebri, glossopharingei et pharingei, the first work to give an accurate depiction of cardiac innervation, and to include the discovery that the inner ear is filled with fluid.^[1][2]

Astronomy

• Ernst Chladni publishes Über den Ursprung der von Pallas gefundenen und anderer ihr ähnlicher Eisenmassen und über einige damit in Verbindung stehende Naturerscheinungen ("On the Origin of the Pallas Iron and Others Similar to it, and on Some Associated Natural Phenomena") in which he proposes that meteorites have their origins in outer space.^[3]
• Completion of the Radcliffe Observatory for the University of Oxford, Thomas Hornsby being the first observer.

Biology

• Erasmus Darwin publishes the first edition of Zoonomia, a medical work in two volumes that touches upon proto-evolutionary concepts, notably arguing that all extant organisms are descended from one common ancestor. The work will later influence his grandson, Charles Darwin.

Mathematics

• Adrien-Marie Legendre publishes Éléments de géométrie, which becomes a popular textbook for many years.

Medicine

• December – Glasgow Royal Infirmary first opens in Scotland.
• Thomas Beddoes with James Watt publish Considerations on the Medicinal Use and on the Production of Factitious Airs in Bristol.^[4]

Technology

• March 14 – Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin in the United States.^[5]
• Journal des Mines first published in Paris by l'Agence des mines de la République.^[6]

Institutions

• The École centrale des travaux publics is founded by Lazare Carnot and Gaspard Monge in Paris under the National Convention in Revolutionary France; a year later it becomes the École Polytechnique.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Alessandro Volta

Births

• May 24 – William Whewell, scientist, philosopher, and historian of science (died 1866)
• May 29 – Johann Heinrich von Mädler, astronomer (died 1874)
• August 15 – Elias Magnus Fries, botanist (died 1878)
• October 6 – Charles Wilkins Short, botanist (died 1863)
• October 28 – Robert Liston, surgeon (died 1847)
• Ferdinand Deppe, naturalist, explorer and painter (died 1861)

Deaths

• February 22 – Caspar Friedrich Wolff, physiologist (born 1733)
• March 28 – Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician (born 1743)
• May 8 – Antoine Lavoisier, chemist (born 1743) (guillotined)
• October 28 – John Smeaton, civil engineer (born 1724)

References