1718 in science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of significant events that occurred in the year 1718 in science.
Astronomy
- Edmond Halley discovers the proper motion of stars.[1]
Chemistry
- Étienne François Geoffroy presents the first ever table of chemical affinity (based on displacement reactions) to the French Academy of Sciences.
Mathematics
- Abraham de Moivre publishes The Doctrine of Chances: a method of calculating the probabilities of events in play in English, which goes through several editions.[2][3]
Medicine
- The Charitable Infirmary, Dublin, is founded by six surgeons in Ireland, the first public voluntary hospital in the British Isles.[4][5]
Technology
- May 15 – James Puckle patents the Puckle Gun, in England.[6]
Births
- May 16 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (died 1799)
- May 23 – William Hunter, Scottish anatomist (died 1783)
- August 17 – Francis Willis, English physician specialising in mental disorders (died 1807)
- Salomée Halpir (née Rusiecki), Lithuanian physician (died after 1763)
Deaths
- March 11 – Guy-Crescent Fagon, French physician and botanist (born 1638)
- April – James Petiver, English naturalist and apothecary (born c. 1665)
- December 9 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encyclopedist (born 1650)
- December 11 – Pierre Dionis, French surgeon and anatomist (born 1643)[7]