Editing 1799 in science

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The year '''1799 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved many significant events, listed below.

==Archaeology==
* July 15 – In the Egyptian port city of [[Rosetta]] (Rashid), French Captain Pierre Bouchard finds the [[Rosetta Stone]], which will become the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian [[hieroglyph]]ic writing.
* July 25 – At the [[Battle of Abukir (1799)|Battle of Abukir]] in Egypt, [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon Bonaparte]] gains French control of Egyptian artifacts by defeating over 10,000 [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Mamluk]] troops under [[Mustafa Pasha (Egypt)|Mustafa Pasha]].

==Astronomy==
* [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] begins publication of ''Méchanique céleste''.

==Biology==
* [[Thomas Beddoes]] makes the first recorded use of the word ''[[Biology]]'' in its modern sense.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=d3EFAAAAQAAJ&q=Thomas+Beddoes ''Contributions to Physical and Medical Knowledge, principally from the West of England''] p. 4.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=biology, ''n''.|work=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] online version|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/19228?redirectedFrom=Biology#eid|accessdate=2011-11-01|date=September 2011}} {{OEDsub}}</ref>
* [[George Shaw (biologist)|George Shaw]] of the [[British Museum]] publishes the first scientific description of the [[platypus]] (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus'' Shaw) in ''The Naturalists' Miscellany''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shaw|first1=George|last2=Nodder|first2=Frederick Polydore|date=1799|title=The Duck-Billed Platypus, Platypus anatinus.|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/304567|journal=The Naturalist's Miscellany|volume=10|issue=CXVIII|pages=385–386|doi=10.5962/p.304567}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Historical Background and Naming|url=http://www.platypus.asn.au/|publisher=Australian Platypus Conservancy|accessdate=2011-04-16}}</ref>

==Exploration==
* [[Alexander von Humboldt]] and [[Aimé Bonpland]] begin a five-year exploration of the natural history of [[South America]].

==Geology==
* ''by summer'' – [[William Smith (geologist)|William Smith]] produces the first large-scale [[geological map]], of the area round [[Bath, Somerset]], [[England]].<ref name=Winchester>{{cite book|author-link=Simon Winchester|first=Simon|last=Winchester|title=[[The Map that Changed the World|The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology]]|year=2001|location=New York|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=0-14-028039-1}}</ref>
* December 11 – Smith draws up a table of [[strata]] round Bath.<ref name=Winchester/>

==History of science==
* Benjamin Hutchinson publishes ''Biographia Medica'' in [[London]], the first [[English language]] historical dictionary of international medical biography.

==Mathematics==
* [[Paolo Ruffini (mathematician)|Paolo Ruffini]] partially proves the [[Abel–Ruffini theorem]] that [[Quintic function|quintic]] or higher-order equations cannot be solved by a general formula.
* [[William Wallace (mathematician)|William Wallace]] becomes the first to publish the concept of the [[Simson line]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Bogomolny, Alexander|author-link=Alexander Bogomolny|title=Simson Line: What is it?|url=http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/Simpson.shtml|work=[[Cut-the-Knot|Cut The Knot: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles]]|accessdate=2012-01-23}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* March – The [[Pneumatic Institution]] for research into the medical implications of newly discovered gases is established by [[Thomas Beddoes]] in [[Bristol]].
* [[Caleb Parry]] publishes ''An Inquiry Into the Symptoms and Causes of the Syncope Anginosa Commonly Called Angina Pectoris, illustrated by Dissections'', describing the mechanisms for [[Angina]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Parry, Caleb Hillier|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/397.html|work=[[Who Named It?|Whonamedit?]]|accessdate=2011-02-27}}</ref>
* [[Maria Dalle Donne]] becomes the first female [[Doctor of Medicine]], at the [[University of Bologna]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The 18th Century Women Scientists of Bologna|url=http://scienceweek.com/2004/rmps-4.htm|work=ScienceWeek|year=2004|accessdate=2011-04-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302045409/http://scienceweek.com/2004/rmps-4.htm|archive-date=2012-03-02|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Matthew Baillie]] begins publication in London of ''A Series of Engravings, Accompanied with Explanations, which are Intended to Illustrate the Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body'', the first comprehensive atlas of [[pathology]] as a separate subject.

==Metrology==
* An all-[[platinum]] [[kilogramme]] [[#Glossary|prototype]] is fabricated with the objective of equalling as closely as feasible the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at 4&nbsp;°C. The prototype is presented to the Archives of the [[French Republic]] in June and on December 10 is formally ratified as the ''Kilogramme des Archives'' and the kilogramme defined as being equal to its mass. This standard holds for the next ninety years.

==Mineralogy==
* Twelve-year-old Conrad John Reed finds what he described as a "heavy yellow rock" along Little Meadow Creek in [[Cabarrus County, North Carolina]], and makes it a doorstop in his home. Conrad's father, John Reed, learns that the rock is actually gold in 1802, initiating the first gold rush in the [[United States]].

==Paleontology==
* [[Vice President of the United States]] [[Thomas Jefferson]], writing in ''Transactions of the [[American Philosophical Society]]'' '''4''', describes the bones of ''[[Megalonyx jeffersonii]]'', an extinct ground sloth.

==Physics==
* ''[[Annalen der Physik]]'' first published.

==Technology==
* [[Eli Whitney]], holding a January 1798 [[United States]] government contract for the manufacture of [[musket]]s, is introduced by [[Oliver Wolcott Jr.]] to the [[France|French]] concept of [[interchangeable parts]], an origin of the [[American system of manufacturing]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Woodbury|first=Robert S.|year=1960|title=The Legend of Eli Whitney and Interchangeable Parts|journal=[[Technology and Culture]]|volume=1}}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[John Hellins]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=21 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

==Births==
* January – [[James Meadows Rendel (engineer)|James Meadows Rendel]], [[English people|English]] [[civil engineer]] (died [[1856 in science|1856]])
* January 12 – [[Priscilla Susan Bury]], British botanist (died [[1872]]) 
* March 16 – [[Anna Atkins]], British botanist (died [[1871]])<ref>{{cite book|first=Catharine M. C.|last=Haines|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|location=Santa Barbara|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2001|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1|page=10}}</ref>
* May 21 – [[Mary Anning]], English [[Paleontology|paleontologist]] (died [[1847 in science|1847]])
* June 3 &ndash; [[Elisabetta Fiorini Mazzanti]], Italian botanist (died [[1879]]) 
* June 18
** [[William Lassell]], English astronomer (died [[1880 in science|1880]])
** [[Prosper Ménière]], [[French people|French]] [[physician]] (died [[1862 in science|1862]])
* June 25 – [[David Douglas (botanist)|David Douglas]], Scottish-born [[Botany|botanist]] (died [[1834 in science|1834]])
* September 8 – [[James Bowman Lindsay]], [[Scottish people|Scottish]] inventor (died 1862)
* December 20 – [[Nicholas Callan]], [[Irish people|Irish]] [[physicist]] (died [[1864 in science|1864]])
* December ''(prob.)'' – [[Granny Smith|Maria Ann Sherwood]], [[England|English]]-born [[horticulturalist]] (died [[1870 in science|1870]])
* Undated
** [[Petrache Poenaru]], Romanian inventor (died [[1875 in science|1875]])
** [[John Stringfellow]], English pioneer of heavier-than-air flight (died [[1883 in science|1883]])

==Deaths==
* January 17 – [[Maria Gaetana Agnesi]], [[Italian people|Italian]] [[mathematician]] (born [[1718 in science|1718]])<ref>{{cite book|first=Catharine M. C.|last=Haines|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|location=Santa Barbara|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2001|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1|page=4}}</ref>
* January 22 – [[Horace-Bénédict de Saussure]], [[Republic of Geneva|Genevan]] pioneer of [[Alps|Alpine]] studies (born [[1740 in science|1740]])
* February 12 – [[Lazzaro Spallanzani]], Italian [[physiologist]] (born [[1729 in science|1729]])
* February 18 – [[Johann Hedwig]], [[Germans|German]] [[bryologist]] (born [[1730 in science|1730]])
* February 19 – [[Jean-Charles de Borda]], French mathematician and physicist (born [[1733 in science|1733]])
* June 4 – [[Philip Woodroffe]], Irish surgeon
* July 7 – [[William Curtis]], English botanist and [[entomologist]] (born [[1747 in science|1747]])
* August 2 – [[Montgolfier brothers|Jacques Étienne Montgolfier]], French inventor (born [[1745 in science|1745]])
* August 25 – [[John Arnold (watchmaker)|John Arnold]], English [[watchmaker]] (born [[1736 in science|1736]])
* September 7 – [[Jan Ingenhousz]], [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[physiologist]] (born 1730)
* October 6 – [[William Withering]], English physician, discoverer of [[digitalis]] (born [[1741 in science|1741]])
* December 6 – [[Joseph Black]], [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[chemist]] and physicist (born [[1728 in science|1728]])
* December 31 – [[Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton]], French [[naturalist]] (born [[1716 in science|1716]])

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1799 in science| ]]
[[Category:18th century in science]]
[[Category:1790s in science]]