The year 1721 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Medicine

The use of ether is developed as a pain-killer.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduces the Ottoman Turkish method of inoculation against smallpox – variolation – to London.[1][2][3][4]
Thomas Guy founds Guy's Hospital in London to treat "incurables" discharged from St Thomas'.[5]

Psychology

A suggestion box is developed under the eighth shogun of Japan, Yoshimune Tokugawa.

Technology

Richard Newsham of London obtains his first patent for a manual fire pump.

Births

28 May 1721 Birth of Placidus Fixlmillner, in Achleuthen near Krensmünster, Austria

Deaths

September 11 - Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist (b. 1665)

References

^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^ Grundy, Isobel (2004). "Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2011-09-27. subscription or UK public library membership required
^ Case, Christine L.; King-Thom, Chung (1997). "Montagu and Jenner: The Campaign Against Smallpox". SIM News 47 (2): 58–60. Retrieved 2011-09-27.
^ Carrell, Jennifer Lee (2003). The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox. New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-525-94736-1.
^ "History of Guy's and St Thomas' Charity". Retrieved 2007-09-03.