The year 1778 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

Lagrange delivers his treatise on cometary perturbations to the Académie française.

Chemistry

Molybdenum discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele.

Antoine Lavoisier, considered "The father of modern chemistry" recognizes and names oxygen, and recognizes its importance and role in combustion.[

Earth sciences and exploration

January 18 - On his third voyage, Captain James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, becomes the first European to view the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.[1]
James Rennell publishes a chart and memoir of the Agulhas Current, one of the first contributions to scientific oceanography.[2]

Medicine

John Hunter publishes The Natural History of the Human Teeth.
Samuel-Auguste Tissot begins publication of Traité des nerfs et de leurs maladies, including a classical account of migraine.[3][4]
Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring describes the organization of the cranial nerves.

Technology

Joseph Bramah patents an improved design of flush toilet in London.[5]
The brothers Hans Ulrich and Johannes Grubenmann complete a bridge across the Limmat at Wettingen in Switzerland, a 60 m span which is the first known use of a true arch in a timber bridge.[6]

Zoology

Petrus Camper publishes On the Points of Similarity between the Human Species, Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fish; with Rules for Drawing, founded on this Similarity, an early work of comparative anatomy.
Johann Christian Fabricius publishes his Philosophia Entomologica in Hamburg.[7]

Awards

Copley Medal: Charles Hutton

Births

February 4 - A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist (d. 1841)
May 18 - Andrew Ure, Scottish industrial chemist and encyclopaedist (d. 1857)
6 December 1788 Birth of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (d. 1850)
December 17 - Humphry Davy, English chemist (d. 1829)
December 25 (bapt.) - Joseph Aspdin, English inventor (d. 1855)
Maria Dalle Donne, Bolognese physician (d. 1842)

Deaths

January 10 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, first to develop standard nomenclature for naming species (b. 1707)
February 20 - Laura Bassi, Italian scientist (b. 1711)

References

^ Collingridge, Vanessa (2003). Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer. London: Ebury Press. ISBN 0-09-188898-0.
^ Cook, Andrew S. (2004). "Rennell, James (1742–1830)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23369. Retrieved 2011-04-05. subscription or UK public library membership required
^ Karbowski, K. (April 1986). "Samuel Auguste Tissot: his research on migraine". Journal of Neurology 233 (2): 123–125. ISSN 0340-5354.
^ Pearce, J. M. (September 2000). "Samuel-Auguste Tissot (1728-1797) and migraine". Cephalalgia (Norway) 20 (7): 668–70. ISSN 0333-1024. PMID 11128826.
^ Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 331–332. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^ Troyano, Leonardo Fernández (2003). Bridge Engineering: a Global Perspective. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. pp. 158–9. ISBN 0-7277-3215-3. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
^ Tuxen, S. L. (1967). "The entomologist J. C. Fabricius". Annual Review of Entomology 12: 5. doi:10.1146/annurev.en.12.010167.000245. Retrieved 2011-11-22. "one of the most important books in entomology of all times"