1681 in science

Physiology and medicine

• November 29 – The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is granted a royal charter.
• John Mayow gives the first known description of mitral stenosis.

Technology

• May 15 – The Canal du Midi in France is opened officially as the Canal Royal de Languedoc.
• Samuel Morland demonstrates improvements in water pumps.
• First known reference to a corkscrew.

Publications

• Thomas Burnet's cosmogony Telluris Theoria Sacra, or Sacred Theory of the Earth is published in England.
• Spanish Jesuit astronomer Eusebio Kino publishes his observations of the Great Comet of 1680 in Mexico City as Exposisión astronómica de el cometa, one of the earliest scientific treatises published by a European in the New World.

Births

• August 12 – Vitus Bering, Danish-born Russian explorer (died 1741)

Deaths

• Marie Fouquet, French medical writer (born 1590)

References

References

1. Girdwood, Ronald H.. (1981-09-05). "Three hundred years of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh". [[The BMJ.
2. In his ''Opera Omnia Medico-Physica'', published at [[The Hague]], the 2nd edition of his ''Tractatus Quinque''.
3. Rolt, L. T. C.. (1973). "From Sea to Sea: An Illustrated History of the Canal du Midi". Allen Lane.
4. Dickinson, H. W.. (1970). "Sir Samuel Morland: diplomat and inventor 1625-1695". Heffer for the Newcomen Society.
5. "corkscrew".
6. Bolton, H. E.. (1919). "Kino's Historical Memoir of the Pimería Alta". Arthur H. Clark.
7. "Madame François Fouquet (1590-1681)".