1808 in science

Astronomy

• December 9 (20:34 UTC) – Mercury occults Saturn (not known at this time).

Chemistry

• Barium, calcium, magnesium, and strontium isolated by Humphry Davy.
• Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac formulates the law of combining volumes for gases.
• John Dalton begins publication of A New System of Chemical Philosophy, explaining his atomic theory of chemistry and including a list of atomic weights.
• Jöns Jakob Berzelius publishes Lärbok i Kemien in which he proposes modern chemical symbols and notation, and of the concept of relative atomic weight.

Mathematics

• French mathematician Christian Kramp introduces the notation n! in factorials.
• German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss publishes Theorematis arithmetici demonstratio nova, introducing Gauss's lemma in the third proof of quadratic reciprocity.
• Irish American mathematician Robert Adrain produces a formulation of the method of least squares.

Medicine

• The term "psychiatry" is first coined (as psychiatrie) by German physician Johann Christian Reil.
• The early medical journal Bibliotek for Læger begins publication in Denmark.

Natural history

• January 12 – Organizational meeting leading to creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held in Edinburgh.
• Alexander von Humboldt publishes his Ansichten der Natur.

Technology

• February 11 – Anthracite coal is first burned as fuel by Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the discovery leads to the use of coal as a key fuel source of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
• August 24 – William Congreve patents the Congreve clock with a rolling ball regulator.
• Bryan Donkin patents a steel nib pen in England.
• John Heathcoat is granted his first patent for a bobbinet lace machine in England.

Awards

• Copley Medal: William Henry
• Joseph-Louis Lagrange is appointed by Napoleon as a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and a Comte of the French Empire.

Births

• February 29 – Hugh Falconer, Scottish-born geologist, botanist, paleontologist and paleoanthropologist (died 1865).
• April 13 – Antonio Meucci, Italian-born inventor (died 1899).
• May 9 – John Scott Russell, Scottish-born naval architect and shipbuilder (died 1882).
• July 8 – George Robert Gray, English zoologist (died 1872).
• July 25 – Johann Benedict Listing, German mathematician (died 1882).
• August 4 – Johann Ritter von Oppolzer, Austrian physician (died 1871).
• October 29 – Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer (died 1873).
• November 6 – Friedrich Julius Richelot, German mathematician (died 1875).
• Anne Elizabeth Ball, Irish|Irish phycologist (died 1872).

Deaths

• March 3 – Johan Christian Fabricius, Danish entomologist (born 1745).
• May 18 – Rev. Elijah Craig, American inventor of bourbon whiskey (birth date uncertain).
• October 8 – John Sheldon, English anatomist (born 1752).
• October 21 – Maria Christina Bruhn, Swedish inventor (born 1732).
• December 24 – Thomas Beddoes, reforming English physician (born 1760).

References

References

1. (2007). "December 6 Births". Today in Science History.
2. (June 2016). "John Dalton".
3. (1997). "Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences". Chemical Heritage Foundation.
4. "Jöns Jakob Berzelius".
5. (1997). "Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences". Chemical Heritage Foundation.
6. Higgins, Peter. (2008). "Number Story: From Counting to Cryptography". Copernicus.
7. Stigler, Stephen M.. (2004). "Adrain, Robert (1775–1843)".
8. In his journal ''Beytrage zur Beforderung einer Curmethode auf psychischem Wege'' p. 169.
9. (2008). "Psychiatry's 200th birthday". British Journal of Psychiatry.
10. (2007). "The Seminal Contributions of Johann-Christian Reil to Anatomy, Physiology, and Psychiatry". Neurosurgery.
11. "Wernerian Natural History Society". Scholarly Societies Project.
12. Sweet, Jessie M.. (1967). "The Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh". Freiberger Forschungshefte, Reihe C.
13. MacMillan, David M.. (2000-10-15). "Oscillating Path ("Congreve") Rolling Ball Clocks". The Rolling Ball Web.
14. "Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award".