{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE --> {{Year nav topic5|1808|science}} {{Science year nav|1808}}
The year '''1808 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
==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.<ref name=JLGL>{{cite web |title=December 6 Births |work=Today in Science History |publisher=Today in Science History |year=2007 |url=http://www.todayinsci.com/12/12_06.htm |accessdate=2007-03-12}}</ref> * John Dalton begins publication of ''A New System of Chemical Philosophy'', explaining his atomic theory of chemistry and including a list of atomic weights.<ref name="CHF">{{Cite web |title=John Dalton |website=Science History Institute |date=June 2016 |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/john-dalton |access-date=20 March 2018}}</ref><ref name=Bowden>{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/48|chapter-url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=9780941901123|chapter=John Dalton|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/48 48-51,53]}}</ref> * Jöns Jakob Berzelius publishes ''Lärbok i Kemien'' in which he proposes modern chemical symbols and notation, and of the concept of relative atomic weight.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jöns Jakob Berzelius|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/j%C3%B6ns-jakob-berzelius|website=Science History Institute|accessdate=20 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences|url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd|url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=9780941901123|chapter=Jöns Jakob Berzelius|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/26 26-28]}}</ref>
==Mathematics== * French mathematician Christian Kramp introduces the notation ''n''<nowiki>!</nowiki> in factorials.<ref>''Elements d'arithmétique universelle.'' {{citation|title=Number Story: From Counting to Cryptography|last=Higgins|first=Peter|year=2008|publisher=Copernicus|location=New York|isbn=978-1-84800-000-1|page=12}}</ref> * 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.<ref>Published in his own journal, ''The Analyst, or, Mathematical Museum'' '''1'''(4), probably issued in 1809. {{cite ODNB|first=Stephen M.|last=Stigler|title=Adrain, Robert (1775–1843)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/172|accessdate=2012-01-23|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/172}}</ref>
==Medicine== * The term "psychiatry" is first coined (as ''psychiatrie'') by German physician Johann Christian Reil.<ref>In his journal ''Beytrage zur Beforderung einer Curmethode auf psychischem Wege'' p. 169.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1192/bjp.bp.108.051367|title=Psychiatry's 200th birthday|year=2008|last1=Marneros|first1=Andreas|journal=British Journal of Psychiatry|volume=193|issue=1 |pages=1–3|pmid=18700209|s2cid=28365371|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://academic.oup.com/neurosurgery/article-abstract/61/5/1091/2558437/The-Seminal-Contributions-of-Johann-Christian-Reil?redirectedFrom=fulltext|doi=10.1227/01.neu.0000303205.15489.23|title=The Seminal Contributions of Johann-Christian Reil to Anatomy, Physiology, and Psychiatry|year=2007|last1=Binder|first1=Devin K.|last2=Schaller|first2=Karl|last3=Clusmann|first3=Hans|journal=Neurosurgery|volume=61|issue=5 |pages=1091–1096 |pmid=18091285|s2cid=8152708|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scholarly-societies.org/history/1808wnhs.html|title=Wernerian Natural History Society|work=Scholarly Societies Project|accessdate=2012-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204044020/http://www.scholarly-societies.org/history/1808wnhs.html|archive-date=2012-02-04|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Sweet|first=Jessie M.|title=The Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh|journal=Freiberger Forschungshefte, Reihe C|year=1967|volume=223|pages=205–218}}</ref> * 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/rbc-congreve.html|title=Oscillating Path ("Congreve") Rolling Ball Clocks|publisher=The Rolling Ball Web|first=David M.|last=MacMillan|date=2000-10-15|accessdate=2017-04-15|display-authors=etal|archive-date=2017-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425070502/http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/rbc-congreve.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> * 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<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |accessdate=21 July 2020 }}</ref> * 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== {{reflist}}
Category:1808 in science Category:19th century in science Category:1800s in science