1726 in science

The year 1726 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Botany

• October 27 – Caleb Threlkeld publishes Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum .....Dispositarum sive Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis praesertim Dublinensibus instituta in Dublin, the first flora of Ireland.^[1]

Medicine

• A faculty of medicine is formally established at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, a predecessor of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. John Rutherford becomes Professor of Practice of Medicine.

Technology

• For clocks, the gridiron pendulum is developed by John Harrison, as a pendulum that compensates for temperature errors: a grid of alternating brass and steel rods is arranged so that the expansion due to heat is dissipated.^[2]

Publications

• Johann Beringer publishes Lithographiæ Wirceburgensis describing hoax fossils.^[3]

Births

• February 6 – Patrick Russell, Scottish-born surgeon and herpetologist (died 1805)
• June 3 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (died 1797)
• Thomas Melvill, Scottish natural philosopher (died 1753)
• date unknown - Lady Anne Monson, English botanist (died 1776)

Deaths

• January 25 – Guillaume Delisle, French scientist, one of the founders of modern geography (born 1675)