1842 in science

Medicine

January – American medical student William E. Clarke of Berkshire Medical College becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic to facilitate a surgical procedure. After Clarke uses a towel and ether to anesthetize a patient identified as "Miss Hobbie", Dr. Elijah Pope carries out a dental extraction.^[3]
March 30 – American physician and pharmacist Crawford Long administers an inhaled anesthetic (diethyl ether) to facilitate a surgical procedure (removal of a neck tumor).^[4]^[5]
English surgeon William Bowman publishes On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies of the Kidney,^[6] identifying Bowman's capsule, a key component of the nephron.
Edwin Chadwick's critical Report on an inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain is published by the Poor Law Commission.^[7]

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Technology

January 8 – Delft University of Technology established by William II of the Netherlands as a 'Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers'.^[11]
February 21 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.^[12]
June – James Nasmyth patents his design of steam hammer in England and introduces an improved planing machine.^[13]
John Herschel discovers the cyanotype (blueprint) photographic process in England.^[14]

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February 2 – Julian Sochocki (died 1927), Polish mathematician.
February 10 – Agnes Mary Clerke (died 1907) Irish astronomer and author.^[16]
February 22 – Camille Flammarion (died 1925), French astronomer.
March 17 – Rosina Heikel (died 1929), Finnish physician.^[17]
March 23 – Susan Jane Cunningham (died 1921), American mathematician.
April 4 – Édouard Lucas (died 1891, French mathematician.
May 7 – Isala Van Diest (died 1916), Belgian physician.
May 8 – Emil Christian Hansen (died 1909), Danish fermentation physiologist.
June 11 – Carl von Linde (died 1934), German refrigeration engineer.
August 23 – Osborne Reynolds (died 1912), Irish-born physicist.
September 9 – Elliott Coues (died 1899), American ornithologist.
September 20
- James Dewar (died 1923), Scottish-born chemist.
- Charles Lapworth (died 1920), English geologist.
October 17 – Gustaf Retzius (died 1919), Swedish anatomist.
October 24 (O.S. October 12) – Nikolai Menshutkin (died 1907), Russian chemist.
November 12 – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (died 1919), English Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
December 3 – Ellen Swallow Richards (d. 1911), American chemist.
December 17 – Sophus Lie (died 1899), Norwegian mathematician.

Biochemistry