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.
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 English clockmaker 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.
Publications
- Johann Beringer publishes Lithographiæ Wirceburgensis describing hoax fossils.
Births
- February 6 – Patrick Russell, Scottish-born surgeon and herpetologist
- June 3 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist
- June 25 - Lady Anne Monson, English botanist
- Thomas Melvill, Scottish natural philosopher