1747 in science
The year 1747 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Anatomy
- Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, with the help of the artist Jan Wandelaar, produces the most exact account of the bones and muscles of the human body in Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani.
- Albrecht von Haller publishes Experiments in the Anatomy of Respiration.
Engineering
- École royale des ponts et chaussées established in Paris under Jean-Rodolphe Perronet.
Exploration
- June 24 – October 14 – The English ships Dobbs galley and California, under Captains William Moore and Francis Smith, explore Hudson Bay, discovering there is no Northwest Passage by this route.
Mathematics
Medicine
- January 1 - In France: — Order of the king Louis XV, laying down general regulations concerning military hospitals.
- January 31 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
- James Lind undertakes one of the first controlled experiments in clinical medicine, on the effect of citrus fruit as a cure for scurvy.
Physics
- July 2 – Benjamin Robins presents a paper to the Royal Society describing the physics of a spinning projectile following his investigation of rifle barrels.
Awards
Births
- January 17 - Markus Herz, German physician
- January 19 – Johann Elert Bode, German astronomer
- March 11 – William Curtis, English botanist and entomologist
- May 4 - Philippe-Jean Pelletan, French surgeon
- June 23 - Michele Troja, Italian physician
- November 23 – Baron Sigmund Zois von Edelstein, Slovenian geologist after whom zoisite is named
- December 8 - Clément Joseph Tissot, French physician.
Deaths
- April 2 – Johann Jacob Dillenius, German botanist, botanical artist, and physician who studied and produced several papers on cryptogams, such as mosses and algae
- August 8 – Mårten Triewald, Swedish mechanical engineer
- Johann Heinrich von Heucher, German botanist, after whom the genus heuchera is named