1761 in science

The year 1761 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

June 6 – The first transit of Venus since Edmond Halley suggested that its observation could determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Joseph-Nicolas Delisle set up a 62-station network for observing the transit. Those taking part included:
* Nathaniel Bliss at the Royal Greenwich Observatory near London
* César Cassini de Thury in Vienna
* Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche in Tobolsk, Siberia
* Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason in Cape Town, South Africa
* Maximilian Hell in Vardø, Norway
* Joseph de Lalande in Paris
* Tobias Mayer in Göttingen
* Nevil Maskelyne on Saint Helena
* Alexandre Pingré on Rodrigues Island
* John Winthrop in St. John's, Newfoundland
* Mikhail Lomonosov, who finds the first evidence that the planet has an atmosphere

Guillaume Le Gentil, who had hoped to observe from Pondicherry in India, is prevented from doing so due to the Seven Years' War and Ruđer Bošković arrives late in Constantinople.

Botany

Louis Gérard publishes Flora Gallo-Provincialis, the first flora arranged according to natural classification.

Chemistry

Johan Gottschalk Wallerius publishes his pioneering work in agricultural chemistry, Agriculturae fundamenta chemica.

Mathematics

Johann Heinrich Lambert gives a proof that π is irrational.

Medicine

Leopold Auenbrugger publishes Novum ex Percussione Thoracis Humani Interni Pectoris Morbos Detegendi in Vienna, for the first time advocating percussion of the chest as a diagnostic measure.
Giovanni Battista Morgagni publishes De Sedibus et causis morborum per anatomem indagatis, a pioneering work of anatomical pathology.
Samuel-Auguste Tissot publishes Avis au peuple sur sa santé, a popular text of the century.

Veterinary medicine

August 4 – Claude Bourgelat founds the first veterinary school, in Lyon; courses begin in 1762.

Technology

Opening of Matthew Boulton's Soho Manufactory in England.
The British Royal Navy first experiments with the copper sheathing of its warship hulls.

Awards

Copley Medal: not awarded

Births

January 17 – James Hall, Scottish geologist and physicist.
January 19 – Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet, French naturalist and physician.
February 1 – Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, South African-born Pomeranian/Dutch mycologist.
February 4 – Blasius Merrem, German zoologist.
June 7 – John Rennie, Scottish-born civil engineer.
October 27 – Matthew Baillie, Scottish-born pathologist.
November 30 – Smithson Tennant, English chemist.
December 21 – Jean-Louis Pons, French astronomer.
December 25 – William Gregor, Cornish mineralogist.

Deaths

January 4 – Stephen Hales, English physiologist and clergyman.
March 21 – Pierre Fauchard, French physician and "father of modern dentistry".
April 7 – Thomas Bayes, English mathematician.
May 14 – Thomas Simpson, British mathematician.
November – Giovanni Poleni, Italian mathematician and physicist.
November 30 – John Dollond, English optician.