1794 in science

Anatomy

• Antonio Scarpa publishes Tabulae neurologicae ad illustrandam historiam cardiacorum nervorum, noni nervorum cerebri, glossopharingei et pharingei, the first work to give an accurate depiction of cardiac innervation, and to include the discovery that the inner ear is filled with fluid.

Astronomy

• Ernst Chladni publishes Über den Ursprung der von Pallas gefundenen und anderer ihr ähnlicher Eisenmassen und über einige damit in Verbindung stehende Naturerscheinungen in which he proposes that meteorites have their origins in outer space.
• Completion of the Radcliffe Observatory for the University of Oxford, Thomas Hornsby being the first observer.

Biology

• Erasmus Darwin publishes the first edition of Zoonomia, a medical work in two volumes that touches upon proto-evolutionary concepts, notably arguing that all extant organisms are descended from one common ancestor. The work will later influence his grandson, Charles Darwin.
• Lazzaro Spallanzani publishes his conclusion that bats use a means other than sight for locating themselves in darkness.

Mathematics

• Adrien-Marie Legendre publishes Éléments de géométrie, which becomes a popular textbook for many years.
• Jurij Vega publishes Thesaurus Logarithmorum Completus, a book of mathematical tables which reaches its 90th edition in 1924.

Physiology and medicine

• October 31 – John Dalton delivers a pioneering paper on colour blindness to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in England a few weeks after joining.
• December – Glasgow Royal Infirmary first opens in Scotland.
• Thomas Beddoes with James Watt publish Considerations on the Medicinal Use and on the Production of Factitious Airs in Bristol.

Technology

• March 14 – Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin in the United States.Journal des Mines first published in Paris by l'Agence des mines de la République.

Institutions

• The École centrale des travaux publics is founded by Lazare Carnot and Gaspard Monge in Paris under the National Convention in Revolutionary France; a year later it becomes the École Polytechnique.
• The Musée des Arts et Métiers is established in Paris.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Alessandro Volta

Births

• January 7 – Eilhard Mitscherlich, German chemist
• February 8 – Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, German analytical chemist
• May 24 – William Whewell, English natural philosopher
• May 29 – Johann Heinrich von Mädler, German astronomer
• August 15 – Elias Magnus Fries, Swedish botanist
• September 24 – Jeanne Villepreux-Power, French marine biologist
• October 6 – Charles Wilkins Short, American botanist
• October 28 – Robert Liston, Scottish surgeon
• December 31 – Pierre Adolphe Piorry, French physician
• Ferdinand Deppe, German naturalist, explorer and painter
• Friedrich Freese, German botanist

Deaths

• February 22 – Caspar Friedrich Wolff, German physiologist
• February 27 – Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, French bridge engineer
• March 29 – Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician
• May 8 – Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist
• October 28 – John Smeaton, English civil engineer
• Date unknown – Jacques Anselme Dorthès, French physician, entomologist and naturalist