1866 in science

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The year 1866 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

May – William Huggins studies the emission spectrum of a nova and discovers that it is surrounded by a cloud of hydrogen.^[1]
June 4 –
aphelion between 1618
and 2113.

meteor streams occur when the Earth passes through the orbit of a comet
that has left debris along its path.

Biology

Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of inheritance.^[2]
Ernst Haeckel challenges the plant/animal division of life, observing that single celled organisms, the protists, do not fit into either category.
Diptera.^[3]

Robert John Lechmere Guppy discovers the guppy (fish) in Trinidad
.

Frederick Smith first discovers Formica candida in the Bournemouth district of England, describing it as Formica gagates.
Nikolai Kaufman publishes his Moscow Flora.^[4]

Chemistry

Dynamite invented by Alfred Nobel.^[5]
August von Hofmann proposes the now standard system of hydrocarbon nomenclature and invents the Hofmann voltameter.^[6]
Emil Erlenmeyer proposes that naphthalene has a structure of two fused benzene rings.^[7]

Earth sciences

January 26 –
Volcanic eruption in the Santorini caldera
begins.

Mathematics

The second smallest pair of amicable numbers (1184, 1210) is discovered by teenager B. Nicolò I. Paganini.

Medicine

February 21 –
dental college (Ohio College of Dental Surgery).^[8]

July –
St Mary's Dispensary in London where women can seek medical advice from exclusively female practitioners.^[9]

Max Schultze discovers two sorts of 'receptors' in the retina.^[10]
Dr John Langdon Down publishes his theory that different types of mental condition can be classified by ethnic characteristics, notably "Mongolism", the genetic developmental disability now known as Down syndrome.^[11]^[9]
Invention of a
Thomas Clifford Allbutt.^[9]

A cholera epidemic in London causes over 5,000 deaths.^[9]
Patrick Manson starts a school of tropical medicine in Hong Kong.^{[citation needed]}

Paleontology

American paleontologist
theropod dinosaurs walked on their hind limbs rather than on all fours as in earlier reconstructions.^[12]

Physics

James Clerk Maxwell formulates the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution in the kinetic theory of gases.

Technology

January 12 – Royal Aeronautical Society is formed as 'The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain' in London, the world's oldest such society.
July 27 – The SS Great Eastern successfully completes laying the transatlantic telegraph cable between Valentia Island, Ireland and Heart's Content, Newfoundland, permanently restoring a communications link.^[13]
August 23 – Ralph H. Twedell patents the hydraulic riveter in the United Kingdom.^[14]

Awards

Births

February 1 – Agda Meyerson (died 1924), Swedish nurse and healthcare profession activist
February 8 – Moses Gomberg (died 1947), Russian-born chemist
February 14 –
radiation oncology
February 26 – Herbert Henry Dow (died 1930), Canadian-born chemist
April 17 –
physiologist
July 13 –
gynaecologist
July 25 – Frederick Blackman (died 1947), English plant physiologist
September 13 –
inventor
September 21 – H. G. Wells (died 1946), English scientific populariser
September 25 – Thomas Hunt Morgan (died 1945), American biologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology
October 8 – Reginald Fessenden (died 1932), Canadian pioneer of radio broadcasting
November 11 – Martha Annie Whiteley (died 1956), English chemist and mathematician
November 30 –
paleontologist
December 7 – Maude Delap (died 1953), Irish marine biologist

Deaths

March 6 – William Whewell (born 1794), English scientist, philosopher and historian of science
March 14 – Alexander Morison (born 1779), Scottish physician and psychiatrist
April 4 –
William Dick (born 1793), Scottish veterinarian

April 5 – Thomas Hodgkin (born 1798), English physician
July 20 – Bernhard Riemann (born 1826), German-born mathematician
September 16 – François Mêlier (born 1798), French physician ^[16]
October 18 – Philipp Franz von Siebold (born 1796), German physician, botanist and traveler in Japan
December 1 –
surveyor and geographer

References

doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34039. Retrieved 2011-03-04. (Subscription or UK public library membership
required.)

^ Mendel, J. G. (1866). "Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden". Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn. IV: 3–47 (Abhandlungen). For the English translation, see Druery, C. T.; Bateson, William (1901). "Experiments in plant hybridization" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society. 26: 1–32. Retrieved 2009-10-09.

^ Petrunkevitch, Alexander (1920). "Russia's Contribution to Science". Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. 23: 239.

^ Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979).

^ Schück, H.; Sohlman, R. (1929). The Life of Alfred Nobel. London: Heinemann.

^ von Hofmann, A. W. (1866). Introduction to Modern Chemistry: Experimental and Theoretic; Embodying Twelve Lectures Delivered in the Royal College of Chemistry, London. London: Walton and Maberly.

doi:10.1002/jlac.18661370309
.

PMID 14848611
.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Everett, Jason M., ed. (2006). "1866". The People's Chronology. Thomson Gale.

^ Zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Retina.

^ Down, J. Langdon H. (1866). "Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots". Clinical Lectures and Reports by the Medical and Surgical Staff of the London Hospital. 3: 259–62.

ISBN 0-520-24209-2
.

ISBN 0-14-102715-0
.

ISBN 0-582-12797-1
.

^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.

^ Jules Bergeron, Alexandre Wauthier. "François Mêlier". cths.fr (in French). Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. Retrieved 2020-10-27.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1866_in_science&oldid=1229407747"

[1] :10.1093/ref:odnb/34039. Retrieved 2011-03-04. (Subscription or UK public library membership
required.)

[2] Mendel, J. G. (1866). "Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden". Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn. IV: 3–47 (Abhandlungen). For the English translation, see Druery, C. T.; Bateson, William (1901). "Experiments in plant hybridization" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society. 26: 1–32. Retrieved 2009-10-09.

[3] Petrunkevitch, Alexander (1920). "Russia's Contribution to Science". Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. 23: 239.

[4] Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979).

[5] Schück, H.; Sohlman, R. (1929). The Life of Alfred Nobel. London: Heinemann.

[6] von Hofmann, A. W. (1866). Introduction to Modern Chemistry: Experimental and Theoretic; Embodying Twelve Lectures Delivered in the Royal College of Chemistry, London. London: Walton and Maberly.

[7] :10.1002/jlac.18661370309
.

[8] PMID 14848611
.

[People's_Chronology-9] Everett, Jason M., ed. (2006). "1866". The People's Chronology. Thomson Gale.

[10] Zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Retina.

[11] Down, J. Langdon H. (1866). "Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots". Clinical Lectures and Reports by the Medical and Surgical Staff of the London Hospital. 3: 259–62.

[12] ISBN 0-520-24209-2
.

[Pocket_On_This_Day-13] ISBN 0-14-102715-0
.

[14] ISBN 0-582-12797-1
.

[15] "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 July 2020.

[:0-16] Jules Bergeron, Alexandre Wauthier. "François Mêlier". cths.fr (in French). Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. Retrieved 2020-10-27.

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