1808 in science

• December 9 (20:34 UTC) – Mercury occults Saturn (not known at this time).

• Barium, calcium, magnesium, and strontium isolated by Humphry Davy.
• Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac formulates the law of combining volumes for gases.{{cite web |title=December 6 Births |work=Today in Science History |publisher=Today in Science History |year=2007 |url=http://www.todayinsci.com/12/12_06.htm |accessdate=2007-03-12}}
• John Dalton begins publication of A New System of Chemical Philosophy, explaining his atomic theory of chemistry and including a list of atomic weights.{{Cite web |title=John Dalton |website=Science History Institute |date=June 2016 |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/john-dalton |access-date=20 March 2018}}{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/48|chapter-url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=9780941901123|chapter=John Dalton|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/48 48-51,53]}}
• Jöns Jakob Berzelius publishes Lärbok i Kemien in which he proposes modern chemical symbols and notation, and of the concept of relative atomic weight.{{cite web|title=Jöns Jakob Berzelius|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/j%C3%B6ns-jakob-berzelius|website=Science History Institute|accessdate=20 March 2018}}{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences|url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd|url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=9780941901123|chapter=Jöns Jakob Berzelius|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/26 26-28]}}

• French mathematician Christian Kramp introduces the notation n! in factorials.Elements d'arithmétique universelle. {{citation|title=Number Story: From Counting to Cryptography|last=Higgins|first=Peter|year=2008|publisher=Copernicus|location=New York|isbn=978-1-84800-000-1|page=12}}
• German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss publishes Theorematis arithmetici demonstratio nova, introducing Gauss's lemma in the third proof of quadratic reciprocity.
• Irish American mathematician Robert Adrain produces a formulation of the method of least squares.Published in his own journal, The Analyst, or, Mathematical Museum 1(4), probably issued in 1809. {{cite ODNB|first=Stephen M.|last=Stigler|title=Adrain, Robert (1775–1843)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/172|accessdate=2012-01-23|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/172}}

• The term "psychiatry" is first coined (as psychiatrie) by German physician Johann Christian Reil.In his journal Beytrage zur Beforderung einer Curmethode auf psychischem Wege p. 169.{{cite journal|doi=10.1192/bjp.bp.108.051367|title=Psychiatry's 200th birthday|year=2008|last1=Marneros|first1=Andreas|journal=British Journal of Psychiatry|volume=193|issue=1 |pages=1–3|pmid=18700209|s2cid=28365371|doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal|url=https://academic.oup.com/neurosurgery/article-abstract/61/5/1091/2558437/The-Seminal-Contributions-of-Johann-Christian-Reil?redirectedFrom=fulltext|doi=10.1227/01.neu.0000303205.15489.23|title=The Seminal Contributions of Johann-Christian Reil to Anatomy, Physiology, and Psychiatry|year=2007|last1=Binder|first1=Devin K.|last2=Schaller|first2=Karl|last3=Clusmann|first3=Hans|journal=Neurosurgery|volume=61|issue=5 |pages=1091–1096 |pmid=18091285|s2cid=8152708|url-access=subscription}}
• The early medical journal Bibliotek for Læger begins publication in Denmark.

• January 12 – Organizational meeting leading to creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held in Edinburgh.{{cite web|url=http://www.scholarly-societies.org/history/1808wnhs.html|title=Wernerian Natural History Society|work=Scholarly Societies Project|accessdate=2012-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204044020/http://www.scholarly-societies.org/history/1808wnhs.html|archive-date=2012-02-04|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal|last=Sweet|first=Jessie M.|title=The Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh|journal=Freiberger Forschungshefte, Reihe C|year=1967|volume=223|pages=205–218}}
• Alexander von Humboldt publishes his Ansichten der Natur.

• February 11 – Anthracite coal is first burned as fuel by Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the discovery leads to the use of coal as a key fuel source of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
• August 24 – William Congreve patents the Congreve clock with a rolling ball regulator.{{cite web|url=http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/rbc-congreve.html|title=Oscillating Path ("Congreve") Rolling Ball Clocks|publisher=The Rolling Ball Web|first=David M.|last=MacMillan|date=2000-10-15|accessdate=2017-04-15|display-authors=etal|archive-date=2017-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425070502/http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/rbc-congreve.html|url-status=dead}}
• Bryan Donkin patents a steel nib pen in England.
• John Heathcoat is granted his first patent for a bobbinet lace machine in England.

• Copley Medal: William Henry{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |accessdate=21 July 2020 }}
• Joseph-Louis Lagrange is appointed by Napoleon as a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and a Comte of the French Empire.

• February 29 – Hugh Falconer, Scottish-born geologist, botanist, paleontologist and paleoanthropologist (died 1865).
• April 13 – Antonio Meucci, Italian-born inventor (died 1899).
• May 9 – John Scott Russell, Scottish-born naval architect and shipbuilder (died 1882).
• July 8 – George Robert Gray, English zoologist (died 1872).
• July 25 – Johann Benedict Listing, German mathematician (died 1882).
• August 4 – Johann Ritter von Oppolzer, Austrian physician (died 1871).
• October 29 – Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer (died 1873).
• November 6 – Friedrich Julius Richelot, German mathematician (died 1875).
• Anne Elizabeth Ball, Irish|Irish phycologist (died 1872).

• March 3 – Johan Christian Fabricius, Danish entomologist (born 1745).
• May 18 – Rev. Elijah Craig, American inventor of bourbon whiskey (birth date uncertain).
• October 8 – John Sheldon, English anatomist (born 1752).
• October 21 – Maria Christina Bruhn, Swedish inventor (born 1732).
• December 24 – Thomas Beddoes, reforming English physician (born 1760).

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Category:19th century in science

Category:1800s in science