1813 in science
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The year 1813 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Biology
- April – William Charles Wells reads a paper to the Royal Society of London making the first clear statement about natural selection.Published posthumously in 1818 in his [https://archive.org/details/anessayondewand00stragoog Two Essays].{{cite journal|last=Green|first=J. H. S.|year=1957|title=William Charles Wells FRS (1757–1817)|journal=Nature|volume=179|issue=4568|pages=997–99|doi=10.1038/179997a0|pmid=13430768|bibcode=1957Natur.179..997G}}{{cite book|authorlink=Charles Darwin|quote=[Wells] distinctly recognises the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition which has been indicated.|last=Darwin|first=Charles|year=1866|title=On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection|publisher=Murray|location=London|edition=4th & subsequent|chapter=Historical Sketch|title-link=On the Origin of Species}}{{cite book|title=Forerunners of Darwin, 1745-1859|url=https://archive.org/details/forerunnersofdar0000glas|url-access=registration|editor=Glass, Bentley|location=Baltimore|publisher=Johns Hopkins Press|year=1959|page=[https://archive.org/details/forerunnersofdar0000glas/page/369 369]|display-editors=etal}}
- Charles Waterton begins the process of turning his estate at Walton Hall, West Yorkshire, England, into what is, in effect, the world's first nature reserve.{{cite book|first=Julia|last=Blackburn|authorlink=Julia Blackburn|title=Charles Waterton, 1782-1865: traveller and conservationist|location=London|publisher=The Bodley Head|year=1989|isbn=978-0-370-31248-4|pages=52–9}}
Chemistry
- Mathieu Orfila publishes his groundbreaking Traité des poisons, formalizing the field of toxicology.{{cite book|editor1=Bertomeu-Sánchez, José Ramón |editor2=Nieto-Galan, Agustí |title=Chemistry, Medicine and Crime: Mateu J. B. Orfila (1787–1853) and his times|publisher=Science History Publications|year=2006|location=Sagamore Beach, MA|isbn=978-0-88135-275-7}}
- Louis Jacques Thénard commences publication of his textbook Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique in Paris.
- Edward Howard invents the enclosed vacuum pan for refining sugar.
Exploration
- May 11 – Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth leave on an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains (New South Wales).
Mathematics
- S. D. Poisson publishes Poisson's equation, his correction of Laplace's second order partial differential equation for potential.Bulletin de la société philomatique.
Medicine
- English physician Thomas Tutton publishes [https://archive.org/details/tractsondelirium00sutt/page/n7/mode/2up Tracts on Delirium Tremens, on Peritonitis, and on Some other Internal Inflammatory Affections, and on the Gout] in London, providing case studies of delirium tremens.
Physics
- British engineer Peter Ewart supports the idea of the conservation of energy in his paper "On the measure of moving force".
Sociology
- Henri de Saint-Simon publishes Physiologie sociale.
Technology
- Probable date – George E. Clymer invents the Columbian press.
Institutions
- March 1 – Sir Humphry Davy employs Michael Faraday as "chemical assistant" at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London.
Awards
Births
- January 19 – Henry Bessemer, English inventor (died 1898)
- February 18 – Karl Weltzien, Russian-born German inorganic chemist, an organizer of the Karlsruhe Congress (died 1870)
- March 19 – David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (died 1873)
- April 16 - Justin Benoît, French surgeon and anatomist (died 1893){{Base Léonore|LH/181/49}}
- July 12 – Claude Bernard, French physiologist (died 1878)
- October 17 – Georg Büchner, Hessian-born writer and anatomist (died 1837)
- December 19 – Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (died 1885)
- December 29 – Alexander Parkes, English chemist (died 1890)
- William Bullock, American inventor (died 1867)
Deaths
- April 10 – Joseph Louis Lagrange, Piedmont-born mathematician (born 1736)
- April 19 – Benjamin Rush, Founding Father of the United States, chemist and physician (born 1746)
- April 27 – General Zebulon Pike, American explorer (born 1779)
- May – Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger, German zoologist (born 1775)
- July 22 – George Shaw, English naturalist (born 1751)
- August 23 – Alexander Wilson, Scottish American ornithologist (born 1766)