1808 in science

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

• Barium, calcium, magnesium, and strontium isolated by Humphry Davy. • Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac formulates the law of combining volumes for gases. • John Dalton begins publication of A New System of Chemical Philosophy, explaining his atomic theory of chemistry and including a list of atomic weights. • Jöns Jakob Berzelius publishes Lärbok i Kemien in which he proposes modern chemical symbols and notation, and of the concept of relative atomic weight. ==Mathematics==

• French mathematician Christian Kramp introduces the notation n! in factorials. • 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. ==Medicine==

• The term "psychiatry" is first coined (as psychiatrie) by German physician Johann Christian Reil. • The early medical journal Bibliotek for Læger begins publication in Denmark. ==Natural history==

• January 12 – Organizational meeting leading to creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held in Edinburgh. • Alexander von Humboldt publishes his Ansichten der Natur. ==Technology==

• 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. • Bryan Donkin patents a steel nib pen in England. • John Heathcoat is granted his first patent for a bobbinet lace machine in England. ==Awards==

• Copley Medal: William Henry • Joseph-Louis Lagrange is appointed by Napoleon as a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and a Comte of the French Empire. ==Births==

• 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). ==Deaths==

• 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). ==References==