1737

1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740

political events

Vienna declares war on Constantinople in January, coming to the aid of its Russian ally to prevent Ottoman aid to France in the renewed War of the Polish Succession. Eugene of Savoy dies at Vienna April 24 at age 72, leaving a personal estate of some 25 million guilders.

Russian statesman Dmitri M. Golitsyn dies at St. Petersburg April 25 at age 71, having tried without success to turn the nation's autocracy into a constitutional monarchy.

Tuscans drive out the last of the Medici family following the death of Gian Gastone (de' Medici) July 9 at age 66, leaving the throne of the grand duchy vacant (see 1736). Austria takes over and will give the throne next year to Franz Stefan, duc de Lorraine, who was married last year to Maria Theresa, heir apparent to the imperial throne (see 1740).

science

Genera Plantarum by Carolus Linnaeus inaugurates modern botany's binomial system of taxonomy (see 1732; Bauhin, 1623). Basing his system on stamens and pistils, Linnaeus divides all vegetation into phanerogams (seed plants) and cryptogams (spore plants such as ferns). Phanerogams are in turn divided into angiosperms (concealed seed plants such as flowering plants) and gymnosperms (naked seed plants such as conifers). Angiosperms are further divided into monocotolydons (narrow-leaved plants with parallel veins) and dicotolydons (broad-leaved plants with net veins). Each of these is divided into orders, families, genera, and species (see 1738; 1789; Adanson, 1763; Cuvier, 1799).

education

The University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen) is founded by Britain's George II in his capacity as elector of Hanover.

literature

Nonfiction: The Querist by philosopher George Berkeley, who asks, "Whose fault is it if poor Ireland still continues poor?"

Philosopher Claude Buffier dies at Paris May 17 at age 75, having been (in Voltaire's judgment) "the only Jesuit who has given a reasonable system of philosophy." "History can be well written only in a free country," writes Voltaire May 27 in a letter to Prussia's crown prince Friedrich.

art

Painting: Girl with Shuttlecock and The Smoker's Case by Jean-Siméon Chardin.

theater, film

Theater: False Secrets (Les Fausses Confidences) by Pierre de Marivaux 3/16 at the Comédie-Française, Paris.

A British Licensing Act restricts the number of London theaters and requires that all plays be subjected to the Lord Chamberlain for censorship before they may be presented (see 1968).

music

Oratorio: Il Triompho del Tempo e della Verita 3/23 at London's Covent Garden, with Anna Maria Strata del Po, music by George Frideric Handel.

Opera: Castor et Pollux 10/24 at the Paris Opéra, with Marie Sallé dancing, music by Jean Philippe Rameau; Achille in Seiro 11/4 at the new San Carlo opera house at Naples with music by Domenico Sarra, 57, libretto by Rome-born poet Pietro Metastasio (originally Pietro Armanda Dominico Trapassi), 39.

crime

The Philadelphia police force created by Benjamin Franklin is the first city-paid constabulary. Franklin has examined the "city watch" and found it lacking. He will soon organize the first city bucket brigade (fire department).

environment

Calcutta has an earthquake October 11 that kills an estimated 300,000.

food and drink

A group of men building a new meeting house at Northampton in the Massachusetts Bay colony consumes 69 gallons of rum, 36 pounds of sugar, and several barrels of beer and cider in 1 week.

1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740

Astronomy

On May 28 John Bevis, at Greenwich Observatory, observes the passage of Venus directly between Earth and Mercury, known as the occultation of Mercury by Venus.

Carolus Linnaeus's Genera plantorum explains his method of systematic botany and classifies 18,000 species of plants. See also 1789 Biology.

Hermann Boerhaave prints Jan Swammerdam's Biblia naturae ("Bible of nature"), written from 1676 through 1679. It contains Swammerdam's reports on the dissection of insects under a microscope, which formed Historia insectorum generalis ("general history of insects") in 1669, as well as much new material from research in the 1670s. Although Biblia naturae was not published during Swammerdam's lifetime -- he will die in 1680 -- much of the content had become well known to European biologists from letters and manuscript copies. See also 1775 Biology.

Göttingen University is founded.

Pierre Simon Fournier [b. Paris, September 15, 1712, d. Paris, October 8, 1768] introduces the point system for measuring type sizes. See also 1764 Communication.

Bernard Forest de Bélidor publishes the first volume of his four-volume Architecture hydraulique ou l'art de conduire, d'élever et de ménager les eaux pour les besoins de la vie ("hydraulic architecture, or the art of moving, lifting, and managing water for life's needs"), a manual that will influence building design and practice for more than a century. It is the first book to apply the integral calculus to practical construction problems. The set will be completed in 1753.

Euler proves that the number e, known as the base for the natural logarithms, and its square are both irrational; that is, they cannot be represented by finite or repeating decimals. See also 1768 Mathematics.

Pieter van Musschenbroeck publishes Essai de physique ("essay on physics"), one of the first books of the era using the term "physics" instead of natural or experimental philosophy. The term physics, however, goes back at least to Aristotle.

Nonfiction

• John Brickell (c. 1710-c. 1745): The Natural History of North-Carolina. Most of this work by the North Carolina physician and scientist concerns agricultural information and mimics the form of colonial promotional literature, giving a geographical overview, a history of the government and legal system, and a breakdown of the population. However, the final part of the book deals with "An Account of the Indians of North Carolina." The book, like many travel and geographic works of this time, is largely plagiarized from other sources. It appears to be mainly drawn from John Lawson's A New Voyage to Carolina (1709).
• John Mercer (1704-1768): An Exact Abridgment of the Public Acts of the Assembly of Virginia. The value of this work by the Irish-born Virginian political and legal theorist is instantly realized by every justice in the country. Modeled on the Abridgment of English Statutes by Edmund Wingate (1596-1656), it is the first comprehensive compilation of legal statutes in the colonies. Mercer lists legal acts alphabetically, giving the year, the chapters, and the pages of the laws, making this reference very useful. He includes laws, punishments, and fines in place for public and private acts. Additional material would appear in 1739 and 1759, when the book is reissued as A Continuation of the Abridgment and An Exact Abridgment.

Poetry, Fiction, and Drama

• William Dawson: Poems on Several Occasions. One of the earliest publications from a southern poet and the first volume of poetry published in Virginia. The collection shows Dawson's familiarity with contemporary and classical poetry.

Sermons and Religious Writing

• John Barnard: "A Call to Parents." A sermon calling for the accountability of parents in the religious upbringing of their children. Reason, wisdom, and good sense are cited as the basis for leading children to God. While Barnard's writing does not explicitly criticize the revivalists, his subject matter and ideology show that he stands opposed to many of the trends that would culminate in the Great Awakening.

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