1700 - 1800
1704 - Antonio Valsalva publishes On the Human Ear1705 - Antonio Pacchioni describes arachnoid granulations
1709 - Domenico Mistichelli describes pyramidal decussation
1709 - George Berkeley publishes New Theory of Vision
1717 - Antony van Leeuwenhoek describes nerve fiber in cross section
1721 - The word "anesthesia" first appears in English (in Dictionary Britannicum)
1736 - Jean Astruc coins the term reflex
1740 - Emanuel Swedenborg publishes Oeconomia regni animalis
1749 - David Hartley publishes Observations of Man, the first English work using the word "psychology"
1750 - Jacques Daviel performs the first cataract extraction on a living human eye
1752 - The Society of Friends establishes a hospital-based environment for the mentally ill in Philadelphia
1755 - J.B. Le Roy uses electroconvulsive therapy for mental illness
1760 - Arne-Charles Lorry demonstrates that damage to the cerebellum affects motor coordination
1764 - Domenico F.A. Cotugno describes spinal subarachnoid cerebrospinal fluid; shows that ventricular and spinal fluids are connected
1764 - The interventricular foramen (Foramen of Monroe) is named after Alexander Monroe; it was described earlier by Vieussens
1766 - Albrecht von Haller provides scientific description of the cerebrospinal fluid
1772 - John Walsh conducts experiments on torpedo (electric) fish
1773 - John Fothergill describes trigeminal neuralgia (tic douloureux, Fothergill's syndrome)
1773 - Sir Joseph Priestley discovers nitrous oxide
1774 - Franz Anton Mesmer introduces "animal magnetism" (later called hypnosis)
1776 - M.V.G. Malacarne publishes first book solely devoted to the cerebellum
1777 - Philip Meckel proposes that the inner ear is filled with fluid, not air
1778 - Samuel Thomas von Soemmering presents the modern classification of the twelve cranial nerves
1779 - Antonius Scarpa describes Scarpa's ganglion of the vestibular system
1781 - Felice Fontana describes the microscopic features of axoplasm from an axon
1782 - Francesco Gennari publishes work on "lineola albidior" (later known as the stripe of Gennari)
1782 - Francesco Buzzi identifies the fovea
1783 - Alexander Monro describes the foramen of Monro
1784 - Benjamin Rush writes that alcohol can be an addictive drug
1784 - Benjamin Franklin mentions bifocal eyeglasses in a letter to George Whatley
1786 - Felix Vicq d'Azyr discovers the locus coeruleus - (Very cool site as you can view many letter he wrote to Ben Franklin - you can read them if you can read French).
1786 - Samuel Thomas Sommering describes the optic chiasm
1786 - Georg Joseph Beer founds the first eye hospital in Vienna
1790 - Johannes Ehrenritter describes the glossopharygeal nerve ganglion
1791 - Luigi Galvani publishes work on electrical stimulation of frog nerves
1791 - Samuel Thomas von Soemmering names the macula lutea of the retina
1796 - Johann Christian Reil describes the insula (island of Reil)
1798 - John Dalton, who was red-green colorblind, provides a scientific description of color blindness
Antony van Leeuwenhoek
Franz Anton Mesmer
Images courtesy of the Blocker History of Medicine Collections, Moody Medical Library, Univ. Texas Med. Branch,