Biology

• Francesco Redi
  Francesco Redi
  Francesco Redi was an Italian physician, naturalist, and poet.-Biography:The son of Gregorio Redi and Cecilia de Ghinci was born in Arezzo on February 18, 1626. After schooling with the Jesuits, he attended the University of Pisa...
  
   disproves theories of the spontaneous generation
  Spontaneous generation
  Spontaneous generation or Equivocal generation is an obsolete principle regarding the origin of life from inanimate matter, which held that this process was a commonplace and everyday occurrence, as distinguished from univocal generation, or reproduction from parent...
  
   of maggot
  Maggot
  In everyday speech the word maggot means the larva of a fly ; it is applied in particular to the larvae of Brachyceran flies, such as houseflies, cheese flies, and blowflies, rather than larvae of the Nematocera, such as mosquitoes and Crane flies...
  
  s in putrefying matter.

Mathematics

• Nicholas Mercator
  Nicholas Mercator
  Nicholas Mercator , also known by his Germanic name Kauffmann, was a 17th-century mathematician....
  
   and William Brouncker discover an infinite series for the logarithm while attempting to calculate the area under a hyperbolic segment
  Hyperbola
  In mathematics a hyperbola is a curve, specifically a smooth curve that lies in a plane, which can be defined either by its geometric properties or by the kinds of equations for which it is the solution set. A hyperbola has two pieces, called connected components or branches, which are mirror...
  
  .

Medicine

• François Mauriceau
  François Mauriceau
  François Mauriceau was a French obstetrician from Paris. He received his training in obstetrics at the Hôtel-Dieu.Mauriceau was a leading obstetrician in 17th century Europe...
  
   publishes Traité des Maladies des Femmes Grosses et Accouchées in Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  , a key text in scientific obstetrics
  Obstetrics
  Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
  
  .

Births

• December 31 - Hermann Boerhaave, Dutch
  Netherlands
  The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
  
   physician
  Physician
  A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
  
   and chemist
  Chemist
  A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
  
   who makes Leiden a Europe
  Europe
  Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
  
  an centre of medical knowledge (d. 1738
  1738 in science
  The year 1738 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Botany:* Publication of Hortus Cliffortianus, a detailed description by Linnaeus of George Clifford's gardens at Hartekamp, Netherlands, including the raising of exotic plants such as bananas in a greenhouse.-Medicine:*...
  
  )