The year 1788 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• December 21 – Caroline Herschel discovers the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet.

Biology

• Dr. Edward Jenner publishes his observation that it is the newly hatched common cuckoo which pushes its host's eggs and chicks out of the nest.^[1][2]
• James E. Smith founds the Linnean Society of London.
• Utamaro publishes Ehon Mushi Erami ("Picture Book of Crawling Creatures") in Japan with color illustrations.^[3]
• Thomas Walter publishes Flora Caroliniana, the first flora of North America to follow Linnaean taxonomy.^[4]
• Gilbert White publishes The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton (dated 1789), a pioneering observational study of English ecology.

Earth sciences

• James Hutton's Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe is published for the first time, in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.^[5]

Mechanics

• Lagrange's Mécanique analytique is published in Paris, introducing Lagrangian mechanics.

Medicine

• December 5 – Rev. Dr. Francis Willis is called in to advise on treatment of the mental condition of King George III of the United Kingdom.

Technology

• February 1 – Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent a steamboat in the United States.
• October 14 – William Symington demonstrates a paddle steamer on Dalswinton Loch in Scotland.^[6][7]

Awards

• Copley Medal: Charles Blagden^[8]

Births

• March 7 – Antoine César Becquerel, French scientist (died 1878)
• March 22 – Pierre Joseph Pelletier, French chemist (died 1842)
• April 18 – Charlotte Murchison, Scottish geologist (died 1869)
• May 10 – Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist (died 1827)
• July 1 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mechanical and military engineer and mathematician (died 1867)
• July 23 – Prideaux John Selby, English ornithologist (died 1867)
• September 12 – Charlotte von Siebold, German gynecologist (died 1859)
• October 14 – Edward Sabine, Anglo Irish physicist, astronomer and explorer (died 1883)
• December 21 – Thomas Southwood Smith, English physician and sanitary reformer (died 1861)
• James Murray, Irish physician (died 1871)

Deaths

• April 16 – Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French naturalist (born 1707)
• May 8 – Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-Austrian naturalist (born 1723)
• October 17 – John Brown, Scottish-born physician (born 1735)
• December 6 - Nicole-Reine Lepaute, French astronomer (born 1723)
• Lucia Galeazzi Galvani, Italian scientist (born 1743)
• approx. date – Moses Harris, English entomologist and engraver (born 1730)