Also in October 1727
2nd: The Swiss anatomist Johann Conrad Brunner dies in Mannheim, aged 74. Having researched the function of the pancreas by removing that gland from a dog, his greatest achievement is with the duodenum, duodenal glands now being known as ‘Brunner glands’.
7th: News reaches St Petersburg that
Count Sava, originally sent by the Empress Catherine I of Russia (now deceased) to the Emperor of China, is returning with three Chinese Ambassadors authorised to conclude a Treaty of Commerce between China and Russia; they are expected to arrive at Moscow around Easter. Negotiations had concluded on 20 August, but the actual wording of the Treaty of Kyakhta proves altogether more contentious and is not finalised until 14 June 1728.
17th: Triggered by the death of George I, a British general election brings an overwhelming victory for the Whig party, which secures 415 seats. Led by Viscount Bolingbroke, the Tories amass just 128 seats, leaving the party almost irrelevant. Robert Walpole, Britain’s inaugural prime minister since 1721, will remain in the post until 1742.
22nd: John Gay writes to Jonathan Swift: ‘my opera is already finished’. This proves a slight exaggeration: Gay continues to tinker with The Beggar’s Opera until January. Meanwhile Swift, who came up with the idea of ‘a Newgate pastoral’ back in 1716, has misgivings, as does his friend Alexander Pope, who writes: ‘Whether it succeeds or not, it will make a great noise, but whether of claps or hisses I know not.’
29th: Late at night, a massive earthquake brings havoc to New England in the US. With its epicentre just off the Massachusetts coast, the quake is felt from Connecticut to Canada, rocking houses and causing livestock to scatter. Remarkably, no one is killed or seriously injured.