The year 1885 in science and technology consisted of many events, some of which are listed below.

Medicine

• July 6 - Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: George Busk

Births

• August 1 - George de Hevesy (d. 1966), chemist Nobel laureate.
• October 7 - Niels Bohr (d. 1962), Danish physicist
• October 23 - Jan Czochralski (d. 1953), discoverer of the Czochralski process for growing crystals

Deaths

• June 12 - Fleeming Jenkin (b. 1833), engineer.