Editing 1858 in science

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The year '''1858 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* June 2 – [[Donati's Comet]], the first comet to be photographed, is discovered by [[Giovanni Battista Donati]]; it remains visible for several months afterwards.

==Biology==
[[File:Charles Darwin by Maull and Polyblank, 1855-1.jpg|120px|thumb|right|[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]]]
* [[Publication of Darwin's theory]] of [[evolution]]:
** June 18 – [[Charles Darwin]] receives papers from [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] setting out the latter's theory of [[natural selection]] which he forwards to [[Charles Lyell]].
** July 1 – Darwin and Wallace's papers on their theories of evolution, ''[[On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection]]'' (submitted with the support of Lyell and [[Joseph Dalton Hooker]]) are read by [[John Joseph Bennett]] to a meeting of the [[Linnean Society of London]]. They are first published on August 20.
* [[Sir William Herschel, 2nd Baronet|William Herschel]] initiates [[fingerprint]]ing as a means of identification, in [[Bengal]].<ref>{{cite book|first=William J.|last=Herschel|title=The Origin of Finger-Printing|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1916|isbn=978-1-104-66225-7|url=http://galton.org/fingerprints/books/herschel/herschel-1916-origins-1up.pdf
| access-date=11 August 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725022215/http://galton.org/fingerprints/books/herschel/herschel-1916-origins-1up.pdf| archive-date=25 July 2011| url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Rudolf Virchow]] publishes ''Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebelehre: 20 Vorlesungen, gehalten während der Monate Februar, März und April 1858 im Pathologischen Institut zu Berlin''.
* [[George Bentham]]'s ''Handbook of the British flora'' is published. This will be in use (in editions edited by [[Joseph Dalton Hooker]]) for a century.

==Chemistry==
* May 28 – Erasmus Bond (owner of Pitt & Co. of London) [[patent]]s [[tonic water]], manufactured using [[quinine]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Raustiala|first=Kal|title=The Imperial Cocktail|url= http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/foreigners/2013/08/gin_and_tonic_kept_the_british_empire_healthy_the_drink_s_quinine_powder.single.html|work= [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|date=2013-08-28|publisher=[[The Slate Group]]|access-date=2024-05-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|first1=Kim|last1=Walker|first2=Mark|last2=Nesbitt |title=Just the tonic: A natural history of tonic water|url=https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/just-the-tonic-history|access-date=2024-05-14|publisher=[[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]]}}</ref>

==Exploration==
* February 13 – [[Richard Francis Burton]] and [[John Hanning Speke]] become the first Europeans to discover [[Lake Tanganyika]].<ref name="Pocket On This Day">{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=978-0-14-102715-9|year=2006}}</ref>
* May 14 – Dr [[David Livingstone]]'s 6-year [[Second Zambesi Expedition]], under the patronage of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], arrives at the [[Africa]]n coast with the prefabricated iron [[paddle steamer]] ''Ma Robert''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Zambesi Expedition |url=http://www.livingstoneonline.ucl.ac.uk/companion.php?id=HIST4 |work=Livingstone Online |access-date=2011-08-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302014847/https://www.livingstoneonline.ucl.ac.uk/companion.php?id=HIST4 |archive-date=2012-03-02 }}</ref>
* August 3 – John Hanning Speke discovers [[Lake Victoria]], source of the [[River Nile]].<ref name="Pocket On This Day"/>

==Mathematics==
* The [[Möbius strip]] is discovered independently by [[German people|German]] [[mathematician]]s [[August Ferdinand Möbius]] and [[Johann Benedict Listing]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Clifford A.|last=Pickover|author-link=Clifford A. Pickover|year=2006|title=The Möbius Strip: Dr. August Möbius's Marvelous Band in Mathematics, Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology|publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press|isbn=978-1-56025-826-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mbiusstripdrau00pick}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Rainer|last=Herges|title=Möbius, Escher, Bach – Das unendliche Band in Kunst und Wissenschaft|journal=Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau|year=2005|pages=301–310|issn=0028-1050}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Rodley, Chris|title=Lynch on Lynch|location=London|year=1997|page=231}}</ref>
* [[Arthur Cayley]] publishes "A memoir on the theory of matrices", introducing the modern concept of the [[Matrix (mathematics)|matrix]] in mathematics.<ref>''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]'' (London) '''148''' (1858). Repr. {{cite book|last=Cayley|first=Arthur|title=The Collected Mathematical Papers|orig-year=1889|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=umhistmath;idno=ABS3153|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|series=Cambridge Library Collection – Mathematics|isbn=978-1-108-00507-4|id=[https://archive.org/search.php?query=The_collected_mathematical_papers_of_Arthur_Cayley archive]|year=2009|volume=2|pages=475–96}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Dieudonné|editor1-first=Jean|editor1-link=Jean Dieudonné|title=Abrégé d'histoire des mathématiques 1700-1900|publisher=Hermann|location=Paris|year=1978|volume=1|chapter=III|page=96}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8|page=156}}</ref>
* In [[Luxor, Egypt]], the [[Rhind papyrus]] is found (named for [[Alexander Henry Rhind]], the discoverer; it is sometimes called the Ahmes papyrus for the scribe who wrote it around 1650 BC).

==Physiology and medicine==
* August 2 – [[Medical Act 1858]] passed "to Regulate the Qualifications of Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery" in the United Kingdom.
* December 1 – The recently-formed Odontological Society of London opens the [[Dental Hospital of London]] in England.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gelbier|first=Stanley|title=Dentistry and the University of London|journal=[[Medical History (journal)|Medical History]]|date=2005-10-01|volume=49|issue=4|pages=445–462|doi=10.1017/s0025727300009157|pmid=16562330|pmc=1251639}}</ref>
* First publication of ''[[Gray's Anatomy]]''.
* Publication in [[London]] of [[Thomas Bevill Peacock|Thomas B. Peacock's]] ''On Malformations, &c., of the Human Heart, with original cases'' which becomes a standard [[cardiology]] textbook.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Thomas Bevill Peacock (1812-1882), 19th Century Cardiologist|url=http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/203/9/801.full.pdf+html|journal=[[Journal of the American Medical Association]]|year=1968|volume=203|page=801|doi=10.1001/jama.1968.03140090185016|access-date=2011-03-30|issue=9|pmid=4865659 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302014903/http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/203/9/801.full.pdf+html|archive-date=2012-03-02|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* [[French people|French]] [[Pediatrics|pediatrician]] [[Eugène Bouchut]] develops a new technique for non-surgical oro[[tracheal intubation]] to bypass laryngeal obstruction resulting from a diphtheria-related pseudomembrane.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bouchut|first=E.|title=D'une nouvelle méthode de traitement du croup par le tubage du larynx|trans-title=On a new method of treatment for croup by larynx intubation|language=fr|journal=Bulletin de l'Académie Impériale de Médecine|volume=23|pages=1160–2|year=1858|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fb3jnv21y1cC&pg=PA86|access-date=2010-09-06}}</ref>

==Psychiatry==
* First treatise on postpartum psychiatric disturbances, by [[Louis-Victor Marcé]], MD.<ref name="pmid19373623">{{cite journal|vauthors=Trede K, Baldessarini RJ, Viguera AC, Bottero A|title=Treatise on insanity in pregnant, postpartum, and lactating women (1858) by Louis-Victor Marcé: a commentary|journal=[[Harvard Review of Psychiatry]]|volume=17|issue=2|pages=157–65|year=2009|pmid=19373623|doi=10.1080/10673220902891802|s2cid=8551341 }}</ref>

==Technology==
* January 31 – [[I. K. Brunel]]'s {{SS|Great Eastern}}, the largest ship built to date, is launched on the [[River Thames]] using [[Tangye]] [[hydraulic ram]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brunel200.com/ss_great_eastern.htm|title=ss Great Eastern|work=Brunel 200|year=2006|access-date=2011-06-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708101709/http://www.brunel200.com/ss_great_eastern.htm|archive-date=2011-07-08|url-status=live}}</ref>
* August – The first [[aerial photography]] is carried out by [[Nadar (photographer)|Nadar]] from a [[moored balloon]] in France using the [[collodion process]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Brief history of aerial photography|url=http://findaerialphotography.com/history.php|publisher=www.findaerialphotography.com|year=2007|access-date=2015-01-02}}</ref>
* August 16 – Official inauguration of the [[transatlantic telegraph cable]]; however, it fails on September 1.
* [[Mirror galvanometer]] invented by [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin]].
* [[Hoffmann kiln]] [[patent]]ed in [[Germany]] by Friedrich Hoffmann for continuous production [[brick]]making.

==Awards==
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Charles Lyell]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=23 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Wollaston Medal|Wollaston Medal for geology]]: [[James Hall (paleontologist)|James Hall]]

==Births==
* January 2 – [[Bernard Sachs]] (died [[1944 in science|1944]]), [[Americans|American]] [[neurologist]].
* January 9 – [[Elizabeth Gertrude Britton]], née Knight (died [[1934 in science|1934]]), American [[botanist]].
* January 28 – [[Eugène Dubois]] (died [[1940 in science|1940]]), [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[paleoanthropology|paleoanthropologist]].
* February 7 – [[Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate (anthropologist)|Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate]] (died [[1931 in science|1931]]), Dutch [[anthropologist]].
* March 18 – [[Rudolf Diesel]] (died [[1913 in science|1913]]), [[Germans|German]] [[mechanical engineer]].
* March 27 – [[Richard Friedrich Johannes Pfeiffer]] (died [[1945 in science|1945]]), German [[physician]] and [[bacteriologist]].
* April 23 – [[Max Planck]] (died [[1947 in science|1947]]), German [[theoretical physics|theoretical physicist]].
* May 19 – [[Thomas Allinson]] (died [[1918 in science|1918]]), [[English people|English]] physician and dietetic reformer.
* May 28 – [[T. H. E. C. Espin]] (died [[1934 in science|1934]]), English [[astronomer]], scientist and clergyman.
* July 9 – [[Franz Boas]] (died [[1942 in science|1942]]), German-born [[anthropologist]].
* August 11 – [[Christiaan Eijkman]] (died [[1930 in science|1930]]), Dutch [[physiologist]].
* August 19 – [[Ellen Willmott]] (died [[1934 in science|1934]]), English [[horticulturist]].
* August 27 – [[Giuseppe Peano]] (died [[1932 in science|1932]]), [[Italians|Italian]] [[mathematician]].
* October 4 – [[Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin]] (died [[1935 in science|1935]]), [[Banat]]-born [[physicist]].
* November 1 – [[Ludwig Struve]] (died [[1920 in science|1920]]), [[Russia]]n astronomer.
* November 30 – [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]] (died [[1937 in science|1937]]), [[Bengali people|Bengali]] physicist.
* [[Laura Forster]] (died [[1917 in science|1917]]), [[Australians|Australian]] physician.

==Deaths==
* January 4 – [[Amelia Griffiths]] (born [[1768 in science|1768]]), British phycologist.
* April 28 – [[Johannes Peter Müller]] (born [[1801 in science|1801]]), German [[physiologist]].
* June 10 – [[Robert Brown (Scottish botanist from Montrose)|Robert Brown]] (born [[1773 in science|1773]]), [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[botanist]].
* June 28 – [[Jane Marcet]] (born [[1769 in science|1769]]), British popular science writer.
* November 8 – [[George Peacock (mathematician)|George Peacock]] (born [[1791 in science|1791]]), [[English people|English]] mathematician.
* December 10 – [[Joseph Paul Gaimard]] (born [[1793 in science|1793]]), French naval surgeon and naturalist.
* December 16 – [[Richard Bright (physician)|Richard Bright]] (born [[1789 in science|1789]]), English [[physician]].

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:1858 in science| ]]
[[Category:19th century in science]]
[[Category:1850s in science]]