1861 in science

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The year 1861 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• May 13 – Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") first observed from Australia by John Tebbutt.

Biology

• Anton de Bary publishes his first work on fungi, describing sexual reproduction in Peronospora.

Chemistry

• March 30 – William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.
• Rubidium is discovered by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, in Heidelberg, Germany, in the mineral lepidolite through the use of their spectroscope.
• Aleksandr Butlerov is instrumental in creating the theory of chemical structure.
• Josef Loschmidt publishes Chemische Studien, proposing two-dimensional representations for over 300 molecules and recognising variations in atomic size.
• Ernest Solvay develops the Solvay process for the manufacture of soda ash (sodium carbonate).

Earth sciences

• Eduard Suess proposes the former existence of the supercontinent Gondwana.

Medicine and physiology

Broca's area (in red)

• Paul Broca identifies the speeech production center of the brain.
• Franciscus Donders introduces the term visual acuity.
• Guillaume Duchenne describes Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
• Prosper Ménière reports the association of vertigo with inner ear disorders.
• Ádám Politzer publishes the technique of Politzerization used in otorhinolaryngology.
• Ignaz Semmelweis publishes Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers, a treatment of his theory on sanitary conditions during childbirth.

Paleontology

• September – First complete identified skeleton of Archaeopteryx unearthed near Langenaltheim, Germany.

Technology

The first colour photograph by James Clerk Maxwell

• January 1 – First steam-powered carousel recorded, in Bolton, England.
• William Froude publishes the first results of his research into ship hull design.
• Dr. Richard J. Gatling invents the Gatling gun.
• James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates the principle of permanent three-colour photography.

Publications

• Michael Faraday's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures published as The Chemical History of a Candle.

Awards

• Copley Medal: Louis Agassiz
• Wollaston Medal for geology: Heinrich Bronn

Births

• February 15 – Alfred North Whitehead (died 1947), English mathematician.
• May 20 – Henry Gantt (died 1919), American project engineer.
• June 9 – Pierre Duhem (died 1916), French philosopher of science.
• July 18 – Kadambini Ganguly (died 1923), Indian physician.
• July 26 – Ægidius Elling (died 1949), Norwegian gas turbine pioneer.
• August 9 – Dorothea Klumpke (died 1942), American astronomer.
• December 17 – Arthur E. Kennelly (died 1939), Irish American electrical engineer.

Deaths

• January 3 – Arnold Adolph Berthold (born 1803), German physiologist.
• May 16 – John Stevens Henslow (born 1796), English botanist.
• June 18 – Eaton Hodgkinson (born 1789), English structural engineer.
• November 10 – Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (born 1805), French zoologist.
• November 13 – Sir John Forbes (born 1787), Scottish-born royal physician.
• December 10 – Thomas Southwood Smith (born 1788), English physician and sanitary reformer.
• Ferdinand Deppe (born 1794), German naturalist, explorer and painter.