# 1853 in science

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The year **1853 in [science](/source/Science)** and [technology](/source/Technology) involved some significant events, listed below.

## Biology

- March 17 – [Claude Bernard](/source/Claude_Bernard) presents his [doctoral thesis](/source/Doctoral_thesis) describing the [glycogenetic](/source/Glycogenesis) function of the [liver](/source/Liver).[1]
- May – The world's first [public aquarium](/source/Public_aquarium) is opened in [London Zoo](/source/London_Zoo).[2]
- [Anton de Bary](/source/Heinrich_Anton_de_Bary) publishes the first study demonstrating that [rust](/source/Rust_(fungus)) and [smut](/source/Smut_(fungus)) [fungi](/source/Fungi) cause [plant disease](/source/Plant_disease).

## Exploration

- November 25 – First definite sighting of [Heard Island](/source/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands) in the Antarctic.
- [Alfred Russel Wallace](/source/Alfred_Russel_Wallace) publishes *A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, with an account of the native tribes, and observations on the climate, geology, and natural history of the Amazon Valley*.

## Mathematics

- [Jakob Steiner](/source/Jakob_Steiner) investigates the [Steiner system](/source/Steiner_system).[3]

## Medicine

- August 1 – Under terms of the [Vaccination Act 1853](/source/Vaccination_Act_1853) in the United Kingdom, all children born after this date are to receive compulsory [vaccination](/source/Vaccination) against [smallpox](/source/Smallpox) during their first 3 months of life.[4]
- [William Little](/source/William_John_Little) publishes a paper "On the Deformities of the Human Frame" in which he gives the first description of pseudo-[hypertrophic](/source/Hypertrophic) [muscular dystrophy](/source/Muscular_dystrophy).[5]
- [Charles Pravaz](/source/Charles_Pravaz) and [Alexander Wood](/source/Alexander_Wood_(physician)) independently invent a practical hypodermic [syringe](/source/Syringe).
- Antoine Desormeaux produces and names an [endoscope](/source/Endoscope) illuminated by a [kerosene lamp](/source/Kerosene_lamp), using it to examine the [urinary tract](/source/Urinary_tract).[6]

## Meteorology

- August 23 – The first true [International Meteorological Organization](/source/International_Meteorological_Organization) is established in Brussels (Belgium).
- [John Francis Campbell](/source/John_Francis_Campbell) invents the original form of [Campbell–Stokes recorder](/source/Campbell%E2%80%93Stokes_recorder) (for sunshine).

## Technology

- [Eugenio Barsanti](/source/Eugenio_Barsanti) and [Felice Matteucci](/source/Felice_Matteucci) first develop the [Barsanti-Matteucci engine](/source/Barsanti-Matteucci_engine), an [internal combustion engine](/source/History_of_the_internal_combustion_engine) using the free-piston principle.[7][8]
- Sir [George Cayley](/source/George_Cayley) builds and demonstrates the first heavier-than-air aircraft (a [glider](/source/Glider_aircraft)).

## Awards

- [Copley Medal](/source/Copley_Medal): [Heinrich Wilhelm Dove](/source/Heinrich_Wilhelm_Dove)[9]
- [Wollaston Medal](/source/Wollaston_Medal) for Geology: [Adolphe d'Archiac](/source/Adolphe_d'Archiac); [Édouard de Verneuil](/source/%C3%89douard_de_Verneuil)

## Births

- January 24 – [Alfred Senier](/source/Alfred_Senier) (died [1918](/source/1918_in_science)), British [chemist](/source/Chemist).
- February 15 – [Frederick Treves](/source/Sir_Frederick_Treves,_1st_Baronet) (died [1923](/source/1923_in_science)), English [surgeon](/source/Surgeon).
- March 2 – [Ambrosius Hubrecht](/source/Ambrosius_Hubrecht) (died [1915](/source/1915_in_science)), Dutch [zoologist](/source/Zoology).
- March 10 – [William Hampton Patton](/source/William_Hampton_Patton) (died [1918](/source/1918_in_science)), American [entomologist](/source/Entomologist).
- April 8 – [Laura Alberta Linton](/source/Laura_Alberta_Linton) (died [1915](/source/1915_in_science)), American chemist.
- July 18 – [Hendrik Lorentz](/source/Hendrik_Lorentz) (died [1928](/source/1928_in_science)), Dutch [physicist](/source/Physicist) and [Nobel laureate](/source/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics).
- September 2 – [Wilhelm Ostwald](/source/Wilhelm_Ostwald) (died [1932](/source/1932_in_science)), [Baltic German](/source/Baltic_German) [chemist](/source/Chemist).
- September 9 – [Pierre Marie](/source/Pierre_Marie) (died [1940](/source/1940_in_science)), French [neurologist](/source/Neurologist).

## Deaths

- March 17 – [Christian Doppler](/source/Christian_Doppler) (born [1803](/source/1803_in_science)), Austrian mathematician and discoverer of the [Doppler effect](/source/Doppler_effect).
- March 20 – [Robert James Graves](/source/Robert_James_Graves) (born [1796](/source/1796_in_science)), Irish physician
- April 23 – [Auguste Laurent](/source/Auguste_Laurent) (born [1807](/source/1807_in_science)), French [chemist](/source/Chemist).
- July 8 – [Ernst Friedrich Germar](/source/Ernst_Friedrich_Germar) (born 1786), German [entomologist](/source/Entomologist).
- September 14 – [Hugh Edwin Strickland](/source/Hugh_Edwin_Strickland) (born [1811](/source/1811_in_science)), English [geologist](/source/Geologist) and [ornithologist](/source/Ornithologist).
- October 2 – [François Arago](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois_Arago) (born [1786](/source/1786_in_science)), French mathematician, [physicist](/source/Physicist), and [astronomer](/source/Astronomer).
- October 18 – [Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim](/source/Gotthelf_Fischer_von_Waldheim) (born [1771](/source/1771_in_science)), German [naturalist](/source/Naturalist).

## References

1. *Nouvelle fonction du foie, considéré comme organe producteur de matière sucrée chez l'homme et les animaux*. Paris.

1. Brunner, Bernd (2003). [*The Ocean at Home*](https://archive.org/details/oceanathomeil00brun/page/99). New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. [99](https://archive.org/details/oceanathomeil00brun/page/99). ISBN 1-56898-502-9.

1. Steiner, J. (1853). "Combinatorische Außgabe". *[Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik](/source/Crelle's_Journal)*. **45**: 181–182.

1. ["United Kingdom Vaccination Act 1853"](https://navigator.health.org.uk/theme/united-kingdom-vaccination-act-1853). *Policy Navigator*. The Health Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-18.

1. Siegel, I. M. (1988). "Historical Vignette #9. Little big man: the life and genius of William John Little (1810-1894)". *Orthopedic Review*. **17** (11): 1156, 1161–6. [PMID 3060808](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3060808)

1. Engel, Rainer (2007). ["Development of the Modern Cystoscope: An Illustrated History"](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/561774). *[Medscape](/source/Medscape)*. Retrieved 2011-10-17.

1. ["The Historical Documents"](https://web.archive.org/web/20170225042248/http://www.barsantiematteucci.it/inglese/documentiStorici.html). *Barsanti e Matteucci*. Fondazione Barsanti & Matteucci. 2009. Archived from [the original](http://www.barsantiematteucci.it/inglese/documentiStorici.html) on 2017-02-25. Retrieved 2013-11-01.

1. "The First Internal Combustion Engine". *The Piston Engine Revolution*. London: [Newcomen Society](/source/Newcomen_Society). 2012. pp. 23–44. ISBN 978-0-904685-15-2.

1. ["Copley Medal | British scientific award"](https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal). *Encyclopedia Britannica*. Retrieved 23 July 2020.

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