1858 in science

Archaeology

• In Luxor, Egypt, the Rhind papyrus is found ; it is sometimes called the Ahmes papyrus for the scribe who wrote it around 1650 BC.

  Astronomy

• Donati's Comet, the first comet to be photographed, is discovered by Giovanni Battista Donati on 2 June and remains visible for several months afterwards.

Biology

• William Herschel initiates fingerprinting as a means of identification, in Bengal.
• 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 for a century.

  Evolution

• Publication of Darwin's theory:
• * 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 are read by John Joseph Bennett to a meeting of the Linnean Society of London. They are first published on August 20.

  Exploration

• February 13 – Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika.
• May 14 – Dr David Livingstone's 6-year Second Zambesi Expedition, under the patronage of the Royal Geographical Society, arrives at the African coast with the prefabricated iron paddle steamer Ma Robert.
• August 3 – John Hanning Speke discovers Lake Victoria, source of the River Nile.

  Mathematics

• The Möbius strip is discovered independently by German mathematicians August Ferdinand Möbius and Johann Benedict Listing.
• Arthur Cayley publishes "A memoir on the theory of matrices", introducing the modern concept of the matrix in mathematics.

  Medicine

• August 2 – Medical Act 1858 passed "to Regulate the Qualifications of Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery" in the United Kingdom.
• First publication of Gray's Anatomy.
• Publication in London of Thomas B. Peacock's On Malformations, &c., of the Human Heart, with original cases which becomes a standard cardiology textbook.
• French pediatrician Eugène Bouchut develops a new technique for non-surgical orotracheal intubation to bypass laryngeal obstruction resulting from a diphtheria-related pseudomembrane.

  Psychiatry

• First treatise on postpartum psychiatric disturbances, by Louis-Victor Marcé, MD.

  Technology

• January 31 – I. K. Brunel's, the largest ship built to date, is launched on the River Thames using Tangye hydraulic rams.
• August – The first aerial photography is carried out by Nadar from a moored balloon in France using the collodion process.
• Hoffmann kiln patented in Germany by Friedrich Hoffmann for continuous production brickmaking.

  Awards

• Copley Medal: Charles Lyell
• Wollaston Medal for geology: James Hall

  Births

• January 2 – Bernard Sachs, American neurologist.
• January 9 – Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, née Knight, American botanist.
• January 28 – Eugène Dubois, Dutch paleoanthropologist.
• February 7 – Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate, Dutch anthropologist.
• March 18 – Rudolf Diesel, German mechanical engineer.
• March 27 – Richard Friedrich Johannes Pfeiffer, German physician and bacteriologist.
• April 23 – Max Planck, German theoretical physicist.
• May 19 – Thomas Allinson, English physician and dietetic reformer.
• July 9 – Franz Boas, German-born anthropologist.
• August 11 – Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physiologist.
• August 19 – Ellen Willmott, English horticulturist.
• August 27 – Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician.
• October 4 – Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin, Banat-born physicist.
• November 1 – Ludwig Struve, Russian astronomer.
• November 30 – Jagadish Chandra Bose, Bengali physicist.
• Laura Forster, Australian physician.

  Deaths

• April 28 – Johannes Peter Müller, German physiologist.
• June 10 – Robert Brown, Scottish botanist.
• June 18 - Rani Lakshmibai, Queen of Jhansi India
• June 28 – Jane Marcet, British popular science writer.
• November 8 – George Peacock, English mathematician.
• December 16 – Richard Bright, English physician.
• date unknown - Amelia Griffiths, British phycologist.