1879 deaths

Bernadette Soubirous (; French: [bɛʁnadɛt subiʁu]; Occitan: Bernadeta Sobirós [beɾnaˈðetɔ suβiˈɾus]; 7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879), also known as Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and is best known for experiencing apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto. These apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the woman who appeared to her identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".
After a canonical investigation, Soubirous's reports were eventually declared "worthy of belief" on 18 February 1862, and the Marian apparition became known as Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1866, Soubirous joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers at their convent in Nevers where she spent the last years of her life. Her body is said by the Catholic Church to remain internally incorrupt. The grotto where the apparitions occurred later went on to become a major pilgrimage site and Marian shrine known as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, attracting around five million pilgrims of all denominations each year.
Pope Pius XI beatified Bernadette Soubirous on 14 June 1925 and canonized her on 8 December 1933. Her feast day, initially specified as 18 February – the day Mary promised to make her happy, not in this life, but in the other – is now observed in most places on the date of her death, 16 April.

Antoine Hercule Romuald Florence (February 29, 1804 – March 27, 1879) was a Monegasque-Brazilian painter and inventor, known as the isolate inventor of photography in Brazil, three years before Daguerre (but six years after Nicéphore Niépce), using the matrix negative/positive, still in use. According to Kossoy, who examined Florence's notes, he referred to his process, in French, as photographie in 1834, at least four years before John Herschel coined the English word photography.

Adolphe-Marie Gubler (5 April 1821 – 20 April 1879) was a French physician and pharmacologist born in Metz.
Originally a student of botany, he began his medical studies in 1841 at Paris, where he was a pupil of Armand Trousseau (1801–1867). In 1845 he became an interne des hôpitaux, earning his doctorate in 1849. Afterwards he worked as a physician at the Hôpital Beaujon, and in 1853 earned his agrégation with a thesis on cirrhosis of the liver. In 1868 he was appointed professor of therapy to the medical faculty in Paris, maintaining this position until his death in 1879.
Gubler made a number of contributions in the fields of medicine and pharmacology. He is credited with being the first physician to differentiate between hematogenous and hepatogenous icterus. His name is associated with "Millard–Gubler syndrome", a condition characterized by softening of brain tissue that is caused by blockage of blood vessels of the pons. The disease is named in conjunction with Auguste Louis Jules Millard (1830–1915), who initially described the disorder in 1855. The eponymous "Gubler's line" is a line of superficial origin of the trigeminal nerve on the pons, a lesion below which results in the aforementioned Millard–Gubler syndrome.
He was the author of many works on botany, clinical medicine, physiology and pharmacology, with several articles on the latter subject being published in the "Journal de thérapeutique". Among his better written efforts was an 1856 treatise on hemiplegia titled De l'hémiplégie alterne envisagée comme signe de lésion de la protubérance annulaire et comme preuve de la décussation des nerfs faciaux, and a major publication involving pharmacopoeia called Commentaires thérapeutiques du codex medicamentarius, a book that was awarded the "Chaussier Prize" (Prix Chaussier, named after anatomist François Chaussier) by the Académie des sciences.Gubler was a founding member of the Société de biologie, and in 1865 became a member of the Académie de médecine.
While still an interne, he was asked by Dr. Trousseau to serve as a traveling companion to a young man suffering from emotional distress. While in Milan, Gubler was seriously wounded by a gunshot from his companion, forcing him to spend a year recuperating in Milan.

Marie-Guillaume-Alphonse Devergie (February 15, 1798 – October 2, 1879) was a French dermatologist born in Paris.
In 1834 he became a physician of Parisian hospitals (médecin des hôpitaux), and in 1840 succeeded Laurent-Théodore Biett (1781–1840) at the Hôpital Saint-Louis, where he practiced medicine until his retirement. During his career he was also associated with the Hôpitaux Bicêtre and St. Antoine. In 1874 he was elected president of the Académie de Médecine.
In 1856 Devergie was the first to describe a chronic papulosquamous disorder known as pityriasis rubra pilaris, also referred to as "Devergie's disease", a term introduced by Ernest Henri Besnier (1831-1909) in 1889.In 1854 he published an important textbook on skin diseases titled Traité pratique des maladies de la peau.
When he retired, Devergie donated his collection of dermatological watercolors to the Parisian hospital administration. This donation was instrumental in creation of a medical museum at Hôpital Saint-Louis.Devergie was one of the founders of forensic medicine in France, and was co-publisher of the journal Annales d’hygiène publique et de médecine légale with Mathieu Orfila (1787–1853), Gabriel Andral (1797–1876), Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol (1772–1840) and François Leuret (1797–1851). In 1836 he published a two-volume book on judicial medicine called Medecine legale, theorique et pratique.

Adolf Jensen (12 January 1837 – 23 January 1879) was a German pianist, composer and music teacher.

Félicien Chapuis (29 April 1824 – 30 September 1879) was a Belgian doctor and entomologist. He specialised in Coleoptera and finished the text of Genera des coléoptères by Théodore Lacordaire (1801—1870) when Lacordaire died.
He wrote:

1865 Monographie des platypides. H. Dessain, Liège.
1874. Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Genera des Coléoptères. Tome 10. Libraire Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris, 455 pp., pls. 111–124. (Phytophages)
1875. Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Genera des Coléoptères. Tome 11. Libraire Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris, 420 pp., pls. 125–130. (Phytophages)
1876. Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Genera des Coléoptères. Tome 12. Libraire Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris, 424 pp., pls. 131–134. (Érotyliens. Endomychides, Coccinellides).

Joseph Octave Delepierre (12 March 1802 – 18 August 1879) was a Belgian lawyer, archivist, diplomat, author and antiquary. He spent his later life in the United Kingdom, and is best known for his studies of macaronic language and literature.

Louis-François-Marie Nicolaïe (28 January 1811 – 8 February 1879), better known as Clairville, was a 19th-century French comedian, poet, chansonnier, goguettier and playwright.

Charles Albert Fechter (23 October 1824 – 5 August 1879) was an Anglo-French actor.

Charles Hector Jacquinot (4 March 1796 – 17 November 1879) was a noted mariner, best known for his role in early French Antarctic surveys.