1872 deaths

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier (US: goh-TYAY, French: [pjɛʁ ʒyl teɔfil ɡotje]; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and remains a point of reference for many subsequent literary traditions such as Parnassianism, Symbolism, Decadence and Modernism. He was widely esteemed by writers as disparate as Balzac, Baudelaire, the Goncourt brothers, Flaubert, Pound, Eliot, James, Proust and Wilde.

Félix-Archimède Pouchet (26 August 1800 – 6 December 1872) was a French naturalist and a leading proponent of spontaneous generation of life from non-living materials, and as such an opponent of Louis Pasteur's germ theory. He was the father of Georges Pouchet (1833–1894), a professor of comparative anatomy.
From 1828 he was director of the Rouen Jardin des Plantes. Later, in 1838, he became professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Rouen. His major scientific work Hétérogénie was published in 1859. He also wrote a layperson's encyclopedia The Universe, published in 1870, which gives an overview of the sciences, but in which Pouchet ridicules Louis Pasteur's theories (calling them panspermism) and atomic theory.
In 1847, Pouchet effectively launched the study of the physiology of cytology. In 1848, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.

Paul-Auguste-Ernest Laugier (22 December 1812, in Paris – 5 April 1872) was a French astronomer, one of two French astronomers referred to as M. Laugier.

Charles-Pierre Denonvilliers (4 February 1808 – 5 July 1872) was a French surgeon who was a native of Paris.
In 1837 he received his medical doctorate, and later was a professor of surgery and anatomy in Paris.Denonvilliers was a pioneer of facial reconstructive surgery. In 1856 he independently performed the second Z-plasty operation for treatment of lower lid ectropion, after Horner in 1837. He is credited for providing the first description of the rectoprostatic fascia, which is sometimes called "Denonvilliers' fascia". Also, another name for the puboprostatic ligament is "Denonvilliers' ligament".With Auguste Bérard (1802-1846) and Léon Athanase Gosselin (1815-1887), he was co-author of the three-volume Compendium de chirurgie pratique (1845-1861).

Élie Frédéric Forey (10 January 1804 – 20 June 1872) was a Marshal of France.

Cornelius David Krieghoff (June 19, 1815 – March 5, 1872) was a Dutch-born Canadian-American painter of the 19th century. He is best known for his paintings of Canadian genre scenes involving landscapes and outdoor life, which were as sought after in his own time as they are today. He painted many winter scenes, some in several variants (e.g. Running the Toll).

Gabrielle Anne Cisterne de Courtiras, vicomtesse de Saint-Mars (2 August 1804 – 11 September 1872), pen name Countess Dash, was a prolific French writer.

Jean Marie Le Bris (25 March 1817, Concarneau – 17 February 1872, Douarnenez) was a French aviator, born in Concarneau, Brittany who built two glider aircraft and performed at least one flight on board of his first machine in late 1856. His name (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ maʁi lə bʁis]) is sometimes spelled Jean-Marie Le Bris, and he is also known as Yann Vari Ar Briz (Breton pronunciation: [jɑ̃n vari ar briz\s]) in Breton language.

Auguste Joseph Alphonse Gratry (usually known as Joseph Gratry; 10 March 1805 − 6 February 1872) was a French Catholic priest, author and theologian.