Famous People Who Died In 1842

Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, physiologist, anatomist, and neurologist. He was also an artist and philosophical theologian. He discovered the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the spinal cord. He is also known for describing Bell's palsy. He played a key role in the creation of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. 

Jules Dumont d'Urville was a French naval officer and explorer best remembered for exploring the western and south Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, and Antarctica. Jules Dumont d'Urville was also a cartographer and botanist; he is credited with naming several plants, seaweeds, and shrubs.

Dominique Jean Larrey was a French military doctor and surgeon. He is best remembered for his service during the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolutionary Wars. A prominent innovator in triage and battlefield medicine, Dominique Jean Larrey is widely regarded as the first modern military surgeon.

William Ellery Channing was an American preacher. One of the most important Unitarian preachers in the early-19th century, Channing was also one of Unitarianism's most prominent theologians. Remembered for his impassioned and articulate public speeches and sermons, Channing had a major influence on the New England Transcendentalists. In 1903, he was honored with a statue at the Boston Public Garden.  

Benjamin Wright was an American civil engineer best remembered for his work as a chief engineer. He is credited with overseeing the design and construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Erie Canal. In 1969, Benjamin Wright was declared the Father of American Civil Engineering by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Allan Cunningham was a Scottish author and poet best remembered for his immense contribution to the London Magazine during its salad days in the 1820s. A prolific songwriter, Cunningham also contributed to Eugenius Roche's Literary Recreations. In addition to his poems and songs, Allan Cunningham also wrote novels and biographies of popular figures like Sir Joshua Reynolds and William Blake.

Remembered as the "Spanish Lord Byron," Romantic poet José de Espronceda y Delgado became famous for his affair with Teresa Mancha. Initially imprisoned in a monastery for his revolutionary activities, he fled Spain and later lived in England and France. El estudiante de Salamanca remains one of his notable works.

Biedermeier period Austrian painter Peter Fendi had sustained spine injuries as a baby after falling from a table. However, that didn’t deter his artistic zeal, and he grew up to master oil and watercolor painting and even experimented with wood carving and etching. The mother-and-child theme is predominant in his works.

Jules Solime Milscent was a Haitian poet, fabulist, and politician. Some of his best known fables are L'Homme et le Serpent, Le Cœur et l'Esprit, and Le Chien et le Loup. He is also credited with co-founding a journal named L'Abeille Haytienne. Also a prominent politician, Jules Solime Milscent served in several government positions during his lifetime.

James Ivory was a British mathematician and astronomer best remembered for developing Ivory's Theorem. In 1814, he was honored with the prestigious Copley Medal for publishing several important memoirs.

Known as the founder of the chemistry of alkaloids, Pierre-Joseph Pelletier studied and taught at Ecole de Pharmacie. Working with Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, he first isolated chlorophyll. Working further they established that alkaloids contain oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen and isolated brucine, cinchonine, colchicine, quinine, strychnine, and veratrine. Their discoveries were later used by chemists to develop many useful medicines.

Friedrich Dionys Weber was a musicologist and composer best remembered for his service as the first director of the famous Prague Conservatory. He controlled higher musical education in Prague and was considered the most influential musicologist of Prague at that time. Friedrich Dionys Weber also wrote many music theory textbooks, which were considered important.

William Radcliffe had his own powerloom weaving factory and invented a machine for improving the quality of cloth, though his mill was later destroyed by the Luddites. His iconic essay on the new technology of weaving was later published as a significant treatise of the Industrial Revolution.