Franz von Paula (Franciscus de Paula) Gruithuisen (19 March 1774 – 21 June 1852) was a

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

. He taught medical students before becoming a professor of astronomy at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

in 1826. During his period of medical studies and instruction, he was noted for his contributions to

urology Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...

and

lithotripsy Lithotripsy is a non-invasive procedure involving the physical destruction of hardened masses like kidney stones, bezoars or gallstones. The term is derived from the Greek words meaning "breaking (or pulverizing) stones" ( litho- + τρίψω rip ...

. He developed ideas on safer methods to remove

bladder The urinary bladder, or simply bladder, is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the kidneys before disposal by urination. In humans the bladder is a distensible organ that sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters ...

stones transurethrally, and his instruments served as models for subsequent devices. Like others before and since his time, Gruithuisen believed that the Earth's

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

was habitable. He made multiple observations of the lunar surface that supported his beliefs, including his announcement of the discovery of a city in the rough terrain to the north of Schröter crater he named the ''Wallwerk''. This region contains a series of somewhat linear ridges that have a fishbone-like pattern, and, with the small refracting

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

he was using, could be perceived as resembling buildings complete with streets. He published his observations in 1824, but they were greeted with much skepticism by other astronomers of the time. His claims were readily refuted using more powerful instruments. Gruithuisen was also the first to suggest that craters on the Moon were caused by

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

impacts. He is also noted for the discovery of bright caps on the cusps of the crescent

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, which he attempted to explain by proposing that

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...

s on Venus grew more rapidly than in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

due to the proximity of the planet to the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, and that as a consequence the planet's inhabitants celebrated fire festivals during which they burned massive amounts of vegetation. Gruithuisen lived at 24 Brienner Straße in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

shortly before his death.Paul Maucher
''Alphabetic register of house owners 1849-1851''
, p. 19. The crater Gruithuisen on the Moon is named for him. Gruithuisen and his theories are mentioned in one of

Giacomo Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...

's Small Moral Works: ''Dialogo della Terra e della Luna'' (Dialogue between the Earth and the Moon). Mentioned too in "De la Terre à la Lune"

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

Bibliography

Baron von Gruithuisen was noted for his prolific rate of publication. *''Ueber die Existenz der Empfindung in den Köpfen und Rümpfen der Geköpften und von der Art, sich darüber zu belehren'' (Augsburg 1808) *''Ueber die Natur der Kometen, mit Reflexionen auf ihre Bewohnbarkeit und Schicksale'', 1811. *''Discovery of Many Distinct Traces of Lunar Inhabitants, Especially of One of Their Colossal Buildings'', 1824. *''Der Mond und seine Natur'', 1844

References

* *''Epic Moon — A History of Lunar Exploration in the Age of the Telescope'', William P. Sheehan and Thomas A. Dobbin, Willmann-Bell, Inc.,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, . *''Franz von Paula Gruithuisen (1774–1852): lithotrity pioneer and astronomer. On the 150th anniversary of his death'', Zajaczkowski, Zamann, and Rathert, World Journal of Urology, Vol. 20, No. 6, May 2003.
''Operette Morali/Dialogo della Terra e della Luna''
1774 births 1852 deaths 19th-century German astronomers {{Germany-astronomer-stub