Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with February 17.

Events

1863 – International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was founded in Geneva. Initially called “International Committee for Relief to the Wounded”, with an aim to improve battlefield medical services and develop international humanitarian law.

1932 – Angelo Luigi Soresi (1877-1951) published the first description of the “hanging drop” endpoint to help identify the epidural space. His preliminary report described peridural (epidural) anaesthesia as the injection of local anaesthetic outside the dura in the epidural space. Soresi argued it could deliver spinal-like anaesthesia without the typical spinal after-effects.

---

Births

1781 – René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1826), French physician; Inventor of the stethoscope (1816) and coined the terms cirrhosis and mélanose, later known as melanoma.

1845 – Charles Heber McBurney (1845-1913), American general surgeon; first described McBurney’s point (1889) and McBurney’s Incision (1894)

1906 – Elizabeth Maplesden Ramsey (1906-1993), American physician, embryologist and placentologist; researched the embryo, implantation and placentation.

---

Deaths

1896 – Joseph “Joe” Jones (1833-1896), American Confederate surgeon; documented Hospital Gangrene (necrotizing fasciitis) and had multiple “near-discovery” of key pathogens.

---

Further reading

• Gasser H-P. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Oxford Public International Law (2016)
• Soresi AL. Peridural anesthesia; a preliminary report. Medical journal and record 1932; 135: 165-166.
• Neruda B. The search for the originator of the hanging drop technique. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2008 May-Jun;33(3):276-7; author reply 277-8.