Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with March 4.

Events

1918 – First case reported in deadly 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish Flu). Patient Zero: Private Albert Martin Gitchell (1890-1968), a company cook at Camp Funston in Kansas, reported to the infirmary before breakfast with a fever, sore throat, and headache. By noon over 100 other soldiers had presented with identical symptoms

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Births

1858 – Augustin Nicolas Gilbert (1858-1927), French physician; described Gilbert syndrome (1901)

1903 – Charles Henry Hudson (1903-1962), American dentist; inventor of the Hudson Mask (1958), and the Hudson Pen-I-Sol Nebulizer

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Deaths

1902 – Edward Mott Moore (1814-1902), American Surgeon; described the Moore fracture (1869)

1952 – Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952), English neurophysiologist. Described Sherrington’s Laws (1897–1900), Liddell–Sherrington Reflex (1924), and Schiff–Sherrington Phenomenon. Coined the term “synapse” and proposed the integrative action of the nervous system; shared 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edgar Douglas Adrian (1889–1977) for discoveries regarding the functions of neurons.

1952 – Jules Tinel (1879-1952), French neurologist; described Tinel sign (Hoffmann-Tinel sign) (1915)

1953 – Thomas Stephen Cullen (1869-1953), Canadian gynecologist; described Cullen sign (1918)

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Further reading

• History and the Census: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic. United States Cenus Bureau