Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with June 5.

Events

1888 – William C. Dabney (1849-1894) published an account of a Charlottesville (Virginia) outbreak of epidemic pleurodynia (Bornholm disease), popularising the nickname “devil’s grip”, an acute, self-limited viral myositis causing severe chest/abdominal wall pain.

1907 – In his first Harben Lecture in London, Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) outlined targeted therapy, likening antitoxins and antibacterial substances to “charmed bullets” that “strike only those objects for whose destruction they have been produced”. In in his German writing Ehrlich called them Zauberkugeln (“magic bullets”). The English phrase “magic bullet” was popularised by Henry Dale in the journal Science (1924) as “magic bullets, constrained by a charm to fly straight to their specific objective…”.

---

Births

1906 – Robert Arden Miller (1906-1976), American anesthesiologist; designed the Miller laryngoscope blade (1941)

---

Deaths

1855 – William Cumming (1822-1855), English ophthalmic surgeon; pivotal work in the early development of the ophthalmoscope

1976 – Sir John Parkinson (1885-1976), English cardiologist; described Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome (1930)

2020 – Tomisaku Kawasaki (1925-2020), Japanese pediatrician; described Kawasaki disease (1967)

---

Further reading

• Dabney WC. Account of an Epidemic Resembling Dengue Which Occurred in and Around Charlottesville and the University of Virginia in June, 1888, American Journal of the Medical Sciences. 1888; 96: 488-494
• Ehrlich P. The Harber Lectures on Experimental researches on specific therapeutics. The Lancet 1907: 169(4372): 1634-1636
• Dale HH. Progress and prospects in chemotherapy. Science. 1924 Aug 29;60(1548):185-91
• The Story of Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet. Film 1940