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

Events

1878 – William Macewen (1848–1924) performed the first documented oral endotracheal intubation when he passed a tube through the mouth and beyond the vocal cords to maintain the airway and deliver anaesthesia during removal of an oropharyngeal epithelioma, avoiding tracheotomy or laryngotomy.

As it was an operation which would cause considerable bleeding, precautions had to be taken to secure the air-passages from occlusion. Hitherto this had been effected by opening the windpipe, by laryngotomy, and the introduction of Trendelenburg’s tampon-canula. Instead of this I had determined, should an opportunity present, to introduce into the trachea, by way of the mouth, a tube which would extend beyond the vocal cords, and through which the patient would respire.

Macewen 1879

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Births

1873 – Sunao Tawara 田原 淳, (1873-1952), Japanese pathologist; described the Tawara node (1906) [AV node]

1924 – Cesarino Romano (1924-2008), Italian paediatrician; described Romano-Ward Syndrome (1963)

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Deaths

1884 – Eduard Jaeger Ritter von Jaxtthal (1818-1884), Austrian ophthalmologist; invented the Jaeger Ophthalmoscope (1854), Jaeger’s Test-Types (Schrift-Scalen) (1857), and provided the first description of diabetic retinopathy (1855)

1890 – Friedrich Arnold (1803–1890), German anatomist; described Arnold’s canal, Arnold’s ganglion, Arnold’s nerve, and Arnold’s nerve cough (Arnold’s reflex)

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Further reading

• Macewen W. On the introduction of tubes into the larynx through the mouth instead of tracheotomy or laryngotomy. Meeting XIV.— May 2nd 1879. Glasgow medical journal 1879; 12: 218 [Full article at: Louisville Medical News 1880; 10(7): 79-80][Macewen tracheal tube]
• James CD. Sir William Macewen and anaesthesia. Anaesthesia. 1974 Nov;29(6):743-53.