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

Events

1829 – William Peter Hort (1799-1852) provided one of the earliest clinical case reports in America on the use of oral charcoal as an antidote for acute poisoning by ingestion of caustic sublimate.

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Births

1815 – Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich (1815-1877), German physician; described Wunderlich syndrome (1856), Wunderlich law (1868), and clinical thermometry (1868)

1861 – Sir Henry Head (1861-1940), English neurologist; described Head-Holmes syndrome (1911), Head-Riddoch syndrome (1917) [autonomic dysreflexia], Head’s Zones and Visceral Sensation (1893), Head’s posterior roots (1891) and dermatome mapping

1900 – Harold Leeming Sheehan (1900-1988), English physician; described Sheehan syndrome (1937)

1916 – Eeva Therman-Patau (1916-2004), Finnish-American cytogeneticist; major figure in the field of human cytogenetics, known among her colleagues as “Mrs. X Chromosome.”

1921 – Robert Carl Muehrcke (1921-2003), American physician; pioneer of nephrology, described Muehrcke lines (1956)

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Deaths

1953 – Myrtelle May Canavan (1879-1953), American neuropathologist; described Canavan disease (1931)

1970 – Henry Hubert Turner (1892-1970), American endocrinologist; described Turner syndrome (1938)

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Further reading

• Blacklock A. Case of Poisoning with Corrosive Sublimate. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal 1831; 36: 92-94.