Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with October 31.

Events

1885 – James Leonard Corning (1855–1923) publishes his early experiments with neuraxial cocaine injection in the New York Medical Journal. He injected cocaine near the lumbar spine in animals and a human subject, an important step toward spinal/epidural anaesthesia. Long regarded as the first demonstration of spinal blockade contemporary reviews suggest the blockade was unlikely intrathecal and more likely extradural.

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Births

1872 – James Sherren (1872-1945), English General surgeon; described Sherren triangle (1903), Ochsner-Sherren procedure (1902)

1886 – William John Adie (1886-1935), Australian neurologist; described Adie Syndrome (1931), and Adie-Critchley syndrome (1927)

1910 – Franklin Adin ‘Sam‘ Simmonds (1910-1983), English orthopaedic surgeon; described the Simmonds test (1957) [aka *Simmonds-Thompson Test ]

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Deaths

1921– Felix Lewandowsky (1879-1921), German dermatologist; described Jadassohn-Lewandowsky syndrome (pachyonychia congenita) (1906)

1964 – Ladislas Joseph Meduna (1896-1964), Hungarian neuropsychiatrist whose pioneering work in convulsive therapy laid the foundation for modern biological psychiatry

1973 – Paul Dudley White (1886-1973), American cardiologist. Described Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome (1930) and the McGinn-White pattern (1935)

2018 – William Wellesley Mapleson (1926-2018), English physicist of anaesthesia; invented the Mapleson Circuit Systems (1954)

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Further reading

• Corning JL. Spinal anaesthesia and local medication of the cord. New York Medical Journal 1885; 42: 483-485
• Gorelick PB, Zych D. James Leonard Corning and the early history of spinal puncture. Neurology. 1987 Apr;37(4):672-4.