November 4 – On This Day in Medical History

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

Events

1821George Kellie (1770-1829) performed post-mortem examinations on two people who died in a storm in Leith, near Edinburgh on the morning of the November 4, 1821. His findings underpinned the Monro–Kellie doctrine. Monro had described the fixed-volume cranial concept earlier; Kellie’s contribution was correlating it with pathological observations from these post-mortems


Births

1851Hans Chiari (1851-1916), Austrian pathologist; described Budd–Chiari syndrome (1899), Arnold–Chiari malformation (1896)

1888Wilhelm Lutz (1888-1958), Swiss dermatologist; described Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia (1922), Lutz-Miescher syndrome (elastosis perforans serpiginosa) (1953), Lutz sign (Asboe-Hansen sign)(1957)

1896William Thomas Lemmon (1896-1974), American surgeon; developed and performed continuous spinal anaesthesia (1939) and the Lemmon mattress

1909David Abramson Rytand (1909-1991), American physician and cardiologist; described Rytand murmur (1946), and Rytand’s Law (1951)

1917Alan Lyell (1917-2007), Scottish Dermatologist; described Lyell Syndrome (1956) aka Toxic epidermal necrolysis

1929Charles Rufus Baxter (1929-2005), American physician; introduced the Parkland Formula for Burns (1968)


Deaths

1837Baron Jean-Louis-Marc Alibert (1768-1837), French dermatologist; described Alibert-Bazin syndrome (1825), Alibert disease (1816), and Alibert mentagra (1825)

1914Moritz Roth (1839-1914), Swiss pathologist; described Roth spots (1872)


Further reading

BA MA (Oxon) MBChB (Edin) FACEM FFSEM. Emergency physician, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Passion for rugby; medical history; medical education; and asynchronous learning #FOAMed evangelist. Co-founder and CTO of Life in the Fast lane | On Call: Principles and Protocol 4e| Eponyms | Books |