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

Events

1847 – At 52 Queen Street, Edinburgh, James Young Simpson (1811-1870) and colleagues tested chloroform by inhalation during an evening gathering. The group reportedly lost consciousness (“under the table”), marking the notorious first self-experiment that propelled rapid clinical adoption.

1929 – Werner Forßman (1904-1979) published Die Sondierung des rechten Herzens, a paper based upon controversial auto-experimentation of the catheterisation of the heart.

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Births

1729 – Carlo Mondini (1729-1803), Italian anatomist and physician; described Mondini deformity (1791)

1867 – Karl Maximilian Wilhelm ‘Max’ Wilms (1867-1918), German surgeon and pathologist. Producer of the monograph Die Mischgeschwülste der Niere (1899) and eponymously affiliated with Wilms Tumour (nephroblastoma)

1917 – John J Osborn (1917-2014), American intensivist, paediatrician and inventor; described the Osborn wave (1953)

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Deaths

1927 – Augusta Déjerine-Klumpke (1859-1927), American neurologist; described Klumpke palsy (1885)

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Further reading

• Simpson EB. November 4, 1847 In: Sir James Young Simpson. 1896
• Simpson JY. New anesthetic agent as a substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and midwifery. Br J Anaesth. 1958 Nov;30(11):545-50. 
• Forßmann W. Die Sondierung des Rechten Herzens. Klinische Wochenschrift 1929; 8(45): 2085–2087.