Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with November 12.

Events

1892 – Albert Frank Stanley Kent (1863-1958) presented to the Physiological Society at St Mary’s Hospital, London his observations of muscular connections bridging atria and ventricles in mammalian hearts (describing right lateral, left lateral, and septal bridges). “Kent bundles” later became shorthand for accessory atrioventricular pathways in Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, though Kent’s original anatomical claims were broader and remain historically contested

1935 – Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz (1874–1955) performed the first psychosurgery (prefrontal leucotomy) to treat severe mental illness by disrupting frontal-lobe connections. His first reported case was a 63-year-old woman with depression, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, and insomnia; Moniz injected alcohol into both frontal lobes via burr holes to create lesions. At two months, he reported that the patient’s “anxiety and restlessness had declined rapidly” with a “marked attenuation of paranoid features”. The procedure later fell out of favour as significant harms became clear.

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Births

1774 – Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), Scottish anatomist, physiologist, neurologist and surgeon; described Bell’s palsy (1827), Bell Phenomenon, and the Law of Bell-Magendie

1862 – Frank Burr Mallory (1862-1941), American pathologist; described Mallory Bodies (1911) and numerous Mallory Stains

1920 – Judith Abarbanel Diesendruck (1920-2007), Russian-American bacteriologist. Described the Nelson-Diesendruck basal medium (1950); a survival medium for Treponema pallidum

1924 – Ruth Illig (1924-2017), German pediatric endocrinologist; described Illig syndrome

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Deaths

1991 – Leland Greene Hawkins (1933-1991), American orthopedic surgeon; described Hawkins Classification of Talus fractures (1970)

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Further reading

• Kent AFS. Researches on the Structure and Function of the Mammalian Heart. Proceedings of the Physiological Society, 1892. No. VI. J Physiol. 1893 Jan;14(1):xxiii-xxiv.
• Anderson RH. Arthur Stanley Kent and accessory muscular atrioventricular connections. Cardiovascular Pathology, 2019; 40: 1
• Moniz E, Lima A. Premier essais de psychochirurgia technique et resultats. Lisboa Medica, 1936; 38: 725-752.
• Moniz E. 1954. How I succeeded in performing the prefrontal leucotomy. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, 1954; 15: 373-379.
• Tan SY, Yip A. António Egas Moniz (1874-1955): Lobotomy pioneer and Nobel laureate. Singapore Med J. 2014 Apr;55(4):175-6.