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

Events

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Births

1797 – Joseph Rouanet (1797-1865), French physician; introduced his heart sounds hypothesis [S1 and S2] (1832)

1840 – Odilon-Marc Lannelongue (1840-1911), French surgeon; introduced a surgical technique for the treatment of craniosynostosis and provided first description of Osgood-Schlatter disease (1878)

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Deaths

1680 – Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680), Danish physician, mathematician and theologian. Described Bartholin-Patau syndrome (1657), first case of Gallstone ileus (1652), Wormian bones (Ossa Wormiana) and Refrigeration anaesthesia (1661)

1798 – Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) Italian obstetrician, surgeon and anatomist. Discovered the physiological action of electricity and demonstrated the existence of natural electric current in animal tissue – “the electrical forces in muscular movements” or the ‘animal electricity‘

1900 – Eduard Tolosa i Colomer (1900-1981), Spanish neurologist and neurosurgeon; described Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (1954)

2004 – Henning Moritz Ruben (1914-2004) was a Danish anaesthetist, dentist, inventor, athlete and entertainer. Innovator behind the Ruben valve, AMBU bag, a constant-rate syringe pump; a portable foot suction device; and AMBU man. Ruben was one of the first to describe (with James Elan) the head tilt method of securing a clear airway during resuscitation

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Further reading