December 13 – On This Day in Medical History

Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with December 13.

Events

1884 – Sir William Osler (1849-1919), under his pseudonym “Egerton Yorrick Davis”, published a mischievous item in the Philadelphia Medical News on “vaginismus”. He weaves the enduring (and mostly mythological) tale of penis captivus, the idea that intercourse can end with partners mechanically “locked” together. The satirical squib to rattle the cage of a fellow board member has been recycled as “fact” ever since.

1947 – Claude Schaeffer Beck (1894-1971) published in JAMA the first report of successful open-chest defibrillation in a human. He described reversal of prolonged ventricular fibrillation during surgery on a 14-year-old boy undergoing repair of pectus excavatum at Lakeside Hospital (Cleveland). The operation date is disputed but most commonly cited as March 14, 1847.

Births

No major medical milestones added for this date yet — this page is being expanded

Deaths

1962 – Charles Henry Hudson (1903-1962), American dentist; inventor of the Hudson Mask (1958), and the Hudson Pen-I-Sol Nebulizer

Further reading
On This Day in Medical History

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 |