 | | | | Today In Health History Headlines | | | On this date in 1916, physicians Joseph Goldberger and G.A. Wheeler produced pellagra, a nutritional disorder characterized by skin lesions, gastrointestinal and neurological disturbances, in prisoners at a prison farm in rural Mississippi.
"Using sumptuous illustrations and clear, matter-of-fact descriptions, Dr. Gray unleashed a classic on the world more than 100 years ago," noted a review of one of the most recognized medical books of all time: Gray's Anatomy.
Hermann von Helmholtz has been called a genius in the field of medicine, but the German physician only entered the field because a career in physics didn't seem likely to pay the bills.
In the year before he died on this date in 1804, British physician and ethicist Thomas Percival wrote "Medical Ethics," a book about professional conduct in the medical profession.
In Boston on this date in 1918, the first case of the deadly Spanish influenza occurred.
Alchemy, the medieval theory that base metals could be chemically changed into gold, was widely accepted until Antoine Laurent Lavoisier disproved the theory in the 18th century.
One of a small number of surgeons to win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was born on this date in 1841.
We know the anatomy of a cell today because of the many contributions of cell biologist Albert Claude.
Sir Astley Cooper, a respected surgeon, was one of the four "great men" of the famous Guy's Hospital in London.
On this date in 1913, Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry was born in Hartford, Connecticut.
British physician Thomas Lodge dated a dedication to his "Treatise of the Plague" on this day in 1603.
A failed high blood pressure medication ended up being a top-selling over-the-counter treatment for male pattern baldness.
Robert E. Gross, a pediatric surgeon, perfected one of the earliest surgical procedures on the heart.
Chang and Eng Bunker were conjoined twins who, on this date in 1829, journeyed to Boston from their native Siam (now known as Thailand) to be displayed.
Erasmus Bartholin is best known for his discovery in the 17th century of the optical phenomenon of double refraction.
On this date in 1865, Lord Joseph Lister, M.D., became the first surgeon to use a disinfectant during an operation.
On this date in 1936 American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and Alexis Carrel, M.D., presented an artificial heart pump they developed to the International Scientific Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Almroth Wright, M.D., a pathologist from Yorkshire, England, discovered an anti-typhoid vaccine in 1896 and headed the Institute of Pathology and Research at St. Mary's Hospital, London.
Jean Piaget was born on this date in 1896. A Swiss psychologist and philosopher, Piaget devoted serious attention to "childish thoughts" and consequently made major impacts in the fields of education and child psychology.
Today marks the birth of Sir Alexander Fleming, M.D., a Scottish scientist and bacteriologist, who discovered penicillin in 1928.
On this date in 1968, the landmark "A Definition of Irreversible Coma: Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death" appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
On this date in 1989, a new treatment for Parkinson's disease was announced.
Dentistry came out of the Dark Ages, thanks in part to the efforts of Greene Vardiman Black, who was born on this date in 1836.
On Aug. 2, 1946, a nuclear plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., sold radioactive isotopes to the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital in St. Louis for use in cancer research.
On this date in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law.
On this date in 1782, noted physician Benjamin Rush urged his fellow physicians to minister to the sick and take payment in goods and produce, rather than in coin.
In the 1840s, dentistry quickly changed from a field largely perceived as being composed of incompetents to a field with high standards, thanks to the formation of a dental school, a regional society and a journal.
John Warren, physician and educator, was about to open his own medical practice in Boston when the Revolutionary War began and he signed up with the Continental Army.
The founder of analytic psychology, Carl Gustav Jung, developed the concept of the autonomous and unconscious complex and the technique of free association.
The pituitary, which is located at the base of the brain, is considered the master gland because it controls the other endocrine glands and produces a number of hormones that stimulate growth, metabolic or sexual functions.
An Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel introduced the world to genetics through his experiments on crossbreeding pea plants.
An American Legion Convention held in Philadelphia beginning on this date in 1976, became the focal point for the hunt for a deadly disease that killed 29 of the conventioneers.
English physician William Heberden made several amazing medical observations in the 18th century.
In the summer of 1873, St. John's Guild in New York City hired a barge and gave two excursions for sick children.
The first public health service in the United States was established by Congress on this date in 1798.
In the early 1980s, doctors at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine discovered that an experimental drug called acyclovir was successful in treating cold sores and genital lesions caused by the herpes simplex virus.
On this date in 1883, the first issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association was published.
In the 16th century, a trip to the barbershop could result in more than a trim.
On July 9, 1893, Daniel Hale Williams, pioneering African-American surgeon, repaired the lacerated pericardium (the membrane that encloses the heart) of a Chicago stab-wound victim.
Sulfites, used to control bacteria and to prevent discoloration from oxidation in some fresh vegetables and fruits, can be deadly to those suffering from allergies, particularly for those with asthma.
Italian physician Camillo Golgi was the first researcher to discover that the three types of malaria are caused by protozoan organisms.
How oxygen is converted into usable energy is a key function in the human body.
Much is written about the 16th century prophecies of French astrologer Nostradamus.
In April 1897, Eastman Kodak created a special film 3 feet by 6 feet that was used for the first radiograph of an entire body.
The Army and Navy General Hospital in Hot Springs, Ark., was the first combined general hospital in the nation for both army and navy patients.
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., can trace its history to a tornado that swept through the state in 1883.
In the 19th century, cholera assaulted nearly every major country in the world.
Though Thomas Sydenham is considered the father of modern medicine, the "English Hippocrates" scorned school and received an erratic education.
In the years after World War II, the U.S. government became more involved in medical research.
Sex was a hot topic after Alfred Charles Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," or the "Kinsey Report" as it came to be known, was published in 1948.
William McDougall, psychologist and physician, was also an anthropologist.
An early observer of child development was Arnold Lucius Gesell, a psychologist and physician, who observed thousands of children at various ages.
In 1921, it was discovered that 75 percent of all infants in New York had rickets, a disease that causes bone deformities.
Susan La Flesche Picotte, who was the daughter of Joseph "Iron Eye" La Flesche, an Omaha tribe chief, graduated at the top of her class from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1889.
On this date in 1921, the first class of the Army School of Nursing graduated.
Nursing became a respectable field of study mainly because of the efforts of Florence Nightingale.
On this date in 1989, Canadian track star Ben Johnson admitted for the first time that he was a steroid user.
On this date in 1985, 31-year-old Karen Ann Quinlan, often called the first poster child for the modern right-to-die movement, died in a Morris Plains, N.J., nursing home.
The first law to regulate the practice of medicine in the American Colonies was enacted on this date in 1760.
On June 9, 1822, Charles Graham received the first patent for false teeth.
The first leper hospital in the United States was the Louisiana Leper Home in Carville, Louisiana, founded in 1894 by an act of the Louisiana State legislature.
In the 19th century, with the exception of ether, there were few anesthetics to relieve the pain of childbirth.
On this date in 1970, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug L-Dopa, or levodopa.
When singers, actors and newscasters are diagnosed with a "disabled voice," they seek the help of a laryngologist, who treats disorders and diseases of the larynx.
Louis Pasteur was a French microbiologist and chemist who made invaluable contributions to the fields of science, industry and medicine.
In 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General released its landmark findings on smoking and health in a report that inexorably linked smoking tobacco and poor health.
Biologist Stanley Prusiner performed groundbreaking research on a new class of germ that slowly attacks the brain.
The first hospital in the United States was built in the City of Brotherly Love, before the American Revolution.
Dr. Joseph Kerwin made the longest journey to see a patient when he became the first doctor to practice in space.
The British navy's directive to sailors in 1795 that they eat citrus fruit daily was largely a result of a study by James Lind.
On this date in 1798, French physician Philippe Pinel cut chains from the limbs of patients called "madmen" at the Bicκtre Hospital, a Parisian insane asylum where Pinel had become chief physician six years earlier.
Upon being named Surgeon General of the Army, William Hammond ordered that proper records be kept of the sick, wounded and deceased -- and introduced a system to classify diseases.
Rose Hawthorne Lathrop began her adult life following in the footsteps of her famous literary father, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
On this date in 1822, the first naval medical school was opened at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
As a doctor and a tuberculosis victim, Edward Livingston Trudeau did a great deal for tuberculosis patients in the late 19th century.
Before pediatrics became a medical specialty in the mid-19th century, the care and treatment of childhood diseases was included within such areas as general medicine, obstetrics and midwifery.
We all need B vitamins.
George Papanicolaou, a physician and researcher born on this date in 1883 in Greece, developed and gave his name to what is known as the Pap test.
One of history's most famous nurses was born on this date in 1820.
On this date in 1858, the U.S. Congress authorized that a gold medal be presented to Dr. Frederick Henry Rose of the British Navy, the first doctor to ever receive such an honor.
On this date in 1892, the first osteopathy school was chartered.
Juliet Ann Opie Hopkins was born on this date in 1818.
Dr. Sigmund Freud, the most famous name in the field of psychoanalysis, was born on this date in 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia (now the Czech Republic).
The first vaccination legislation for American Indians was passed on this date in 1832, more than 19 years after the first national vaccination legislation had been passed.
On this date in 1855, the worlds first women's hospital, the Woman's Hospital of New York City, was opened.
On this date in 1904, New York enacted the first state pharmacy legislation, which required pharmacists to obtain four years of practical experience and two years of schooling in pharmacy.
Noted physician and bacteriologist William H. Welch died on this date in 1934.
On this date in 1934, American physician Fuller Albright first described a disease, osteitis fibrosa disseminata, that today more commonly bears his name.
Edouard (Joseph Louis-Marie) van Beneden was a Belgian embryologist and cytologist and son of a prominent parasitologist and paleontologist, Pierre-Joseph van Beneden.
The U.S. Navy offers educational opportunities in numerous fields, including medicine, law, nursing and dentistry.
On this date in 1986, one of four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine melted down.
On this date in 1997, representatives of the University of Southern California announced that a 63-year-old woman in their care had given birth to a healthy baby the previous November.
Scotland's leading ophthalmologist, Sir Stewart Duke-Elder, wrote a classic manual for eye surgeons entitled "Textbook of Ophthalmology."
William Osler is best known for his contributions as one of the "Big Four" founding physicians at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he taught for 12 years.
On this date in 1876, the same year America was celebrating its centennial, a group of chemists came together to create the nation's first chemical society.
The first American kindergarten for the blind was dedicated on this date in 1887 and opened two weeks later.
Physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane was born on this date in 1660 in Ireland.
On this date in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 AM at the Petersen's boarding house in Washington, D.C.
On this date in 1813, the Religious Society of Friends founded the first private psychiatric hospital, known as The Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason.
On this date in 1863, the first orthopedic hospital was incorporated.
On this date in 1786, Bishop William White established the first dispensary to distribute free medicine to the poor.
William Prout, an English physician and chemist who contributed several important discoveries to medicine and chemistry, died on this date in 1850.
On this date in 1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe announced that he had AIDS.
On this date in 1948, the constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO), under the auspices of the United Nations, was ratified.
Belgian immunologist Jules Bordet was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his "discoveries relating to immunity."
On this date in 1909, the Neurological Institute of New York opened under the supervision of Alexander H. Candlish.
Despite medical milestones in the early 1900s, including Karl Landsteiner's discovery of blood types that enabled surgeons to perform safe blood transfusions, patients still suffered from reactions to contaminants.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is best remembered for the letters she wrote from Istanbul when her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, became British ambassador to Turkey.
Hans Fischer won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1930 primarily for his work regarding the composition of hemin, the non-protein component of hemoglobin that gives blood its red color; his investigation of chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants; and his synthesis of bilirubin.
On this day in 1981, former President Ronald W. Reagan was shot outside a Washington, D.C., hotel.
Atlanta chemist John Pemberton developed several patented medicines in the late 19th century, including Triplex Liver Pills and Globe of Flower Cough Syrup.
Thomas Sydenham was a British physician lauded as a founder of clinical medicine and epidemiology.
On this date in 1998, an unnamed Portland, Oregon woman who suffered from breast cancer for 22 years became the first known person to put Oregon's Death With Dignity law to use.
On this date in 1882, Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis, an infectious disease that usually attacks the lungs.
On this date in 1930, Russian physician Sergei Yudin first transfused cadaver blood into a living patient.
In the first half of the 19th century, men and women with little or no training made up the field of nursing.
German physician and astronomer Franz Paula von Gruithuisen was born on this day in 1774.
On this date in 1952, a patient in Philadelphia received the first plastic lens for use after cataract surgery.
On March 17, 1975, the first doctor's strike against long working hours was held against 21 voluntary and municipal hospitals in New York City.
Susan Hayhurst of St. Michael's, Maryland became the first woman pharmacist in the United States when she graduated on March 16, 1883, from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.
On March 15, 1855, Louisiana Governor Paul Octave Hebert authorized the first state health board "to establish quarantine for the protection of the state."
On this date in 1845, Irish physician Francis Rynd published his account of how he used a hypodermic syringe to inject fluids into a patient at Dublin's Meath Hospital.
On this date in 1918, Albert Mitchell, an Army cook at what is now Fort Riley in Kansas, fell sick with the flu.
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