 | | | | Today In Health History Headlines | | | After the first human heart transplant in late 1967 by South African cardiac surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard, 1968 saw a flurry of such operations at several medical centers around the world.
Physiology, the branch of biology that studies how organisms live and function, was the subject of a national society formed late in the 19th century to promote scientific research.
Elizabeth Carr, the first U.S. test-tube baby, was born on this date in 1981.
American psychology pioneer Granville Stanley Hall was the brains behind the first psychology society.
It has often been said that the Civil War hastened the development of modern medicine in the United States, mainly because conditions were so unsanitary and disease such a problem during that conflict.
On this date in 1809, physician Ephraim McDowell removed an ovarian cyst from Jane Todd Crawford in his log cabin near Motley's Glen in Green County, Kentucky.
Slaves living in Savannah, Ga., who needed to be hospitalized, were usually sent to the first black hospital in this country, the Georgia Infirmary.
On this date in 1846, surgeon Robert Liston used general anesthetic to remove a man's leg at University College Hospital in London.
On this date in 1932, German chemist and pathologist Gerhard Domagk discovered the antibiotic effects of prontosil, for which he was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
You may already know about William Morton's successful dental operation in 1846 using ether as an anesthetic.
On this date in 1912, an amateur archaeologist announced that he had found two skulls belonging to a precursor of man, at the Piltdown Quarry in Sussex, England.
On this date in 1776, prominent Philadelphia physician William Shippen Jr. poked fun at the American army when he wrote his brother-in-law Richard Henry Lee, "I wish you would introduce a new step into your army.
Using the mold on bread as his focus of experimentation, Edward L. Tatum was able to track the genetic inheritance patterns of the mold known as Neurospora.
The first tuberculosis diagnostic laboratory where specimens of sputum could be examined was authorized on this date in 1893 by the New York City Department of Health.
Andrew Taylor Still grew up in Tennessee and Missouri in the early 1800s and got what education he could from local schools and his father, a Methodist minister.
As a young man in Chicago, Charles Rudolph Walgreen worked in drugstores while studying pharmacy in his free time.
There was a time when deaf children and adults were institutionalized in asylums because they were often considered mentally impaired or unintelligent.
On this date in 1846, English physician Thomas Bevill Peacock described four congenital heart defects often occurring together.
Cremation is nothing new; the Greeks practiced cremation as early as 1000 B.C.
On this date in 1941, an Australian nurse named Elizabeth Kenney obtained U.S. approval for a new polio treatment she devised using massage therapy.
Edward Robinson Squibb was a U.S. Navy medical officer and chemist concerned about the generally poor quality of drugs being made during the 19th century.
On this date in 1967, cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard and a team of 20 other surgeons implanted the heart of a 25-year-old female victim of an accident into a 55-year-old man. This was the first-ever human heart transplant.
Virginia Henderson is regarded by many as the first lady of nursing.
Carlo Levi completed his training to become a doctor in Italy, but his politics got in the way of his practice.
As you might expect, the first state medical society was founded in Massachusetts.
On this date in 1857, Nobel prize-winning physiologist Sir Charles Sherrington was born in London, England.
While Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel was experimenting with nitroglycerin as an explosive, scientists and physicians were testing its medical uses.
When the American Medical Association was founded in 1846, it barred women from its membership, furthering the discrimination being practiced against women by members of the medical profession.
Sir Andrew Huxley went to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study the physical sciences, but a suggestion from a friend led him to switch his interest to physiology.
The bizarre healing of a stomach wound allowed a little-known U.S. Army surgeon to found the field of science known as gastroenterology.
Although penicillin was discovered in the late 19th century, its use wasn't accepted until the 1940s, when it was produced as the first true antibiotic.
Until the 1940s, many biologists thought of the cell as simply a "bag of enzymes."
The invention of the life preserver during the 19th century was a milestone in public health, mainly because knowing how to swim did not become essential to Americans until the early 20th century.
In 1854, just after the Crimean War between England and Russia broke out, a young nurse named Florence Nightingale read reports of the horrid conditions in British medical hospitals.
Samuel Pepys, who is said to have written the greatest diary in the English language, recorded many details of his life in 17th century London, including the great fire of 1666.
While searching for a blood factor thought to be responsible for promoting blood clotting, Edward Adelbert Doisy discovered the chemical nature of vitamin K.
Informing the public on issues of health was the goal when the Cleveland Health Museum opened on this date in 1940, under the direction of Bruno Gebhard, M.D.
On this date in 1821, 68 apothecaries met at Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia to establish better scientific standards and provide better training for apothecary students and apprentices.
Inkblots are often used in psychiatry to determine a person's personality type.
Ask any grade school student to name a famous woman scientist and the name that's sure to pop up is Marie Curie.
Basketball takes its roots from a couple of peach baskets and a Canadian physician and physical education teacher, Dr. James A. Naismith. Naismith was born on this date in 1861 in Almonte, Ontario.
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky died of tuberculosis when he was only 37, yet he was already a widely known Russian psychologist.
The seizures and convulsions of epilepsy are associated with a variety of brain dysfunctions including, but not limited to, a head injury, an infection, a tumor, a stroke or even an inherited predisposition.
Although Dr. William Morton is usually associated with the use of ether, it is generally acknowledged that Dr. Crawford Williamson Long was the first to use the substance as an anesthetic.
Anyone who has taken a science class is familiar with the work of John Dalton. The British chemist and physicist developed the theory that all elements are composed of atoms that are identical in size and weight.
On this day in 1948, an asphyxiating cloud of smog enveloped Donora, Pa., a Monongahela River town of 14,000 people and the location of the Donora Zinc Works and the American Steel and Wire Co.
On this date in 1988, Chinese scientists announced that they had discovered an herbal male contraceptive.
An infant girl known only as "Baby Fae" made headlines by becoming the first infant to receive a heart transplant from a monkey.
Antoine Ferrein, a French surgeon and anatomist, was born on this date in 1693.
On this date in 1632, Anton van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, The Netherlands. Van Leeuwenhoek became one of the most famous microscope experts of all time.
For 20 years, the husband and wife biochemistry research team of Carl and Gerty Cori studied how sugar in the body is converted to glycogen.
Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, who was born in Michigan, worked as a dentist in London, even though he trained in America as an otolaryngologist.
Daniel Whistler was the first to write about rickets - a bone-deformity disease caused by a deficiency in vitamin D.
Two years of collaboration between James Watson and Francis Crick culminated in the creation in 1953 of a model of the molecular structure of DNA.
For anyone who suffered the mumps as a child, today is a day to think about Ernest William Goodpasture, M.D. Goodpasture, an American immunologist born on this date in 1886, is credited with isolating the mumps virus.
On this date in 1916, Margaret Sanger, a public health nurse, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brooklyn, N.Y.
On this date in 1923, Paul Drucker, a Danish pediatrician, invented the heel stick, one of the most common ways to withdraw blood from an infant.
William Quinland was a pathologist and educator who contributed pioneering research on pathology in African-Americans.
Edith H. Quimby, a former high school science teacher who later became a professor of radiology at Columbia University, helped develop applications for X-rays, radium and radioactive isotopes in the early part of this century.
French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) lent his name to a beheading device, the guillotine, used extensively during the French Revolution.
Sir Cyril Ludowic Burt was revered during his lifetime, but his work was questioned after his death, which occurred on this date in 1971.
Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883-1970) was born on this date in 1883, in Freiburg, Germany.
The prestigious Lancet, a British medical journal, was first published on this date in 1823.
Scottish naval surgeon James Lind conducted many experiments while trying to cure scurvy.
The New England Journal of Medicine can trace its roots to the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Down syndrome has been around for many centuries but was misinterpreted as a mental disability. Many of the children born with Down syndrome were sent to convents and referred to as "children of God."
"It is a well-known fact that there are no social, no industrial, no economic problems which are not related to health," noted William H. Welch, the first director of the first school of public health.
This week marks the birth of an early kidney expert.
The Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damien, held this week honors the first saints who were called upon specifically to heal disease.
When Paracelsus became a medical professor at the University of Basel, his first assignment was to burn medical books written by Galen and Avicenna.
Proof that disease could be caused by parasites and fungi was recorded as far back as the 16th century, but discoveries of microscopic organisms were not readily accepted for at least another 100 years.
The first autopsy recorded in the United States took place in September 1639 on an ill-treated apprentice in Salem, Mass.
In 1948, Edward Kendall and Philip Hench created the first of the many miracle drugs," which were actually synthesized hormones, to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.
The first national scientific society in the United States was the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), referred to by one of its early members as "the great mother organization" of learning.
One of the most prestigious medical colleges in the country was founded more than 200 years ago today, and doors opened two months later.
The latter part of the 19th century was a risky time to be a child in America.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a 17th century drapers apprentice, used lenses to examine the threads of fabrics he was working with.
Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and experimental psychologist, is usually associated with his most famous work, conditioned reflexes.
After receiving a medical degree from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City, Walter Reed went to work for the boards of health of New York City and Brooklyn.
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.
The first artificial aortic valve was successfully fitted on a 30-year-old patient on this date in 1952.
"Thank God! Out of one hundred patients whom I have visited or prescribed for this day, I have lost none." These words are from an entry in the diary of Colonial physician Benjamin Rush on this date, year unknown.
This week marks the anniversary of the first use of one of the earliest infant incubators for premature babies.
John Coakley Lettsom (1744-1815) was a famous English physician, philanthropist and chronicler of the human condition.
Bernardino Ramazzini is noteworthy for writing the first comprehensive study of occupational diseases in 1700.
Albert Schweitzer, humanitarian, medical missionary, philosopher, author, musician and theologian, died on this date in 1965 in what is now Gabon, Africa.
On this date in 1931, chemists discovered that the pituitary gland contains a hormone, hGH, that controls growth.
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.
On this date in 1911, the British orthopedic surgeon who invented the modern artificial hip, was born.
Two brothers who grew up in Pennsylvania's Amish country played an active role in medicine in the 19th century.
In Boston on this date in 1918, the first case of the deadly Spanish influenza occurred.
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. Cooper, who was born on this date in 1768, was an enormously popular doctor. In 1806, he was earning a huge salary that exceeded even the prime minister's income.
Initial rumors about sweating sickness, or "sudor Angelicus," occurred on this date in 1485, in England.
Today is the birthday of the first physician to describe Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Edward Ernest Maxey, an ear, nose and throat specialist, was born on this date in 1867.
On this date in 1913, Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry was born in Hartford, Connecticut.
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. Marys Hospital, London.
Jean Piaget was born on this date in 1896.
On this date in 1797, "The Medical Repository" became the first medical magazine and the first scientific periodical published in the United States.
On this date in 1944, the U.S. Public Health Service announced that gonorrhea, the most common venereal disease at the time, could be cured within eight hours with penicillin.
Today marks the birth of Sir Alexander Fleming, M.D., a Scottish scientist and bacteriologist, who discovered penicillin in 1928.
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 isotope to the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital in St. Louis for use in cancer research.
John Collins Warren's father, John Warren, founded the Harvard Medical School in 1782, so it was natural that his son would enroll there.
German-born Friedrich Wohler, received his medical degree in 1823 from the University of Heidelberg.
On this date in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law.
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.
In vitro fertilization is popularly, and inaccurately, associated with the term test tube babies.
Kenneth Bancroft Clark, psychologist and educator, in partnership with Gunnar Myrdal, researched the role of the African-American in the United States that resulted in "An American Dilemma," published in 1941.
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.
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.
Acupuncture, the ancient Chinese treatment of using fine needles and inserting them just under the top layer of skin, has gained a measure of acceptance in the United States today.
In the 16th century, a trip to the barbershop could result in more than a trim.
On this date in 1985, H. Harlan Stone, M.D., devised a unique method for keeping patients in stitches.
As a young man in Germany, Abraham Jacobi, M.D., spent a brief time in prison because of his participation in the Revolution of 1848.
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.
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.
How oxygen is converted into usable energy is a key function in the human body.
For his work on crystalline enzymes, John Howard Northrop was awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1946, which he shared with Wendell M. Stanley and James B. Sumner.
Two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie died on this date in 1934.
On this date in 1569, Huguenot physician William Chamberlen, the inventor of obstetrical forceps, was forced to emigrate to England from France.
More and more is written about the 16th century prophecies of French astrologer Nostradamus.
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.
In April 1721, the first cases of smallpox arrived in Boston on a ship from the West Indies.
On this date in 1992, a Kentucky medical examiner publicly announced that President Zachary Taylor had indeed died of natural causes, and not of arsenic poison.
Though Thomas Sydenham is considered the father of modern medicine, the "English Hippocrates" scorned school and received an erratic education.
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.
Harold Delf Gillies is not a household name, but he put the facelift on the map of modern medical practice.
As a New York Yankee, Henry Louis Gehrig was named the American League's most valuable player in 1927, 1931, 1934 and 1936.
In 1921, it was discovered that 75 percent of all infants in New York had rickets, a disease that causes bone deformities.
Nursing became a respectable field of study mainly because of the efforts of Florence Nightingale.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist and pathologist who, in 1907, was the first to describe the devastating disease that would bear his name.
In 323 BC, Alexander the Great died mysteriously after partaking in a celebration and consuming large amounts of food and alcohol in Babylon.
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 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.
As a black child in the early 19th century, Sarah Parker Remond suffered prejudice in the public schools in Salem, Massachusetts, so much of her education came at home.
Paralyzed by cerebral palsy, Christy Brown was only able to move his left foot.
On this date in 1970, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug L-Dopa, or levodopa.
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.
When the first national wheelchair games were held on this date in 1957, 75 individuals paralyzed from the chest down from the U.S. and Canada competed.
On this date in 1903, British pathologist William Boog Leishman wrote about the protozoa that causes kala-azar, or dumdum fever.
On this date in 1935, the nation's first sanatorium for drug addicts received its first patients.
Biologist Stanley Prusiner performed groundbreaking research on a new class of germ that slowly attacks the brain.
The British navys 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.
On this date in 1879, the first public veterinarian school in the United States was established.
Alfred Day Hershey, a Michigan-born leading pioneer in DNA research shared the 1969 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Max Delbrόck and Salvador Luria for their contributions involving the replication and the genetic structure of viruses.
pon 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.
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.
Knowing that Samuel Bard was George Washingtons personal physician might win you money in a trivia game show.
In the first half of the 19th century, a rise in alcohol use sparked the advent of numerous temperance societies.
We all need B vitamins. Vitamin B is a complex of at least eight separate water-soluble vitamins including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid.
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.
The first eye bank opened on this date in 1944 at New York Hospital.
On this date in 1848, a resolution was approved that allocated funds for the first school for the mentally retarded.
Juliet Ann Opie Hopkins was born on this date in 1818. Little is known of her early life, but she was widowed young and moved to Alabama with her second husband.
On this date in 1855, the worlds first womens hospital, the Womans 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.
Perhaps the most famous pediatrician of all time was Dr. Benjamin Spock, author of Baby and Child Care, which promoted that moms and dads use affection and respect, rather than rigid discipline, to parent their children.
The Ohio Institution for the Blind, which was the first state school for the blind, opened on July 4, 1837.
Noted physician and bacteriologist William H. Welch died on this date in 1934.
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.
Abortion was considered a crime until 1966, when Mississippi passed a law permitting abortion in cases of rape.
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.
On this date in 1876, the same year America was celebrating its centennial, a group of chemists came together to create the nations first chemical society.
The first American kindergarten for the blind was dedicated on this date in 1887 and opened two weeks later.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most major American cities had hospitals that catered to specific ethnic groups.
In the days when ethnic groups stayed together, nine Jewish men worked to establish Jews Hospital in New York City, which offered free medical care to indigent Jews.
Physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane was born on this date in 1660, in Ireland.
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.
On April 10, 1944, Dr. Robert Burns Woodward and Dr. William von Eggers Doering, at Harvard University, produced synthetic quinine.
The first homeopathic medical society, the Hahnemann Society, was organized on this date in 1833, in Philadelphia.
William Prout, an English physician and chemist who contributed several important discoveries to medicine and chemistry, died on this date in 1850.
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.
On this date in 1969, noted physician Michael E. DeBakey implanted the world's first completely artificial heart in a patient at Houston's Baylor University.
Well-known French humorist and satirist Francois Rabelais was a physician.
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.
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.
Sir Archibald Edward Garrod was one of the first people to research inherited metabolic disorders.
Blood transfusions were first suggested in the 17th century and even attempted on animals in the same century using tubings.
Thomas Sydenham was a British physician lauded as a founder of clinical medicine and epidemiology.
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.
Although premature babies are now routine, 100 years ago they were part of an exhibit at the Worlds Fair.
The bubonic plague, a dangerous, often fatal disease, can be spread by the bite of fleas that have been infected by rats.
German physician and astronomer Franz Paula von Gruithuisen was born on this day in 1774.
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 day in 1997, former President Bill Clinton underwent surgery to repair a torn quadriceps tendon in his right knee, which he injured after stumbling on steps.
On this date in 1925, the Tennessee state legislature passed the Butler Act, which forbade the teaching of evolution in Tennessees public schools, preferring instead that the states schools teach creationism, which held that God created all living things, no matter how simple or complex.
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 Dublins Meath Hospital.
Thomas Lodge a British physician, lawyer and man of letters, was admitted to Londons Royal College of Physicians on this date in 1610.
A 33-year-old man died on this date in 1985 after being kept alive for 11 hours by a mechanical device called the Phoenix Heart.
Daniel David Palmer, born on this date in 1845, is credited with founding chiropractics, the discipline of manipulating the spine to relieve certain medical problems.
The first known use of aspirin was by Greek physician Hippocrates, who used powder extracted from the bark of a willow tree to treat pain and reduce fever.
On this date in 1558, Spanish physician Francisco Fernandes introduced the smoking of tobacco in Spain.
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 Dublins Meath Hospital.
After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1825, John Dix Fisher studied for a couple of years in France, where he was impressed with the way the French educated blind children.
Little is written about the first female osteopath, Jenette Hubbard Bolles, who received her Doctor of Osteopathy degree on this date in 1894.
Karl Ernst von Baer, one of the founders of modern embryology, was born in Piibe, Estonia on this date in 1792.
Leprosy has been around since at least early biblical times.
Charles H. Best, who discovered insulin with orthopedic surgeon Frederick Banting, was born on this date in 1899.
Urea, an organic compound in the body that is formed from ammonia in the kidney and liver, is produced by the breakdown of protein during tissue metabolism.
Rickettsial pox is part of the Rickettsial group of bacterial diseases.
Friedrich Wφhler was a German teacher and physician who first isolated urea, a compound usually found in mammals urine.
In the mid-19th century, some American doctors studied germs at private labs, but the first true bacteriology laboratory was the Hoagland Laboratory in Brooklyn, N.Y., incorporated on Feb. 21, 1887.
The first graduating class of the University of California was the Class of 1873, the same year the University organized its first medical school.
A man in Louisville, Ky., with chronic congestive heart failure became the third of five patients to receive the Jarvik-7 artificial heart.
On this date in 1923, Howard Carter and his team of archaeologists entered the inner tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amen.
The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children admitted its first patient on this date in 1852.
Cancer began to be considered a social problem during the early 20th century, when researchers noticed a rise in the number of cases reported.
On this date in 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered his paper, On the Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, to the Boston Society for Medical Improvement.
On this date in 1877, the American Physiological Society was formed in Boston, and later that year met at the Physiological Laboratory of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, New York City, to organize further.
Born on this date in 1910 in Paris, Jacques Lucien Monod studied at the Sorbonne before emigrating to the United States in 1936.
On this date in 1909, Congress passed the first U.S. law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of opium, an addictive narcotic drug.
On this date in 1837, English nurse Florence Nightingale wrote that the voice of God had spoken to her, calling her to an as-yet unnamed mission.
In the early 1920s, William Parry Murphy began a lifelong association with Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston where he met colleague George R. Minot.
A California woman who was told she could never have children made history on this date in 1984 by giving birth to the first child by embryo transfer.
On this date in 1884, German physician and bacteriologist Robert Koch discovered cholera vibrio, a comma-shaped bacterium that causes Asiatic cholera, an often-deadly disease.
Until a working vaccine was developed against tuberculosis, the primary method for treatment was isolation and rest at a sanatorium.
On this date in 1901, the play The Three Sisters debuted on the Moscow stage. The play was written by the Russian physician Anton Chekhov.
Thomas Vicary was barber-surgeon to King Henry VIII during the 16th century.
More than a half-century ago, a then little-known pharmaceutical company named Chas. Pfizer & Co. Inc. was selling penicillin and other products through other companies.
Long ago, picks and enamel scissors were the dentists implements of choice to remove decayed tooth tissue.
In 1930, a group of physicians began flying to other countries to demonstrate the latest methods in surgery and medicine.
James Marion Sims laid the foundation for gynecology as a medical specialty, despite his fathers contempt for the profession.
Until 1890, black doctors had no place to admit their patients.
President Lyndon Johnson presented the first Medicare card to former President Harry S. Truman on this date in 1966.
Although William Williams Keen created a number of innovative surgical techniques in the 19th century, he is probably better known as the surgeon who took part in the secret operation on President Grover Cleveland in 1893.
Wilhelm Roentgen, a German physicist, first presented his discovery of an X-ray device in December 1895.
The French-born surgeon Alexis Carrel, doing research at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City, developed techniques using tissue for cultivating the cells of warm-blooded animals.
In 1978, a new California law gave pregnant working women unpaid maternity leave of up to 4 months and a promise that they could return to their old jobs or similar ones when their leave ended.
On this date in 1861, the French physician Prosper Mιniθre published his first report about a malady of the inner ear that eventually became known as Mιniθres disease.
On this date in 1964, then-U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry released the first Surgeon Generals report on smoking and health.
Even if youve never lit a cigarette in your life, you may still be in danger of developing diseases associated with the nicotine habit.
The first time that a physician treated a patient with penicillin occurred on this date in 1929.
Norman E. Shumway performed the worlds third human heart transplant, and the first on U.S. soil, on this date in 1968.
Physiologist Joseph Erlanger's research on the nervous tissue of frogs led to an increased knowledge of the nature of nerve impulses.
When he was only 3, Louise Braille, born on this date in 1809, was permanently blinded in an accident with a leatherworking awl in his father's saddlemaking shop in Coupvray, France.
On this date in 1938, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the March of Dimes to fight polio.
You may already know about William Morton's successful dental operation in 1846 using ether as an anesthetic.
Hugo Munsterberg, a pioneer in the field of industrial psychology, examined the workplace particularly the impact of monotony, attention and fatigue, and physical and social influences.
Growing up in Iceland just below the Arctic Circle, Niels Finsen was acutely aware of the good effects of sunlight.
Using the mold on bread as his focus of experimentation, Edward L. Tatum was able to track the genetic inheritance patterns of the mold known as nNeurospora.
The first tuberculosis diagnostic laboratory where specimens of sputum could be examined was authorized on this date in 1893 by the New York City Department of Health.
Andrew Taylor Still grew up in Tennessee and Missouri in the early 1800s and got what education he could from local schools and his father, a Methodist minister.
Famous British man of letters Samuel Johnson kept copious notes and diaries about his life, most of which was filled with illness.
On this date in 1991, Kimberly Bergalis, 23, died of AIDS after contracting HIV from her dentist.
On this date in 1846, English physician Thomas Bevill Peacock described four congenital heart defects often occurring together.
Cremation is nothing new; the Greeks practiced cremation as early as 1000 B.C.
On this date in 1941, an Australian nurse named Elizabeth Kenney obtained U.S. approval for a new polio treatment she devised using massage therapy.
You might consider videotaping the birth of your baby, but would you let a television station tape the delivery to show to its audience?
Today is World AIDS Day, a day devoted to increasing the publics awareness about acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Virginia Henderson is regarded by many as the first lady of nursing.
Carlo Levi completed his training to become a doctor in Italy, but his politics got in the way of his practice.
As you might expect, the first state medical society was founded in Massachusetts.
The first operation to remove a brain tumor was performed by the nephew of the famous 19th century British surgeon Joseph Lister.
Russell Morse Wilder contributed a great deal to understanding diabetes.
When the American Medical Association was founded in 1846, it barred women from its membership, furthering the discrimination being practiced against women by members of the medical profession.
Sir Andrew Huxley went to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study the physical sciences, but a suggestion from a friend led him to switch his interest to physiology.
The bizarre healing of a stomach wound allowed a little-known U.S. Army surgeon to found the field of science known as gastroenterology.
Italian physician Cesare Lombroso gained notoriety in the 19th century for his studies relating to criminology.
The field of dental hygiene can be attributed to the foresight of one man: Alfred Civilion Fones.
The invention of the life preserver during the 19th century was a milestone in public health, mainly because knowing how to swim did not become essential to Americans until the early 20th century.
In 1854, just after the Crimean War between England and Russia broke out, a young nurse named Florence Nightingale read reports of the horrid conditions in British medical hospitals.
Samuel Pepys, who is said to have written the greatest diary in the English language, recorded many details of his life in 17th century London, including the great fire of 1666.
Ephraim McDowell received a somewhat unorthodox medical education: He was taught by a private physician in Virginia before attending the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1793.
Dr. Rudolf Matas, professor of surgery at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University) from 1895 to 1927, was a pioneer in the surgery of the blood vessels, chest and abdomen and was hailed by some as the father of vascular surgery."
On this date in 1821, 68 apothecaries met at Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia to establish better scientific standards and provide better training for apothecary students and apprentices.
Inkblots are often used in psychiatry to determine a person's personality type.
Ask any grade school student to name a famous woman scientist and the name that's sure to pop up is Marie Curie.
Let's all smile brightly to commemorate the birth of dentist John Allen, who was born on this date in 1810.
Dr. George Miller Sternberg began his distinguished career as an assistant surgeon in the Union army and was even captured during the Civil War.
The seizures and convulsions of epilepsy are associated with a variety of brain dysfunctions including, but not limited to, a head injury, an infection, a tumor, a stroke or even an inherited predisposition.
Although Dr. William Morton is usually associated with the use of ether, it is generally acknowledged that Dr. Crawford Williamson Long was the first to use the substance as an anesthetic.
Anyone who has taken a science class is familiar with the work of John Dalton.
Jonas Salk, born on this date in 1914, is renowned for creating the first successful polio vaccine.
William Harvey was the first to prove that blood continuously circulates throughout the body in a contained system.
An infant girl known only as "Baby Fae" made headlines by becoming the first infant to receive a heart transplant from a monkey.
On this date in 1632, Anton van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, The Netherlands. Van Leeuwenhoek became one of the most famous microscope experts of all time.
Philippe Ricord was said to be a practical joker, but his 19th century studies of sexual diseases were no laughing matter.
Thomas Linacre, born around 1460, went to Catholic schools before spending 10 years in Italy studying medicine under a famous doctor of the time (Nicholas Leonicenus).
Daniel Whistler was the first to write about rickets - a bone-deformity disease caused by a deficiency in vitamin D. Whistler first described the disease in a thesis he submitted to obtain his medical degree at the University of Leyden, which was submitted on Oct. 18, 1645.
Two years of collaboration between James Watson and Francis Crick culminated in the creation in 1953 of a model of the molecular structure of DNA.
For anyone who suffered the mumps as a child, today is a day to think about Ernest William Goodpasture, M.D. Goodpasture, an American immunologist born on this date in 1886, is credited with isolating the mumps virus.
Charles Everett Koop, M.D., controversial Surgeon General of the U.S. from 1981 to 1989, was born on this date in 1916.
In 1948, he established the first clinic for alcoholic liver disease at the medical center and began investigating the mechanisms of the disease.
William Quinland was a pathologist and educator who contributed pioneering research on pathology in African-Americans.
Edith H. Quimby, a former high school science teacher who later became a professor of radiology at Columbia University, helped develop applications for X-rays, radium and radioactive isotopes in the early part of this century.
French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) lent his name to a beheading device, the guillotine, used extensively during the French Revolution.
When Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., opened its doors on this date in 1868, its faculty included a professor of veterinary medicine - the first American university to offer such training.
A preliminary meeting to discuss the formation of a professional pharmaceutical organization was held in October 1851 at the New York College of Pharmacy.
The prestigious Lancet, a British medical journal, was first published on this date in 1823.
Scottish naval surgeon James Lind conducted many experiments while trying to cure scurvy.
The New England Journal of Medicine can trace its roots to the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Fear of surgery and the pain associated with the surgeons knife has long been an issue for patients.
One of the most respected physicians of the 17th century, Thomas Sydenham, completed his tome, "Schedula Monitoria de Novae Febris Ingressa," more than 300 years ago today, summing up all he knew about disease.
This week marks the birth of an early kidney expert.
The Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damien, held this week honors the first saints who were called upon specifically to heal disease.
When Paracelsus became a medical professor at the University of Basel, his first assignment was to burn medical books written by Galen and Avicenna.
The key to every biological problem must finally be sought in the cell, said Edmund Beecher Wilson, the man who taught the first biology course in this country.
Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid on this date in 1921. Dickson, who was a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson, was newly married at the time.
In 1948, Edward Kendall and Philip Hench created the first of the many miracle drugs," which were actually synthesized hormones, to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.
The first national scientific society in the United States was the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), referred to by one of its early members as "the great mother organization" of learning.
One of the most prestigious medical colleges in the country was founded more than 200 years ago today, and doors opened two months later.
Ella Phillips Crandall was a leader in public health nursing who spent much of her career battling disease, filth and poverty in American city slums.
Researchers spent much of the 19th century looking for various ways to mask the pain of surgery.
Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and experimental psychologist, is usually associated with his most famous work, conditioned reflexes.
After receiving a medical degree from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City, Walter Reed went to work for the boards of health of New York City and Brooklyn
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.
On this date in 1944, the Harvard Medical School reported the development of synthetic skin.
On the night of April 15, 1865, a man knocked on the door of the Maryland home of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd seeking medical attention.
This week marks the anniversary of the first use of one of the earliest infant incubators for premature babies.
John Coakley Lettsom (1744-1815) was a famous English physician, philanthropist and chronicler of the human condition.
On this date in 1952, the deep-chill technique was used for the first time in surgery.
"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." Henry Gray published the first edition of the book as, "A Systemic Treatise on Anatomy," on this date in 1858.
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.
On this date in 1911, the British orthopedic surgeon who invented the modern artificial hip, was born.
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.
Initial rumors about sweating sickness, or sudor Angelicus, occurred on this date in 1485, in England.
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.
Next time you find yourself staring at the ceiling of your dentist's office think of M. Waldo Hanchett of Syracuse, N.Y.
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. Marys Hospital, London.
Jean Piaget was born on this date in 1896.
On this date in 1797, "The Medical Repository" became the first medical magazine and the first scientific periodical published in the United States.
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 isotope to the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital in St. Louis for use in cancer research.
John Collins Warren's father, John Warren, founded the Harvard Medical School in 1782, so it was natural that his son would enroll there.
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.
In vitro fertilization is popularly, and inaccurately, associated with the term test tube babies.
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.
One of the first educators to write widely used textbooks on psychology was Charles Hubbard Jedd, a graduate of Wesleyan University who received his doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1896.
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.
Acupuncture, the ancient Chinese treatment of using fine needles and inserting them just under the top layer of skin, has gained a measure of acceptance in the United States today.
In the 16th century, a trip to the barbershop could result in more than a trim.
On this date in 1985, H. Harlan Stone, M.D., devised a unique method for keeping patients in stitches.
In April 1721, the first cases of smallpox arrived in Boston on a ship from the West Indies.
In the years after World War II, the U.S. government became more involved in medical research. One of the most significant studies, undertaken in the early '60s, was the Surgeon General's report on the effects of smoking.
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.
Harold Delf Gillies is not a household name, but he put the facelift on the map of modern medical practice.
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.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist and pathologist who, in 1907, was the first to describe the devastating disease that would bear his name.
In 323 BC, Alexander the Great died mysteriously after partaking in a celebration and consuming large amounts of food and alcohol in Babylon.
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.
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