Great names in medicine

Armand Trousseau was born in Tours on 14 October 1801. A physician and clinical teacher, he gave his name to several signs and syndromes. This date marks his birth, not the description of those observations.

Dutch physician and psychiatrist Rudolf Adriaan Mees was born on 14 October 1873 in Deventer. His name is associated with transverse white nail bands described in his observations of arsenic poisoning, published in 1919.

Sydney Ringer died on 14 October 1910. The British clinician, physiologist and pharmacologist studied the effects of mineral salts on the heart. The solution named after him belongs to that experimental history; its formulation predates his death.

Augusta Déjerine-Klumpke was born on 15 October 1859. The neurologist is associated with the history of brachial plexus research and the palsy named after her. Her birthday is distinct from the description published in 1885.

American physician Edwin Allen Locke was born on 15 October 1874. His name appears in the history of cardiac examination through the Cabot-Locke eponym. The date shown here is his birthday.

American radiologist Leo George Rigler was born on 16 October 1896. His name appears in several milestones of radiology, including Rigler’s sign and triad. This date records his birth, separately from later publications.

Scottish orthopaedic surgeon Robert Symon Garden died on 16 October 1982. His name is associated with a hip fracture classification published in 1961. This milestone marks his death, not the creation of that classification.

Scottish physician and anatomist Matthew Baillie is born in Shotts. His 1793 treatise The Morbid Anatomy describes diseased organs and contributes to the development of pathological anatomy.

Welsh surgeon Ivor Lewis is born; he is associated with the two-stage oesophagogastric operation described in 1946 that bears his name.

French surgeon Paul Ferdinand Segond dies; in 1879 he had described the lateral tibial plateau avulsion fracture that now bears his name.