March 12 – On This Day in Medical History

Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with March 12.

Events

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Births

1864 – William Halse Rivers Rivers (1864-1922), English psychiatrist, neurologist, anthropologist and polymath; remembered for his research into protopathic and epicritic Sensation, mapping of dermatomes, and his shell shock and abreaction therapy

1900 – Gilbert Dalldorf (1900-1979) was an American virologist; known for isolating and characterizing the Coxsackie viruses for the first time

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Deaths

1942 – Sir William Henry Bragg (1862–1942), English physicist, mathematician, and chemist. Invented the Bragg-Paul Pulsator, Bragg X-ray spectrometer (1910)

1949 – August Karl Gustav Bier (1861-1949), German Surgeon; described the Bier Block (1908) and performed the first spinal anaesthetic on August 16, 1898

1971 – Arthur Carlton Ernstene (1901-1971), American cardiologist; described Blumgart-Ernstene murmur (1933)

2017 – Thomas Evans Twitchell (1923-2017), American neurologist; defined sequential motor recovery after hemiplegia, shaping Brunnstrom staging and Fugl-Meyer assessment.

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Further reading