Peru's Day of Medicine honours a student who infected himself for science.
In 1885 Daniel Alcides Carrión inoculated himself with blood from a patient's wart and proved it was the same disease as Oroya fever. It killed him, and now bears his name.
More amazing facts
- 1883 The last quagga died at Amsterdam Zoo on 12 August 1883 — two weeks before Krakatoa's catastrophic eruption.
- 1883 · 1884 The Brooklyn Bridge was proven safe with elephants: in May 1884 P. T. Barnum marched 21 of them across, led by the famous Jumbo, easing public doubts and advertising his circus at once.
- 1883 · 1892 A German hygienist drank a cholera culture to prove Koch wrong.
- 1886 The Statue of Liberty was a shiny reddish brown, like a new penny.
- 1886 Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist as a medicine.
- 1887 · 1888 The pneumatic tyre was invented by a vet for his son's tricycle.