History of Bilirubin

Abstract

The history of bilirubin actually goes back many hundreds of years, when newborn infants were observed to be jaundiced.More recent accounts of jaundice in newborns seems to have begun in the late eighteenth century.One of those was written by Jean Baptiste Thimotee Baumes (Baumes, J. 1806).This description was published as a chapter in a book entitled Traite de L’amaigrissemwnt des enfans.The chapter relating to jaundice is entitled Traite de L’ictere ou jaunisse des enfans de naissance.