Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud (1796-1881) and Armand Trousseau (1801-1867). Professor Bouillaud first reported an association between cancer and thrombosis in a manuscript published in the Archives of General Medicine in 1823. However, it is Professor Trousseau’s report in 1865 that is more widely quoted as the first documentation of this phenomenon. Professor Trousseau was certain of the importance of this association, stating that “So great, in my opinion, is the value of phlegmasia in the cancerous cachexia, that I regard this phlegmasia as a sign of the cancerous diathesis as certain as sanguinolent effusion into the serous cavities.” At the age of 66, he recognized the development of phlebitis in his left upper arm, was soon thereafter diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and died months later. Portraits courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.