WILLIAM STEWART HALSTED. 599 



barrassed before audiences, men were drawn to him because of his 

 sterling worth, and honors were generously awarded him because of 

 the value of his scientific papers. His election to Fellowship in this 

 Academy was followed by membership in no less than thirty scienti- 

 fic and learned societies. 



In his autobiography which appeared only a few years before his 

 death, referring to his youth, he wrote; "All I aspired to was oppor- 

 tunity for scientific research, believing that diligence, singleness of 

 purpose, and honest work would bring its own reward." His aspira- 

 tions were amply fulfilled and diligence, singleness of purpose, and 

 honest work certainly brought their own reward. 



Hermon C. Bumpus. 



WILLIAM STEWART HALSTED (1852-1922). 



Fellow in Class II, Section 4, 1901. 



Professor Halsted, certainly one of the most cultivated, and regarded 

 by many as the most eminent surgeon of his time, in view of the 

 character of his contributions, died at noon on Thursday, the seventh 

 of September, in the Johns Hopkins Hospital, of which he had been 

 surgeon-in-chief since soon after its opening. At that time, in 1889, 

 neither he nor his clinical colleagues, Osier and Kelly, had as yet 

 turned forty. 



A man of unique personality, shy, something of a recluse, fastidious 

 in his tastes and in his friendships, an aristocrat in his breeding, 

 scholarly in his habits, the victim for many years of indifferent health, 

 he nevertheless was one of the few American surgeons who may be 

 considered to have established a school of surgery, comparable, in a 

 sense, to the school of Billroth in Vienna. He had few of the qualities 

 supposed to accompany what the world regards as a successful surgeon. 

 Over-modest about his work, indifferent to matters of priority, caring 

 little for the gregarious gatherings of medical men, unassuming, having 

 little interest in private practice, he spent his medical life avoiding 

 patients — even students, when this was possible — and, when health 

 permitted, working in clinic and laboratory at the solution of a suc- 

 cession of problems which aroused his interest. He had that rare 



