October 27, 1922] 



BCIEhCE 



463 



basis of our views regarding exophthalmic 

 goitre as an expression of functional over- 

 activity. The correctness of his observations 

 and interpretation of them, indeed, remained 

 unquestioned until he himself repeated the ex- 

 periments and, failing .to corroborate his origi- 

 nal results, promptly reported the fact before 

 one of the biological societies. It was a strik- 

 ing example of his scien'tifio honesty, and it re- 

 mained for someone else to point out, on the 

 basis of new facts relating to iodine, how it 

 was that his original interjDretation had been 

 nearer the truth than his later one. 



Another of his early studies was on intestinal 

 resection and suture, and he introduced a 

 method of anastomosis of the bowel, 'based on 

 the distribution of the blood supply and on 

 the correct placement of the sutures, far su- 

 perior to that of any of his predecessors. 

 These two subjects, the surgery of the thyroid 

 and intestine, continued to engage his atten- 

 tion to the end, and among his last publica- 

 tions was a monograph entitled "The Operative 

 Story of Goitre" published two years before 

 his death; and another on the bulkhead prin- 

 ciple of intestinal anatomosis. 



His interest lay not in the number of cases 

 he might operate upon 'but in working at cer- 

 tain principles of surgery, and in the course 

 of his experiments upon the thyroid and para- 

 thyroid bodies, he hit upon what is known as 

 Halsted's Law, namely, that "a transplant of 

 a portion of a ductless gland will survive only 

 when a physiological deficit has been pro- 

 duced." 



On the opening of the hospital in 1889 he 

 turned his attention to questions of technique, 

 and was among the first American surgeons 

 to grasp fully the principle of the new aseptic 

 surgery. The introduction of silver as suture 

 material and as a covering for wounds be- 

 cause of its bactericidal qualities was due to 

 him. He studied the healing of an aseptic 

 blood-clot in closed wounds. He introduced ■ 

 gutta-percha in the form of "protective" as 

 a dressing for open wounds. He showed how 

 silk could be safely buried in the tissues, an 

 important principle many surgeons are in- 

 capable of learning. He was among the first 



to insist upon absolute blood-stilling in the 

 course of operations in da3's when operations 

 were bloody affairs, and he introduced the form 

 of delicate pointed forceps for hamostosis now 

 universally in use. He also introduced rubber 

 gloves into surgery in the early nineties, and, 

 being himself a painstaking rather than a bril- 

 liant or spectacular operator, it was long be- 

 fore gloves came into use in other clinics — 

 indeed, for yeai-s they were very much scoffed 

 at as clumsy impediments to manipulation. 



His operation for cancer of the breast revo- 

 lutionized the treatment of these eases, and the 

 same might be said of his hernia operation, 

 though in this he shared the honors with Bas- 

 sini, an Italian, who introduced a high in- 

 guinal operation with repair of the canal at 

 about the same time. In the late nineties his 

 attention was chiefly centered upon the dis- 

 eases of the gall-bladder and its ducts, and the 

 early radical operation on the common duet 

 emanated from his clinic. Possibly few men 

 in 'the country knew more than did he about 

 the condition from which he was destined to 

 succumb — a stone in the ampulla of Vater. 



In later years he devoted himself chiefly to 

 studies relating to the blood-vessels and evolved 

 a method whereby in cases of aneurysm the 

 major trunks could be slowly constricted, and 

 in this as in all other subjects which his studies 

 illuminated, his inventive genius was displayed, 

 as well as his thorough knowledge of anatomy 

 and pathology. He was the first successfully 

 to ligate the left subclavian artery in its firat 

 portion for aneurysm and the only surgeon 

 who is recorded to have performed this rare 

 procedure twice. 



Halsted's honors were many. In 1900 at the 

 centennary of the Royal College of Surgeons 

 of England he, with J. C. Warren of Boston, 

 W. W. Keen of Philadelphia, and Robert F. 

 Weir of New York, were the four Americans 

 chosen to receive an honorary fellowship. A 

 few years later he was made an F. R. C. S. of 

 Edinburgh, and also an LL. D. both of Edin- 

 burgh and of his alma mater, Yale. Columbia 

 gave him a D. Sc. and he was a member of the 

 National Academy of Sciences as well as of 

 many other foreign and American scientific 



