Originally published in hardcover: 2010. Includes bibliographical references (pages 359-373) and index.
Contents:
Tumultuous times -- Setting the stage -- Physicians and surgeons -- Becoming a surgeon -- New York -- Cocaine -- Visionary -- Very best men -- Baltimore -- Hospital on the hill -- Finding the way -- William Osler -- Operating room -- Radical cure of breast cancer -- Life in Baltimore -- Big four -- Hernia -- Establishing the routine -- Country squire -- First great medical school -- Teaching without teaching -- Residents -- Changes -- Into the 20th century -- Harvey Cushing -- All quiet on the home front -- After Cushing -- New horizons -- Addiction -- Vascular surgery -- Scientist -- New paradigm -- New era -- World changes -- "My dear Miss Bessie" -- Final illness -- Afterward.
Summary:
"Dr. William Stewart Halsted's life was fascinating and complex. Halsted, perhaps the most important surgeon America has ever produced, battled a lifelong cocaine addiction and maintained numerous secret relationships while simultaneously devising revolutionary medical innovations. Yet the story of Halsted's life, one of seemingly irreconcilable extremes, is in many ways the story of modern medicine. Before Halsted, poorly-trained doctors performed surgery without anesthesia in unsanitary conditions and patients were rarely expected to survive. Halsted transformed the medical practice by inventing local and spinal anesthesia; introducing the use of rubber gloves during surgery; pioneering the use of fine silk thread for sutures; developing techniques for stabilizing blood pressure during surgery; and inventing the radical mastectomy, blood transfusions, and surgical cures for hernias. Genius on the Edge is an illuminating biography of a complex and troubled man whose brilliance we continue to benefit from today."--Publisher's description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.