Halsted, William Stewart

Halsted, William Stewart (hôl`stĭd), 1852–1922, American surgeon, b. New York City, M.D. College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1877. He practiced in New York and in 1886 became the first professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins, where he was associated with Sir William Osler, W. H. Welch, and H. A. Kelly in developing the great medical school and hospital. His surgical contributions include an operative technique based on minimum injury of tissues, anesthesia by the injection of cocaine into the nerves, a method of operating for cancer of the breast and for hernia, experimental work on the thyroid, and the introduction of the use of rubber gloves.

Bibliography

See his Surgical Papers (2 vol., 1924); biography by A. J. Beckhard and W. D. Crane (1960).

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Halsted, William Stewart (1852–1922) surgeon; born in New York City. For most of his career he was affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital (1889–1922), where he trained many surgeons. In 1881, he administered what is thought to be the first blood transfusion in the United States. He devised successful operative techniques for breast cancer and inguinal hernia and discovered the anesthetic use of cocaine (1884).