A Last Entry*

B''H

"Courage, courage, courage, courage, courage.... This mystery is not so great."

This is what Rachel said as she cradled my head and whispered into my ear. She stroked my head and kissed me on the kepe.

Life as a doctor

B''H

Dear Readers,

Hanna Rose has been very ill and thus has not been able to place any entries for several months.  Her husband, the "Historian", yours truly, as you can guess (vide infra) is a physician and is taking up her cudgel.  I do not write as well or as easily as she which will result in far less frequent entries. One final note, please pray for her.

Reflections on William Halsted

William Stewart Halsted (1852 – 1922) was, and still is, the most famous American surgeon. He was one of the founding faculty members of Johns Hopkins University, which was consciously set up to be the finest medical institution in the world. Instrumental in pioneering aseptic technique, use of rubber gloves in surgery, wearing surgical garb rather than street clothes, wound healing, vascular surgery, mastectomies, hernia work, and excision of goiters, he was, and is, the father of modern surgical training. Many of the finest physicians of the first half of the 20th century considered him to be their mentor.

For example, William Sidney Thayer said, "In Halsted's little operating room with the old wooden table, the antiseptic technique was so perfect that there was never a moment of anxiety. I could not believe my eyes. It was like stepping into a new world. At this time Halsted's technique was unique, the sureness and perfection of his results seem to me then… The nearest thing to a miracle that it has been given to me to witness."[1]