cover image Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted

Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted

Gerald Imber. Kaplan Publishing, $25.95 (389pp) ISBN 978-1-60714-627-8

In this nuanced, sympathetic tribute, surgeon and author Imber (Absolute Beauty) recounts the pioneering medical career of brilliant doctor William Stewart Halsted. Halsted was born in 1852, at a time when the mortality rate of surgical patients was nearly 50 percent, typically a result of unchecked bleeding or post-operative infection; a Civil War soldier shot in the abdomen or even suffering a non-mortal wound would likely die of gangrene. Halsted was at the forefront of those demanding sterile conditions in the operating room, and ""inadvertently set in motion the greatest advance in the history of sterile technique"" when he introduced rubber gloves for nurses. Travelling to Germany during his student days, Halsted also learned to control bleeding by clamping and tying blood vessels. Like many doctors of his time, Halsted became addicted to cocaine (later morphine) in the process of testing his patients' anesthetic; he also pioneered in medical research (operating on animals to learn more about mammal physiology), and continued to make important contributions (while hiding his drug problem) until his death at age 70. With this engaging (if spectacularly subtitled) biography, Imber brings into focus the amazing strides medicine has made over 150 years.