The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: No Lead-In

The lateness of the hour and the abominable spectre of tomorrow's workload means that your dear Wombat, fortified now only by his evening bowl of consomme and a healthy shot of zucchini schnapps, must forgo the long-winded preambles with which he has tested your patience of late. On to this week's skull-sweater:

In 1874, William Halstead graduates from Yale, through most of college he is interested more in athletics than in academics. However, in his senior year he becomes interested in a text by John C. Dalton, which sets him on his professional course In 1881, he saves his sister's life, and later that year, possibly his mother's as well. In 1884 he becomes addicted to cocaine; in later years, he attempts to detox, and winds up addicted to morphine, although few around him suspect it. In 1889, working with his colleague and future wife Caroline Hampton, he attempts to address the problem of the dermatitis she suffers due to their working conditions. As a result, he creates an innovation that literally saves thousands of lives, and is still in use all over the world today.

What was Halstead's innovation?

First correct answer to comments wins a copy of the rare coffee table book Really Cute Pictures of Bear Cubs Taken Just Before the Inevitable Surprise Return of the Mother Bear and the Predictable Mauling that Ensued (Mauling Press, 1992). No Googling, and no Barney Google. For that matter, no Gasoline Alley, either (and just to be safe, steer clear of Snuffy Smith, at least for the next six hours). One guess per comment, but comment as often as you like

Comments

what's going on? I'm still at work on Friday and the quiz has already begun?

How about sunscreen?

Posted by: art | October 20, 2006 12:44 AM

Maybe the slip slap slop campaign has primed me too much (after all we don't have any ozone down here ....heeeelllllppppp!)

But seriously, rubber gloves?

Posted by: art | October 20, 2006 01:00 AM

let me take that one step further....rubbers? (you know what I mean)

Posted by: art | October 20, 2006 01:15 AM

I am of course thinking of the saving of 1000s of lives; I respect the fact that this is a family blog.

Posted by: art | October 20, 2006 01:17 AM

I like the sunscreen answer, but will vary just a bit on Art's other answers, and say "latex"

Posted by: herbivorous | October 20, 2006 09:00 AM

I dunno, can calamine really save lives?

Posted by: james | October 20, 2006 09:22 AM

I'll go with the safety belt, and figure out later how it connects to the dermatitis.

Posted by: gavinedwards | October 20, 2006 09:34 AM

"Wet Ones" tm?

Posted by: herbivorous | October 20, 2006 09:41 AM

the sweater

Posted by: james | October 20, 2006 10:29 AM

An incomplete version of the answer has been posted, but the innovation itself involves a bit more detail than has yet been offered.

Posted by: BT | October 20, 2006 10:30 AM

Is the Wombat cavilling, waiting for somebody to say "latex gloves"?

(Because I really hope the answer isn't "latex sweater.")

Posted by: gavinedwards | October 20, 2006 10:59 AM

No, it's a bit more complicated than that.

Posted by: BT | October 20, 2006 11:07 AM

latex in paint

Posted by: boxjam | October 20, 2006 11:18 AM

sweater vest

Posted by: james | October 20, 2006 11:36 AM

Latex gloves with a light dusting of talcum powder?

Posted by: gavinedwards | October 20, 2006 12:04 PM

proctology?

Posted by: herbivorous | October 20, 2006 12:56 PM

the synthesis of artificial latex

Posted by: herbivorous | October 20, 2006 12:58 PM

(is there such a thing as natural latex?)

Maybe it was inventing a way to keep the gloves sterile?

If not, then it must be the Swiffer. Or perhaps the Whiskey Rebellion.

Posted by: gavinedwards | October 20, 2006 01:57 PM

zinc oxide

Posted by: james | October 20, 2006 02:11 PM

the surgical mask

Posted by: james | October 20, 2006 02:20 PM

Hmmm...I feel like this is one of those situations where the answer has long since been guessed, it's just that nobody's SAID it. Art got 75% of the way there right off the bat with "rubber gloves". And I think everyone has assumed that he meant in the context of surgery...but I've been waiting, perhaps fruitlessly, for someone to say it.

So: what we're looking for is or was the use of gloves (originally Goodyear rubber, not specifically latex) for surgery. Halstead's wife, as a surgical nurse, was washing her hands with an antiseptic solution, but it was hard on her skin. So, he was originally looking to solve that problem and commissioned gloves to be made for her. Later, he figured out that the gloves themselves were a much better means to keeping the surgery sterile than mere hand-washing.

He's also credited with pioneering the use of blood transfusions in surgery (he saved his sister's life by performing an impromptu transfusion of his blood into her, when she was hemorraghing after childbirth), as well as other innovations in treatment.

He got the cocaine addiction after self-experimenting with injected cocaine as an anaesthetic.

Thanks for playing -- sorry for any confusion sowed in my answers...

Posted by: BT | October 20, 2006 02:30 PM

whoo-hoo

does this mean I get to play in the Wombat Finals this year?

Posted by: art | October 20, 2006 08:54 PM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

The Wombat File is a Delaying Tactic that May Save Your Life

The Friday Quiz: No Lead-In

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