Who’s Who in Orthopedics
of the Court of the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales.
I was considered, by my friends, to be a good surgeon but enjoyed a vastly overrated repu- tation as a teacher. I was also a good after- dinner speaker, another rather valueless accomplishment.
In 1939 I married Nancy Mary Webb, my dearly loved and unfailing supporter. We had three children. I have enjoyed my life and, given the chance, would do the same again.
David Lloyd Griffiths (Lloyd to his colleagues) was a remarkable person with his own firm views on matters orthopedic and general. He expressed these with clarity and honesty, sometimes with ascerbic intensity, but was a stickler for accuracy of expression.
His “auto-obituary” infers that his career in Manchester left him unfulfilled, although one must doubt that assessment. He certainly had a deep attachment to Oswestry as a senior member of the “Welsh firm” in harness with Sir Reginald Watson-Jones, Rowland Hughes, Gruff Roberts, Arwyn Evans and others. His contact with rural Welsh life in peripheral clinics led to a valiant struggle with the intricacies of the Welsh tongue.
The respect of his patients was reinforced by his deep knowledge of Welsh and Celtic culture and music.
He did not aspire to high office in the British Orthopedic Association but he commanded great respect internationally as a teacher, lecturer and writer. His contribution to the management of spinal tuberculosis in developing countries is a notable memorial.
His occasional eccentricity was legendary: I have seen him meandering to the operating theater from the doctor’s mess dressed in a col- orful kimono emblazoned with a red dragon (Welsh presumably).
He retired with Nancy to Eglwysbach in the idyllic Conwy Valley for a very happy period of vigorous community and academic activities.
After he lost his beloved Nancy, he reluctantly left Wales for Cheshire. Despite deteriorating eye- sight and general ill health, his spirit remained indomitable to the end.
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Patrick HAGLUND
1870–1937
In its earliest stages Scandinavian orthopedic practice developed largely along German lines.
Special hospitals for the treatment of cripples were set up, often under the aegis of voluntary organizations. These institutions provided not only beds and outpatient clinics but workshops, which became centers for the supply of orthope- dic appliances and artificial limbs for a consider- able hinterland, and were used also for vocational training. Patrick Haglund of Stockholm was for many years the recognized leader among a small and slowly expanding group of Scandinavian orthopedists. His earlier training had been in German orthopedic clinics and on returning to Stockholm he began almost single handed to create an orthopedic center in premises that con- sisted of a number of houses adapted for the purpose. This was the forerunner of the modern orthopedic hospital to be erected 30 years later on the site of the new medical center of the Caroline Institute—the Medical College of Stockholm. In the rear of opening of the new hospital, Haglund reached the age of 65 and thus was deprived of the joy of working in an institute to the design of which he had given so much thought. To the somewhat primitive and crowded premises of the old Vanforeanstalten, Haglund had attracted patients from all over Sweden and he made good use of this material in his writings and in the train- ing of his assistants. Haglund was a man of high culture, widely read, and a lover of music. His monograph on the Principles of Orthopedics
(1923) was a scholarly work. It was written in German and no English translation ever became available. For many years the great majority of children with congenital dislocation of the hip joint in Sweden found their way to Haglund and it was this large series of cases that formed the basis of the notable survey of late results of treat- ment published in 1941 by a former pupil—Erik Severin. Another important contribution that came from the old clinic was the review by Harald Nilsonne of the remarkable results of cuneiform osteotomy in an unusually large series of cases of that uncommon deformity infantile coxa vara.
essentially a proprietary school with a small faculty. Halsted became the assistant to the pro- fessor of physiology, John C. Dalton, the first American physiologist to use live animals to demonstrate procedures. Halsted graduated with honors in 1877 and spent the next 18 months as an intern at Bellevue Hospital. He was assigned to the Fourth Surgical Division where Frank Hastings Hamilton, the leading authority on frac- tures in the United States, was one of the two attendings. After his internship, Halsted became a house surgeon at the newly opened New York Hospital.
In the fall of 1878, Halsted went to Vienna where he attended various clinics, including those of Billroth. From Vienna he made an extended tour of surgical clinics in Germany. On returning to New York, he joined the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He soon achieved an excellent reputation as a teacher as he slowly developed a private practice.
In 1884, Halsted began his experiments with the use of cocaine as a local anesthetic. Both he and his friend and associate Richard J. Hall even- tually became addicted to cocaine. The next few years of his professional life were chaotic as he struggled with his addiction. After a wide variety of treatments, including a stay in a sanatorium, Halsted was able to resume his career, although he remained addicted to morphine for the rest of his life. His work in New York was over. In 1892, largely through the influence of his old New York friend William Welch, Halsted was appointed Professor of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore.
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Who’s Who in Orthopedics
William Stewart HALSTED
1852–1922
William Stewart Halsted was born and raised a New Yorker. His father was a prosperous mer- chant and a member of the Board of Trustees of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. Halsted was educated at private school in Massachusetts and spent 6 years at Andover College, from which he graduated at the age of 16 years. After another year of private schooling in New York, he entered Yale University in 1870.
A good athlete, he was captain of the first official football team fielded by the school. He did not shine as a scholar. In his senior year he expressed an interest in medicine.
He entered the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in 1874. This school, like the other seven medical schools in New York at that time, was
