Having failed deprivation treatment, it was clear to Halsted that more
intensive medical intervention was required. Welch still believed in his
friend, but insisted that he seek help at a sanitarium, at the time just
becoming popular for treatment of drug addictions. Halsted checked
himself into the Butler Sanitarium in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1886,
and would spend seven months hospitalized for his cocaine addiction. A
mainstay of treatment at the time was substitution of one drug for another,
and Halsted was placed on a regimen of morphine—leading to a lifelong
addiction to that as well. While there was an emphasis on healthy eating
and outdoor activities, the introduction of morphine would lead to an
awkward balancing act; “one drug heightened sensations and a feeling of
omnipotence, the other a peaceful release from the world.”^19
Halsted was now in a precarious station in life. Instead of private
wealth, his father’s business was coming to ruination. There was nothing
to fall back on; now six years removed from completion of his medical
training, the previous great name he had made for himself was ruined. His
lavish tastes firmly set in stone, Halsted desperately needed to revive his
professional standing. In December 1886, just eight months from his
disastrous oceanic experiment, Welch once again came to the rescue.
Teetering, Halsted arrived by train in Baltimore and moved into the same
boarding house in downtown Baltimore with Welch.
Johns Hopkins University was founded in downtown Baltimore in 1876
(later moving to a more suburban location in the early 20th century), and
although two hundred years younger than Harvard and Yale, is considered
the first research university in America. Following the lead of German
educational leaders (particularly Wilhelm von Humboldt, founder of the
Humboldt University of Berlin), President Gilman emphasized the role of
research in education, both at the undergraduate level and among the
graduate schools. This scientific discovery of new knowledge, as opposed
to unimaginative recitation of outmoded facts, would greatly alter the
American academy.
The metamorphological growth in understanding of human disease had
changed stunningly in the preceding one hundred years. Morgagni first
connected symptoms with anatomical conditions. Rokitansky and Virchow
performed organ-based and cellular-oriented autopsies, thus furthering the
understanding of morbidity. But it was the new science of bacteriology
that was unlocking the comprehension of disease, and the new