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EESTI ELU reedel, 10. septembril 2021 — Friday, September 10, 2021
Nr. 36
Former Putin fan now singing a different tune RL/RFE, September 2021
Werner Zoege von Manteuffel (third from the left in the foreground) delivering a lecture, 1900. Photo: dspace.ut.ee
Estonian Scientific Feats: Rubber gloves for surgeons Vincent Teetsov Rubber gloves form an integ ral part of modern day medi cine. They protect patients from infections. They protect surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurses, and surgical techni cians from bodily fluids. They provide a layer of sterility that cannot be achieved by just washing one’s hands; and thus, they prevent the conta mination of medical instru ments used during surgeries, the delivery of babies, or during routine checkups. We probably don’t think twice when a nurse or doctor pulls a rubber glove on. In fact, we’ve come to expect it. And yet, nearly 130 years ago, these gloves were not ubiquitous. If gloves were used at all, they were more likely to be made of materials like cotton, silk, or leather. In the book Contact Urticaria Syndrome published by the Taylor & Francis Group in 2015, it’s said that “In 1813, Adam Elias von Siebold initially suggested the use of latex gloves to reduce the risk of infections... The first pair of rubber gloves for surgical use was produced in circa 1889 by the Goodyear Rubber Com pany.” These gloves were made for surgical nurse Caroline Hamp ton and surgeon Dr. William Stewart Halsted of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s often noted that they introduced rubber surgical gloves to the United States. This was done not to prevent the spread of infections, but rather, as Dr. Halsted explained later in his life, to protect the hands of Caroline Hampton from disinfectants that irritated her skin. But it was Werner Maximilian Friedrich Zoege von Manteuffel, an Estonian of Baltic German heritage, who first widely advocated, in writ ing, for the sterilization and use of these gloves. They were known as “boiled hands” due to the way they were placed in boiling water for sterilization. Von Manteuffel was born on July 13th, 1857 at Määri Manor, in the village of Määri, Lääne-Viru County. He studied
at the present-day University of Tartu, achieving his doctorate degree in 1886 and then becom ing a professor of surgery just before the turn of the 20th century. In 1897, von Manteuffel wrote an article titled “Gummi handschuhe in der chirurgis chen praxis” (“Rubber Gloves in Surgical Practice”). In this article, he detailed his initial hunch about the limitations of merely washing one’s hands, but then went into more detail about all of the operations he had used gloves for thus far, and how they impacted his effi ciency as a surgeon. Namely, the gloves available to him at that time didn’t allow for com fortable movement of his thumbs when using instruments with scissor-like handles. In his conclusion, he was reluctant to predict their use by war surgeons due to the diffi culty of keeping them sterile in the field, but he said, “They will be appreciated by the coun try doctor, who can comfortably carry them [wrapped] in a sterile towel in a glass jar... the boiled rubber glove guarantees an absolutely germ-free hand.” Von Manteuffel’s thoughts on war medicine were not iso lated. He served in the Estonian War of Independence, for which he was awarded the Vabadusrist (Cross of Liberty). He was also a physician to Tsar Nicholas II. In the decades after von Manteuffel’s article, surgical gloves were widely discussed and their use became more widespread, with cleanliness as a primary motive. For instance, medical historian Dr. Thomas Schlich, from McGill Univer sity, writes of how, at the 1889 Congress of the German Society for Surgery, surgeons argued over the use of gloves by surgeons. They also com pared which glove designs would best facilitate dexterity in surgical procedures. Considering the use of disin fectants like carbolic aid in the 1860s, Dr. Schlich points to how gloves were a continuation of several technologies used to inhibit pathogenic organisms and sepsis. Over time, methods of glove sterilization were refined to mitigate deadly infec
Russian elections usually have their share of colorful charac ters, and the current cam paign for the State Duma is no exception. Oleg Likhachyov, a singer from the Tatarstan capital Kazan, is running for the Duma from the Communists of Russia party, which has been widely seen as a Kremlin-sponsored clone of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) aimed at draining off some of their electorate. The self-styled “Singing Deputy” raised eyebrows on September 2 when he used his two minutes of national televi sion airtime during a campaign debate to sing his new self- proclaimed “hit” – “I Renounce Putin.” “I waited four years,” he sings. “I blamed the sanctions. I did not betray the dream in the last elections. And I believed that our Putin is a fine fellow. But the people are financial widowers – You never dared to outlaw capitalism.” Seven years ago, Likhachyov was singing an entirely different tune. He was seemingly an ardent fan of President Vladimir Putin, the author of a 2014 viral sensation called Vladimir Putin Is A Fine Fellow (Russian title: Vladimir Putin – molodets!). A lavishly produced video of Likhachyov singing the song has accumulated more than 2.6 million views on YouTube, while another one – featuring his 12-year-old son, Sasha, tions. So too was the manufac turing of gloves, so that dis posable latex gloves were de rigueur by the mid 1960s. Today, the most popular dis posable surgical gloves are still those made from the latex of rubber trees. With latex aller gies in mind, however, alterna tives are used. Notably, since 2008, Johns Hopkins Hospital has stopped using almost all latex products, including gloves. They’ve opted for “sterile neoprene and polyisoprene gloves” that are more expensive but “have a more sensitive feel.” Changing materials aside, in 2007, in recognition of what would have been his 150th birthday, Eesti Post issued a commemorative stamp and postcard for von Manteuffel. The village society of Määri marked the occasion with the unveiling of a memorial stone, speeches, a blessing from a local church congregation’s clergyman, and music from a woodwind band. Though the effort to bring surgical glove use into the mainstream was by no means achieved by any solitary doctor, von Manteuffel’s advocacy has helped to save an untold num ber of lives in a way that continues to this day.
The annual Canadian International Air Show took place on the Toronto waterfront on September 4–5. Featured aircraft included the Orange helicopter, the CF-18 Hornet, the CC130J Hercules, the American Quicksilver 51 Mustang and the F35A fighter jet, and the RCAF PBY-5A Canso. Gordon Price, an 80-year old pilot, demonstrated his prototype red and white YAK50. The show’s highlight was the Canadian Snowbirds, who this year paid tribute to their fallen colleague, Captain Jennifer Casey, with a heart carved into the blue sky. Photos were taken with a Nikon D850 and its 80-400mm lens. The first day’s location was in Mimico, the second day at the Sheldon Lookout at the mouth of the Humber River. Photo: Peeter Põldre; more photos: eestielu.ca
belting out the lyrics – also went viral. “Vladimir Putin is a fine fellow!” runs the chorus. “Politician, leader, and fighter! Our president has raised up the country! Putin did not betray Russia.” In 2016, Likhachyov tried – and failed – to have Vladimir
Putin Is A Fine Fellow submit ted as Russia’s entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Experts…
Putin was also good because there are not many people in Estonia who have met Vladimir Putin face to face and talked.” Paet highlighted the visit took place in the context of the opening of the renovated Estonian embassy. He said the meeting with Putin did not have significant consequences be cause the government did not have a clear plan on how to use the meeting. Paet said Kaljulaid’s foreign policy has been strongly affected by the coronavirus pandemic that broke out at the beginning of 2020, which made foreign trips and arranging meetings more complicated and often impossible. Bahovski questioned some of Kaljulaid’s recent visits this year: “Why did the president have to go to Afghanistan when it was already known that troops would be withdrawn? I don’t think I would have gone to Japan during the Summer Olympics either. This visit is incomprehensible to me.” “But in general, Kaljulaid has flown the Estonian flag high, strongly represented the Estonian e-state and partici pated prominently in inter national conferences,” Bahovski concluded.
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Security Council. In connection with the UN Security Council, Kaljulaid’s activities were more significant and visible,” he said. Both Paet and Bahovski also highlighted Kaljulaid’s active participation in various inter national forums. Raik added: “Kaljulaid has also contributed to the issue of cyber security, which is one of Estonia’s trademarks in the international arena, for which Estonia is known and evaluated.” All three also mentioned Kaljulaid’s visit to Moscow in April 2019 where she met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The visit to Moscow was one of the most controversial events of her foreign policy activities,” Raik said. “But unlike the critics, I think we have to deal with neighbors with who we do not agree. That does not mean we have to give up our views. The preparations, details and also the consequen ces of this visit can be dis cussed, but there’s no reason to doubt its necessity.” Bahovski added: “The fact that she met with President
“My song is a counter balance to all those Conchitas,” he said in an interview that year, referring to Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst, who won the competition in 2014.
