Book 3, Question 147
Why Do Doctors Wear Gloves?
Doctors wear gloves to stop germs from passing between their hands and their patients.
Gloves are a thin wall. They keep a doctor's skin from sharing tiny germs with a patient. And they keep a patient's germs off the doctor, too!
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Quick answers
When did doctors start wearing gloves?
Not until 1894.
Sources: National Geographic, BBC
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 3
More fun facts
- Doctors did not start wearing gloves for surgery or exams until 1894.
- Surgeon William Halsted had Goodyear Rubber Works make custom rubber gloves for his nurse, Caroline Hampton.
- Surgeons and nurses wore rubber gloves partly to protect their skin from carbolic acid, a germ-killing chemical used in operating rooms.
- Surgeon Joseph Lister used Louis Pasteur's germ theory to find ways to cut the risk of infection during surgery.
- Infections happened when microbes got into a wound.
- The oldest gloves ever found are a linen pair from King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt.
Sources: National Geographic, BBC
Questions kids ask
When did doctors start wearing gloves?
Doctors began wearing gloves for surgery and exams in 1894.