Allotrion

An idle pursuit that distracts from serious responsibilities.

From an article on Freud, for whom 12 years of compulsive cocaine use was an allotrion which he was eager to conclude once he got published.

It freaks me out sometimes to read historical accounts or biographies with tidbits like the fact that in 1896 his first influential article was published and this was the first use of the word 'psychoanalysis.' 

Like, wow.  I can't get through the workday without  frequently encountering the word, its variants, or the whole Freudian matrix of concepts.  All perfectly taken for granted.

A biography of John Hunter, the Scottish 'father of experimental surgery' was a constant experience like this, of all the modern medical concepts we take for granted, like not plunging your hands in dung and then the patient's body.  For starters...

That book: Wendy Moore, The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery.  Another interesting article on surgical pioneers:

 Halsted .  Sorry it's a mobile link.  The site won't let me into the non-mobile page on the phone.  I hate when they do that.

Anyway, I lost the thread... Was gonna talk about Charles Drew and basics like blood and plasma transfusions.  I'm fascinated by the histories of how people figured medical stuff out.  SF future spec has to be built on where the basics come from, and also the wierd fortuitous ways inventions and discoveries are made...