For many it is difficult to grasp, let alone understand in any depth, the abundant nature of William Osler's (1849–1919) influence. Although knowing his name as a distinguished physician, few have more than a scant appreciation of his manifold contributions to medicine, and his example as the physician/historian and medical humanist par excellence. This essay considers Osler's scholarship as evidenced in his historical and biographical writings, and some lessons that we might learn from his endeavours.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
OslerW. Books and Men. In: Aequanimitas. With Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine.London: HK Lewis, 1904: p. 224
2.
Osler SirW. Incunabula medica. A Study of the Earliest Printed Medical Books 1467-1480.Oxford: Printed for the Bibliographical Society, Oxford University Press, 1923: p. 2
3.
OslerW. Men and Books by Sir William Osler. Collected and Reprinted from the Canadian Medical Association Journal with an Introduction by Earl F Nation, Pasadena.California: Castle Press, 1959. A second edition was published in 1987
4.
OslerW. An Alabama Student, and Other Biographical Essays.Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1908: p. 2
5.
Ibid.: pp 3ff.
6.
CushingH. The Life of Sir William Osler: 2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925: pp. 410-11
7.
OslerW. (op. cit. ref. 4): p. 68
8.
CushingH (op. cit. ref. 6): vol. I, p. 513
9.
Browne SirT. Religio medici.London: Andrew Crooke, 1642
10.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 4).: p. 248
11.
Osler SirW. Bibliotheca Osleriana. A Catalogue of Books Illustrating the History of Medicine and Science…. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1929: pp. 398 ff.
12.
CushingH (op. cit. ref. 6): vol. II., pp 21-3
13.
OslerW. The Growth of Truth as Illustrated in the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood. Being the Harveian Oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians October 18, 1906.London: H Frowde, 1906: p. 2
14.
CushingH (op. cit. ref. 6): vol. II, pp. 66ff
15.
HarveyW. Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus. Francofurti sumpt Guilielmi Fitzeri1626
16.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 11): pp. 72 ff
17.
CushingH (op. cit. ref 6): vol. II, p. 64
18.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 11): p. 83
19.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 13): p. 6
20.
Osler SirW. The Evolution of Modern Medicine. A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913.New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1921: p. 219
21.
OslerW. The library of Robert Burton. Oxford Bibliographical Society Proceedings and Papers.1926; 1 (Part 3): 182-90
22.
BurtonR. The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is, with All Kindes, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and severall Cures of It … by Democritus Junior.Oxford: John Lichfield …, 1621
23.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 21): pp. 182 ff
24.
Ibid.: p. 183
25.
Ibid.: p. 186
26.
RolandCG. ‘Dry dusty, tedious, accursed, hateful, bibliography’: Osler and British bibliography. In: TeigenPM (Ed). Books, Manuscripts, and the History of Medicine …. New York: Science History Publications, 1982: p. 15
27.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 21): p. 185
28.
OslerW (op. cit. ref 11): pp. 417-19
29.
Ibid.: p. 188
30.
OslerW. Man's Redemption of Man. A Lay Sermon, McEwan Hall, Edinburgh, Sunday 2 July 1910.London: Constable & Co., 1910
31.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 30).: pp. 21-8
32.
Osler SirW. A Way of Life.London: Constable & Co., 1913
33.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 1): p. 389
34.
CushingH. William Osler, the man. Annals of Medical History1919; 2: 157-67
35.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 2): pp. vi-vii
36.
SymonsJ. Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. A Short History.London: The Wellcome Trust, 1993: p. 16
37.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 2): p. 2
38.
Ibid.: p. 3
39.
Ibid.: p. 31
40.
Osler SirW. The Old Humanities and the New Science. An Address before the Classical Association, Oxford, 16 May 1919.London: John Murray, 1919
41.
StrayC (Ed.). The Classical Association - The First Century 1903-2003.London: The Classical Association, 2003
42.
CushingH. Introduction. In: Osler SirW, ed. The Old Humanities and the New Science.Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920: p. vii
43.
OslerW (op. cit. ref. 40): p. 14
44.
Ibid.: p. 8
45.
Ibid.: p. 14-17
46.
Ibid.: p. 18
47.
CushingH (op. cit. ref. 6): vol. II, p. 648; Cushing H (op. cit. ref. 42).: p. xiv
48.
CushingH (op. cit. ref. 6) vol. II, pp. 648-9
49.
OslerW (op. cit. ref 40): pp. 3-4, p.17
50.
TemkinO. Scientific medicine and historical research. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine1959; 3: 78-9
51.
Anonymous. Review of an Alabama student and other biographical essays. The Nation1908; 87: 555-6
52.
Anonymous. Seventy years young. Lancet2;23: 1919
53.
MorleyC[D], ed. Modern Essays.New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921: p. 128
54.
WelchWH. Forward. In: Bulletin No. IX of the International Association of Medical Museums and Journal of Technical Methods. Sir William Osler Memorial Number. Appreciations and Reminiscences.Montreal, Canada: Published Privately, 1926: p. vii
55.
GarrisonFH. Sir William Osler's contributions to medical literature. Annals of Medical History1919; 2: 184-7
56.
CushingH (op. cit. ref. 6): vol II, p. 324
57.
CushingH (op. cit. ref. 6): vol II, p. 395
58.
SudhoffK. Address delivered at the inauguration of the Department of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, October 18 1929. Bulletin. Johns Hopkins Hospital1930; 46: 101-2
59.
SigeristHE. A History of Medicine. Vol. 1, Primitive and Archaic Medicine.New York: Oxford University Press, 1951: p. 12
60.
SigeristHE. Congratulatory epistle to Arnold C Klebs. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1940; 8: 319-28
61.
EdelsteinL. William Osler's philosophy. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1946; 20: 291
62.
KellyHA. Sir William Osler, a tribute. Annals of Medical History1919;2: 168-9
63.
MillerG. The value of medical history for the practicing physician. Bulletin Academic Medicine Cleveland1955; 40: 8-11, 46
64.
PoynterFNL. The Fielding H. Garrison Lecture. Medicine and Historian. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1956; 30: 420-135
65.
RuhrähJ. Osler's influence on medical libraries in the United States. Annals of Medical History1919; 2: 177-8
66.
SigeristHE. The Great Doctors. A Biographical History of Medicine.2nd edn.New York: WW Norton & Co., 1933: pp. 394 ff
67.
SigeristHE. Medical history in the United States. Past -Present - Future. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1948; 22: 47-65
68.
StevensonLG. Biography versus history: with special reference to the history of medicine. Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia1955; 23: 83-93
69.
TeigenPM. William Osler's historiography: a rhetorical analysis. Canadian Bulletin of the History of Medicine1986; 3: 31-19
70.
TemkinO. On the interrelationship of the history and the philosophy of medicine. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1956; 30: 241-51
71.
TemkinO. The Double Face of Janus and Other Essays in the History of Medicine.Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977: pp 3-37, 68-100
72.
CroceB. Theory & History of Historiography. Translated from the Italian by D Ainslie.London: George G. Harrap, & Co. Ltd, 1921
73.
DeQuinceyT. The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, with illustrations by Laurence W. Chaves.New York: Windsor Press, 1932
