Although North American physicians commonly identify William Osler as their best example of excellence in both medicine and the humanities, Osler himself held Oliver Wendell Holmes as the best example of such an avatar. Holmes made substantial contributions to medicine, including a landmark essay on the ‘Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever’, and was for a while the best-selling American author on both sides of the Atlantic. Holmes' lesser reputation today when compared with Osler's is best explained by his having fewer devoted protégées, his confining his adult life to Boston and its environs, and his tendency to flit from one thing to another as opposed to consolidating his efforts in a single task as Osler did in writing his Principles and Practice of Medicine.
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