Syllabus of the History of Medicine

Sir William Osler (1849-1919)

Clifford C. Snyder, M.D.
Peer Review Status: Not Reviewed
The most influential internist, undoubtedly, was the finest representative of English medicine of his day. Osler was born in Ontario, Canada, the son of a minister, who at first intended to become a clergyman, but with a change of mind, studied at McGill University and became Professor of Clinical Medicine there. He later was made professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Ardent in studying the pathological aspects of clinical medicine, he did autopsies at "Old Blockley" in the Montreal General Hospital. In 1884, he was made Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1889 he became the first Professor of Medicine at the newly organized Johns Hopkins Medical School. He was one of the "four horsemen" of Johns Hopkins Hospital fame (Welch, Kelly, Halsted & Osler). Sir William reintroduced bedside teaching to his country which was in contrast to the German emphasis on laboratory science. In 1904, he became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford. In 1911, he was made a baronet. In 1919, immediately after the death of his only son in the World War, Osler died of bronchopneumonia. His textbook of medicine, "Principles and Practice of Medicine," the physician's bible of its day, went through nine editions in his lifetime and was translated into four languages. It was edited by McCrae, and then later by Christian. Sir William Osler's many contributions were:

1) among the first to study blood platelets (1873)
2) discovered dog bronchitis filaria, Filaria osleri, polycythemia rubra with splenomegaly (Osler-Vasquez disease), and hereditary telangiectasia
3) called attention to nodes in subacute bacterial endocarditis (Osler's nodes)
4) wrote widely on medical history and biography
5) editor of Modern Medicine Journal, editor of Quarterly Journal of Medicine
6) his addresses were published under the name of "Aequanimatas"
7) another famous dissertation was "The Alabama Student."

Osler was warm, enthusiastic and sensitive to the feelings of his patients, colleagues and students, and a vigorous student himself.

"The Three Great Lessons of Life" - Osler

A conscientious pursuit of Plato's ideal perfection may teach you the three great lessons of life. The first lesson is. . . You may learn to consume your own smoke. The atmosphere is darkened by the murmurings and whimperings of men and women over the nonessentials, the trifles that are inevitably incident to the hurly-burly of the day's routine. Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity and consume your own smoke with an extra draught of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaint.

More than any other, the practitioner of medicine may illustrate the second great lesson, that we are here not to get all we can out of life for ourselves, but to try to make the lives of others happier. This is the essence of that oft-repeated admonition of Christ, "He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it," on which hard saying if the children of this generation would only lay hold, there would be less misery and discontent in the world. It is not possible for anyone to have better opportunities to live this lesson than you will enjoy.

(The third lesson is. . .) The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with potions and powders, but with the exercise of an influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wicked, of the wise upon the foolish. To you, as the trusted family counsellor, the father will come with his anxieties, the mother with her hidden grief, the daughter with her trials, and the son with his follies. Fully one-third of the work you do will be entered in other books than yours. Courage and cheerfulness will not only carry you over the rough places in life, but will enable you to bring comfort and help to the weak-hearted and will console you in the sad hours when, like Uncle Toby, you have to "whistle that you may not weep."

"The first of surgeons and the last of men."

. . . Enemies of Dupuytren