Osler's Museum Specimens of Heart Disease: Their Nature and Significance

Abstract

There are 55 of Osler's autopsy museum specimens on display at the McGill Pathology Institute. Of these, 23 are examples of heart disease, including ten cases of endocarditis. A review of related publications reveal that Osler was one of the first to stress the significance of micrococci and prior scarring of valves in infective endocarditis, and the differences between congenital and acquired bicuspid aortic valves. His review articles on other heart diseases, such as cardiac thrombi, tuberculous endocarditis and congenital heart disease, contributed significantly to the general understanding of these entities during the latter part of the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth centuries. It is concluded that Sir William Osler played an important role in the development of current concepts of heart disease.