Osler's Library

Abstract

IT is a remarkable fact that the glamour of Osler's name exercises a spell even on the generation that has never known him. Each of his books reflects something of his philosophy. None tells us more than the few introductory pages “On the Collecting of a Library” that stand at the head of this volume. The humorous yet pious gratitude for early influences and teachers; the vein of melancholy that was scarcely veiled by sparkling fun; the abiding sense of infinite issues that was always fraught with love, all find their place in these few pages. They help us to understand the fortitude and the simple greatness of the man who, finding his dearest human hopes shattered, could turn with more than aequanimitas to consider and expound how he could pass on what had most enriched his own passage on earth. Bibliotheca Osleriana. A Catalogue of Books illustrating the History of Medicine and Science, collected, arranged, and annotated by Sir William Osler., Bt., and bequeathed to McGill University. Pp. xxxvi + 786. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1929.) 63s. net.