Sir William Osler (1849–1919)

Abstract

CLINICIAN, epidemiologist, pathologist, teacher, historian, classsical scholar, bibliographer and bibliophile, Sir Willliam Osier, who was born a century ago, on July 12, 1849, has left a legacy of more than fifteen hundred publications and has inspired an even vastardegacy of writings about himself. His biography by Harvey Cushing (1925) is in two large volumes, and his “Memorial Volume’ (1926) fills more than six hundred pages. Osier studied medicine at Toronto, Montreal and in Europe, his subsequent teaching as professor of medicine at McGill, Philadelphia and Oxford embodying the best features in English and European—especially German—methods, but always characterized by the ideal expressed in his self-selected epitaph, ”He taught medicine in the wards". Sir Arthur MacNalty, in his article “Osier as a Scientist’ (Nature, 162, 346 ; 1948), dealt fully with Osier's original contributions to scientific medicine, particularly his investigations of the blood-platelets and the malarial parasite, and his studies on malignant endocarditis. While Osier's signature is written on nearly every page of medicine, his name has been specifically attached to two diseases: hereditary epistaxis with hasmorrhagic telangiectasis, and poly-cythemia rubra vera splenomegalica. We also speak of ‘Osier nodes’ in malignant endocarditis. ”The Principles and Practice of Medicine’ (first edition 1892) was with sever generations of medical students and practitioners one of the most popular text-books in the English language. Osier lavished much of his time and energies on the task of arousing public interest in tuberculosis and the venereal diseases. He was a convincing speaker with a gift for the telling phrase. More than a great man of science and a great physician, he was a radiant personality with a genius for friendship. He died at Oxford on December 29, 1919, of pneumonia—a disease which had held a peculiar fascination for him all his life.