Sir William Osler and The Osler Institute When Sir William Osler (pronounced with a long O) died 89 years ago, he was the best known and most beloved physician in the world. His influence continues. Though his contributions to science and medicine were considerable, his major achievement was the transformation of medical education in the United States and elsewhere. He was adored by his students as a warm human scholar and skilled physician who changed the student-teacher and doctor-patient relationships from formal and cold to friendly and warm. Osler once said that he would like his epitaph to read: Here lies the man who admitted students to the wards. Canada and Europe
On July 12, 1849, William Osler was born at Bond Head, north of Toronto, Canada. His father had immigrated from England as an Anglican missionary. William began to study for the ministry at Trinity College, Toronto, but transferred to Toronto Medical School in 1868 and received his medical degree from McGill in 1872.
He traveled to Europe to study ophthalmology but spent the longest time in John Burdon- Sanderson’s experimental physiology laboratory at University College in London. In Berlin, Osler met and was influenced by Rudolph Virchow, founder of cellular pathology. Though platelets had been observed by others, Osler was the first to thoroughly study them in 1873.
In 1874, Osler returned to Canada, started general practice, and was soon appointed to the faculty of medicine at McGill. He did research, mostly in the autopsy room and taught physiology, pathology and medicine.
United States
At a meeting in Leipzig, in 1884, he was offered the chair of clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. On the toss of a coin, he accepted.
In 1888, Osler became the first professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School. There were no students for the first four years, during which he wrote The Principles and Practice of Medicine published in 1892. Upon completion of the book he proposed to and soon married Mrs. Grace Revere Gross, widow of a colleague and great-granddaughter of Paul Revere. The scholarly and readable tome soon became the most popular medical text.
As Physician in Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Osler (together with William Welch, Chief of Pathology; Howard Kelly, Chief of Gynecology and Obstetrics; and William Halsted, Chief of Surgery) transformed clinical teaching and made Johns Hopkins one of the world’s best medical schools. Students examined patients in the wards, presented to the Chief, worked in the laboratory and discussed cases in public rounds – a form of clinical teaching adopted by other American medical schools. Osler was a key leader at two of the first scientific medical schools in the United States. His influence in medical education preceded and exceeded the Flexner Report of 1910.
Osler excelled at inspiring students with his clear synthesis of facts based on diligent work in the ward, autopsy room and library, as well as his capacity for friendship and mirth. He perpetrated extravagant practical jokes. Osler preached and practiced hard work, had the power of complete concentration and loved both medicine and man. He was an early and forceful advocate of continuing medical education. His pride in the honor of the medical profession occasionally propelled him to righteous indignation. Teaching and practicing at Hopkins consumed his energy and time.
England
While visiting England in 1904, he was offered the Regius Chair of Medicine at Oxford, the highest medical position in Great Britain.
Grace telegraphed from America: “Do not procrastinate. Accept at once.” He did. At Oxford he practiced little, taught once a week and devoted much time to collecting and studying classical medical texts. His home was known as the “Open Arms” for its hospitality.
In 1911, he became Sir William Osler upon being knighted. His lectures on medical history and literature reflected his religious background and his training in classics and humanities. He
published Aequanimitas with Other Addresses (1904) and An Alabama Student (1908). Osler also wrote medical wit and nonsense under the pseudonym of Egerton Yorrick Davis. Sir William’s name persists in Osler’s nodes (tender, red palmar nodes in sub-acute bacterial endocarditis), Osler-Vaquez disease (poly-cythemia vera) and Osler-Weber-Rendu disease (familial telangiectases with recurring nosebleeds).
During World War I, he led British medicine. Though his only child Revere (named after Paul Revere), was killed in action during the war, Osler was a strong advocate of humanitarian aid to Austria after the war. His son’s death broke Osler’s spirit and he died of pneumonia December 29, 1919. His wife catalogued his library until shortly before her death in 1928. Their ashes and his books are preserved in a special section of McGill University’s library, the Bibliotheca Osleriana.
Harvey Cushing, Osler’s Baltimore neighbor from 1895 to 1899 and the founder of neurosurgery in America, wrote the two volume, Pulitzer Prize winning biography, The Life of Sir William
Osler, published in 1925. The Osler Institute
The Osler Institute was incorporated August 17, 1982, as a not-for-profit continuing medical education organization in Indiana to coordinate the Pathology Board Review Course. Within three years, this course grew to being attended by about half of all candidates for the American Board of Pathology exam. In 1986 the Institute started similar courses in Orthopedics and Otolaryngology. During the last 26 years the Osler Institute has produced more than 1500 courses in twenty specialties with more than 70,000 participants who received more than 3 million hours of instruction – more than most medical school CME departments.
For several years The Institute has published its course syllabi and audio- and videotapes. The Osler Institute has published hard-cover copies of Osler’s Aequanimitas with Other Addresses, Evolution of Modern Medicine, An Alabama Student, The Student Life, Angina Pectoris, A Way of Life, A Concise History of Medicine and Science and Immortality.
The Osler Institute is dedicated to preserving the memory and spirit of Sir William Osler as well as extending his commitment to excellence in continuing medical ducation and the science and art of medical practice. Joseph H. Selliken, Jr, MD
President and Medical Director
The Osler Institute |
