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WILLIAM OSLER was one of the most influential physicians in history. His outstanding reputation was the result of his many contributions in various clinical fields as a researcher, educator, and writer; and the mutual respect and affection he shared with his many talented pupils who made lasting contributions to the practice and science of medicine. He was renowned for his integrity and kindness.

William Osler was born on July 12, 1849, in Bond Head, Ontario, one of the eight children of an Anglican clergyman. Upon completion of his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and then his medical degree at McGill University, Montreal, which he received in 1872, he studied in London, Berlin, and Vienna. During this time he did research on blood platelets. Returning to Canada he joined McGill's medical faculty as a lecturer on medicine and pathology.

Sir William Osler's description of the inadequacy of treatment methods for most disorders, as outlined in his The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892), was a major factor leading to the creation of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City.

Osler published extensively while at McGill and gained wide respect for his scientific and humanitarian activities. Constantly in the hospital ward, the library, or laboratory, he was appointed a full professor at age 25, teaching physiology and microscopic anatomy.

Osler's great work, The System of Medicine, comprised seven volumes and became a primary source of medical information throughout the medical world. Through his speeches and publications, Osler became widely known as a cultured, witty, articulate, and highly principled physician. He gave major impetus to the study of the history of medicine in the United States.

Widening appreciation of his abilities led in 1884 to his acceptance of an invitation to join the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. Five years later he became the first Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University founded that year in Baltimore, Maryland. At age 42 he married Grace Revere Gross, widow of his former colleague, the surgeon Samuel Gross. Osler and his wife, a direct descendant of Paul Revere, had two children. One child died at birth; the other, son Revere Osler, died in the First World War.

Johns Hopkins Medical School became the most advanced centre of medical education in the United States. There, Osler’s reputation as a teacher, medical doctor, and author continued to develop. The Johns Hopkins Hospital was established specifically to facilitate not only the care and recovery of patients but also teaching and research by members of the medical faculty. Osler effected strategic changes in medical education and increased the time devoted to direct consultation with patients during his career at Johns Hopkins.

Professor of medicine at McGill, Johns Hopkins, and Oxford Universities, Sir William Osler was internationally renowned in both the 19th and 20th centuries as a medical writer, researcher, and teacher

In 1892 Osler published The Principles and Practice of Medicine which became the standard text in its field for more than 30 years and was translated into several languages. Throughout his career Osler listened carefully as his patients told him of their illnesses and he urged his students also to listen carefully to their patients. Believing that the patient’s state of mind was of strategic importance in effecting a cure, Osler instilled hope in his patients with his vivacious manner and practical joking. The detached method of lecturing employed by medical schools in the United States was replaced by Dr. Osler’s bedside examinations which were the basis for instruction in his native Canada.

Osler’s description of the inadequacies in the prevailing systems of medical treatment in the United States in the late nineteenth century contributed to the establishment in 1901 of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. In 1905 the Oslers left for England where he became the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University. Many honours were conferred upon him and he was created a baronet in 1911.

Throughout his life Osler had worked extremely hard, intelligently striving for excellence. At Oxford, however, he had more time to devote to his writing, to the collection of medical books, and to the preparation and delivery of scholarly addresses on various subjects particularly the roles and responsibilities of physicians. He also devoted much time to the encouragement of students such as Dr. Wilder Penfield, who made such an outstanding contribution as a neurosurgeon in Montreal. Dr. Penfield later observed that Osler was “a sort of John the Baptist in a wilderness of medical superstition.”

When Osler died of pneumonia in 1919, one of his disciples, an American, Fielding Garrison, wrote: “What Osler meant to the medical profession ... what he did for us, can never be adequately expressed ...” He lives on through his writings and the treasured memories of those who knew him and wrote of his sterling life and influence.

His farewell message to the medical profession of America was the sincere expression of a fine and generous nature: