:William Osler

William Osler's great-grandfather, Edward Osler, was variously described as either a merchant seaman or a pirate.{{cite journal|last1=Bryan|first1=Charles|last2=Fransiszyn|first2=Marilyn|title=Osler usque ad mare: the SS William Osler|url=http://www.cmaj.ca/content/161/7/849.full.pdf|journal=CMAJ|volume=161|issue=7|pages=849–852|pmid=10530306|pmc=1230661|year=1999}} One of William's uncles, Edward Osler (1798–1863), a medical officer in the Royal Navy, wrote the Life of Lord Exmouth and the poem The Voyage.Osler, Edward (1798–1863). The Voyage: a poem, written at sea, and in the West Indies, and illustrated by papers on natural history. London: Longman, 1830.

William Osler's father, the Reverend Featherstone Lake Osler (1805–1895), the son of a shipowner at Falmouth, Cornwall, was a former lieutenant in the Royal Navy who served on {{HMS|Victory}}. In 1831, Featherstone Osler was invited to serve on {{HMS|Beagle}} as the science officer for Charles Darwin's historic voyage to the Galápagos Islands, but he turned it down because his father was dying. In 1833, Featherstone Osler announced that he wanted to become a minister of the Church of England.Bliss, Michael (1999). William Osler: a life in medicine. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 12 {{ISBN|978-0-19-512346-3}}. {{OCLC|41439631}}.

As a teenager, Featherstone Osler was aboard {{HMS|Sappho|1806|6}} when it was nearly destroyed by Atlantic storms and remained adrift for weeks. Serving in the Navy, he was shipwrecked off Barbados. In 1837, Featherstone Osler retired from the Navy and emigrated to Canada, becoming a "saddle-bag minister" in rural Upper Canada. When Featherstone and his bride, Ellen Free Picton, arrived in Canada, they were nearly shipwrecked again on Egg Island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Their children included William, Britton Bath Osler and Sir Edmund Boyd Osler.

William Osler was born in Bond Head, Canada West (Ontario), on July 12, 1849, and raised after 1857 in Dundas, Ontario. He was named William after William of Orange, who won the Battle of the Boyne on July 12, 1690. Osler's mother, who was very religious, prayed that he would become a priest.Bliss, Michael (1999). William Osler: a life in medicine. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 37 {{ISBN|978-0-19-512346-3}}. {{OCLC|41439631}}. Osler was educated at Trinity College School (then located in Weston, Ontario).

In 1867, Osler announced that he would follow his father's footsteps into the ministry and entered Trinity College of the University of Toronto, in the autumn. However, he became increasingly interested in medical science under the influence of James Bovell and the Rev. William Arthur Johnson, encouraging him to switch his career.Joseph Hanaway, '(1996). McGill Medicine: The First Half Century, 1829–1885. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 179Bliss, Michael (1999). William Osler: a life in medicine. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 44 {{ISBN|978-0-19-512346-3}}. {{OCLC|41439631}}.Sir William Osler. The Quotable Osler. ACP Press. p.283 {{ISBN|9781934465004}}

In 1868, Osler enrolled in the Toronto School of Medicine,Osler, William (2008). edited by Mark E. Silverman, T. J. Murray, Charles S. Bryan. The Quotable Osler. ACP Press. p. 284 a privately owned institution that was not part of the Medical Faculty of the University of Toronto. Osler lived with James Bovell for a time, and through Johnson, he was introduced to the writings of Sir Thomas Browne; his Religio Medici caused a deep impression on him.Bliss, Michael (1999). William Osler: a life in medicine. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 45–46 {{ISBN|978-0-19-512346-3}}. {{OCLC|41439631}}. Osler left the Toronto School of Medicine after being accepted into the MDCM program at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, and he received his medical degree (MDCM) in 1872.

Following post-graduate training under Rudolf Virchow in Germany, Osler returned to the McGill University Faculty of Medicine as a professor in 1874. There he created the first formal journal club, showed interest in comparative pathology, and is considered the first to have taught veterinary pathology in North America as part of a broad understanding of disease pathogenesis. In 1884, he was appointed Chair of Clinical Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and in 1885, was one of the seven founding members of the Association of American Physicians, a society dedicated to "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine." When he left Philadelphia in 1889, his farewell address, "Aequanimitas",[http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/osler/aequessay.htm AEQUANIMITAS]. Medicalarchives.jhmi.edu. Retrieved on May 30, 2014. was about the imperturbability (calm amid storm) and equanimity (moderated emotion, tolerance) necessary for physicians.{{Cite journal|last=Sokol|first=Daniel|date=2007-11-17|title=Aequanimitas |journal=BMJ: British Medical Journal|volume=335|issue=7628|pages=1049.2–1049|doi=10.1136/bmj.39385.642315.FA|issn=0959-8138|pmc=2078638}}

File:William osler 1909.jpg, Oxford, holding Sir William Stirling Maxwell's copy of Vesalius's Tabulae Anatomicae]]

In 1889, he became the first Physician-in-Chief of the new Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1893, Osler was instrumental in creating the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and became one of the school's first professors of medicine. Osler quickly enhanced his reputation as a clinician, humanitarian, and teacher. He presided over the rapidly expanding hospital's first year of operation, when it had 220 beds and 788 patients were seen for a total of over 15,000 days of treatment. Sixteen years later, when Osler left for Oxford, over 4,200 patients were seen for a total of nearly 110,000 days of treatment.{{Cite news|url=http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/medicine/education/hstrainingprogram/overview/hx_jhh.html|title=History of The Johns Hopkins Hospital|last=Fisher|first=Kimberly A|access-date=2017-02-19}}

In 1905, he was appointed to the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, which he held until his death. He was also a Student (fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford.

In the UK, he initiated the founding in 1907 of the Association of Physicians{{cite web |publisher=Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland |url=https://aopgbi.org/about-us/our-history-2/ |title=Our History |access-date=July 7, 2021 |archive-date=August 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220808094500/https://aopgbi.org/about-us/our-history-2/ |url-status=dead }} and was founding Senior Editor of its publication the Quarterly Journal of Medicine until his death.{{cite journal | author = Anon | year = 1936 | title = Early history of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland and of the Quarterly Journal of Medicine | journal = Quarterly Journal of Medicine | volume = 5 | pages = 536–40 }}

File:Arms of Osler of Toronto.png

In 1911, he founded the Postgraduate Medical Association and was its first President.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1136/pgmj.68.797.159| title = The portraiture of Sir William Osler| journal = Postgraduate Medical Journal| volume = 68| issue = 797| pages = 159| year = 1992| last1 = James | first1 = D. G. | pmc = 2399241}} The same year, Osler was named a baronet in the Coronation Honours List for his contributions to the field of medicine.{{cite journal|journal=Lancet|volume=178|issue=4609|year=1911|pages=1874–1876|title=Honours to Medical Men: Coronation Honours|quote=Sir William Osler, Regius professor of medicine in the University of Oxford, who is famous throughout two continents, has enriched the literature of medicine with many works of high scientific and literary value.|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(01)58188-x}}

In January 1919 he was appointed President of the Fellowship of MedicineOsler appointed President of the Inter-Allied Fellowship of Medicine. The Times. 14th January 1919. and was in October appointed founding President of the merged Fellowship of Medicine and Postgraduate Medical Association,Cook G. John McAlister's other vision. Abingdon, Oxon: Radcliffe Publishing Limited; 2005 {{ISBN|1-85775-789-0}} which became the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.

The largest collection of Osler's letters and papers is at the Osler Library of McGill University in Montreal and a collection is also held at the United States National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.{{cite web|url=http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/osler090|title=Sir William Osler Press Clippings 1905–1920|publisher=National Library of Medicine}}{{Cite web|url=https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/sir-william-osler-collection|title=Sir William Osler Collection, P100|website=McGill Archival Collections Catalogue|access-date=18 November 2018}}

File:William Osler photograph.jpg

Perhaps Osler's greatest influence on medicine was to insist that students learn from seeing and talking to patients and the establishment of the medical residency. The latter idea spread across the English-speaking world and remains in place today in most teaching hospitals. Through this system, physicians in training make up much of a teaching hospital's medical staff. The success of his residency system depended, in large part, on its pyramidal structure with many interns, fewer assistant residents and a single chief resident, who originally occupied that position for years. While at Hopkins, Osler established the full-time, sleep-in residency system whereby staff physicians lived in the administration building of the hospital. As established, the residency was open-ended, and long tenure was the rule. Physicians spent as long as seven or eight years as residents, during which time they led a restricted, almost monastic life.

He wrote in an essay, "Books and Men", that "He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all."{{cite web|url=http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/osler/booksandmen.htm|title=Aequanimitas – Books and Men|website=www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu}} His best-known saying was "Listen to your patient—he is telling you the diagnosis", which emphasises the importance of taking a good history.

The contribution to medical education of which he was proudest was his idea of clinical clerkship – having third- and fourth-year students work with patients on the wards. He pioneered the practice of bedside teaching, making rounds with a handful of students, demonstrating what one student referred to as his method of "incomparably thorough physical examination." Soon after arriving in Baltimore, Osler insisted that his medical students attend at bedside early in their training. By their third year they were taking patient histories, performing physicals and doing lab tests examining secretions, blood and excreta.

File:Four doctors.jpg, 1905, depicts the four physicians who founded Johns Hopkins Hospital. The original hangs in the William H. Welch Medical Library of Johns Hopkins University.
From left to right: William Henry Welch, William Stewart Halsted, William Osler, Howard Kelly]]

He reduced the role of didactic lectures and once said he hoped his tombstone would say only, "He brought medical students into the wards for bedside teaching." He also said, "I desire no other epitaph ... than the statement that I taught medical students in the wards, as I regard this as by far the most useful and important work I have been called upon to do." Osler fundamentally changed medical teaching in North America, and this influence, helped by a few such as the Dutch internist P. K. Pel, spread to medical schools across the globe.

Osler was a prolific author and a great collector of books and other material relevant to the history of medicine. He willed his library to the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University where it now forms the nucleus of McGill University's Osler Library of the History of Medicine.[http://mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=1902 Bibliotheca Osleriana]. Mqup.mcgill.ca. Retrieved on May 30, 2014. Osler was a strong supporter of libraries and served on the library committees at most of the universities at which he taught and was a member of the Board of Curators of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He was instrumental in founding the Medical Library Association in North America, alongside employee and mentee Marcia Croker Noyes,{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Bernie Todd|date=July 1974|title=Marcia Crocker Noyes, Medical Librarian: The Shaping of a Career *|journal=Bulletin of the Medical Library Association|volume=62|issue=3|pages=314–324|issn=0025-7338|pmc=198800|pmid=4619344}} and served as its second president from 1901 to 1904. In Britain he was the first (and only) president of the Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland{{cite journal |author=Crawford DS |title=The Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland |journal=Health Information & Libraries Journal |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=266–8 |date=2004 |pmid=15606885 |doi=10.1111/j.1471-1842.2004.00533.x |doi-access=free}} and also a president of the Bibliographical Society of London (1913).{{cite web |url=http://www.bibsoc.org.uk/presidents.htm |title=The Bibliographical Society – Past Presidents |publisher=Bibsoc.org.uk |date=November 18, 2008 |access-date=January 24, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804010233/http://www.bibsoc.org.uk/presidents.htm |archive-date=August 4, 2009 |df=mdy-all}}

Osler was a prolific author and public speaker and his public speaking and writing were both done in a clear, lucid style. His most famous work, The Principles and Practice of Medicine quickly became a key text to students and clinicians alike. It continued to be published in many editions until 2001 and was translated into many languages.(See Osler Library Studies in the History of Medicine vol. 8.)Golden, Richard (2004) A History of William Osler's The Principles and Practice of Medicine. Osler Library, McGill University. {{ISBN|0-7717-0615-4}}. It is notable in part for supporting the use of bloodletting as recently as 1923.[http://www.library.ucla.edu/specialcollections/biomedicallibrary/12193.cfm Bloodletting – UCLA Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313034620/http://www.library.ucla.edu/specialcollections/biomedicallibrary/12193.cfm |date=March 13, 2012}}. Library.ucla.edu. Retrieved on May 30, 2014. Though his own textbook was a major influence in medicine for many years, Osler described Avicenna as the "author of the most famous medical textbook ever written". He noted that Avicenna's Canon of Medicine remained "a medical bible for a longer time than any other work".{{cite journal|author=Journal of Perinatology |title=Access : Avicenna (AD 980 to 1037) and the care of the newborn infant and breastfeeding |journal=Journal of Perinatology |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=3–6 |publisher=Nature|date=September 6, 2007 |doi=10.1038/sj.jp.7211832 |pmid=17805338 |s2cid=41337692}} Osler's essays were important guides to physicians. The title of his most famous essay, "Aequanimitas", espousing the importance of imperturbability, is the motto on the Osler family crest and is used on the Osler housestaff tie and scarf at Hopkins.

Osler said Canada should be a "white man's country" in a 1914 speech given around the time of the Komagata Maru incident involving immigration from India.{{Cite journal |title=William Osler: saint in a "White man's dominion" |last1=Persaud |first1=Nav |last2=Butts |first2=Heather|last3=Berger |first3=Philip |journal = Canadian Medical Association Journal |volume = 192|issue = 45|date=2020-11-09 |pages=E1414–E1416 |doi=10.1503/cmaj.201567 |language=en |pmid = 33168766|pmc=7669299 }}{{Cite journal |title=Piety and prejudice. In his respect for the Jewish people, Osler was less a man of his time than a man of his profession |last=Wallis |first=Faith |journal = Canadian Medical Association Journal |volume = 156|issue = 11|date=1997-06-01 |pages=1549–51 |language=en |pmid = 9176421|pmc=1227495 }}

Osler wrote "I hate Latin Americans" in a letter to Henry Vining Ogden.{{cite book |last=Weistrop |first=Leonard |date =1968 |title=The Life & Letters of Dr. Henry Vining Ogden, 1857–1931 |location= Milwaukee |publisher= Milwaukee Academy of Medicine Press |isbn= 9780961707002}}{{Cite journal |last=Venugopal |first=Raghu |date=June 1996 |title=Reading between the lines: a glimpse of the Cushing files and The Life of Sir William Osler. |url=https://www.mcgill.ca/library/files/library/Osnl82.pdf |journal=Osler Library Newsletter |volume=82 |pages=1–4}}

Under the pseudonym "Egerton Yorrick Davis", Osler mocked Indigenous people: "Every primitive tribe retains some vile animal habit not yet eliminated in the upward march of the race."{{cite book |last=Golden |first=Richard |date =1999 |title= The works of Egerton Yorrick Davis, MD: Sir William Osler's alter ego |location= Montreal |publisher= McGill University |isbn= 9780771705489 }}

Uncovering this historical context, the journalists David Bruser and Markus Grill and the archivist Nils Seethaler reconstruct the shipment of several indigenous skulls by Osler from Canada to Germany, which were (previously unknown) in the custody of the State Museums of Berlin.David Bruser/Markus Grill: The untold story of four Indigenous skulls given away by one of Canada’s most famous doctors, and the quest to bring them home. Toronto Star, 17.12.20.

Osler is well known in the field of gerontology for the speech he gave when leaving Hopkins to become the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford. "The Fixed Period", given on February 22, 1905, included some controversial words about old age. Osler, who had a well-developed humorous side to his character, was in his mid-fifties when he gave the speech and in it he mentioned Anthony Trollope's The Fixed Period (1882), which envisaged a college where men retired at 67 and after being given a year to settle their affairs, would be "peacefully extinguished by chloroform". He claimed that, "the effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty" and it was downhill from then on.{{Cite journal |title=William Osler and The Fixed Period: Conflicting Medical and Popular Ideas About Old Age |last=Hirshbein |first=Laura Davidow |journal = Archives of Internal Medicine|volume = 161|issue = 17|date=2001-09-24 |pages=2074–8 |language=en |doi=10.1001/archinte.161.17.2074 |pmid = 11570935}} Osler's speech was covered by the popular press which headlined their reports with "Osler recommends chloroform at sixty".For details, see Charles G. Roland: "What Did Trollope Actually Write? The Fixed Period and 'The Fixed Period'" (1995) [https://archive.today/20121209023151/http://www.asksam.com/cgi-bin/as_web6.exe?Command=DocName&File=Osleriana&Name=1995-01%20What%20did%20Trollope%20Actually%20Write?%20The%20Fixed%20Period]. The concept of mandatory euthanasia for humans after a "fixed period" (often 60 years) became a recurring theme in 20th century science fiction—for example, Isaac Asimov's 1950 novel Pebble in the Sky and Half a Life (Star Trek: The Next Generation). In the 3rd edition of his Textbook, he also coined the description of pneumonia as "the friend of the aged" since it allowed elderly individuals a quick, comparatively painless death: "Taken off by it in an acute, short, not often painful illness, the old man escapes those 'cold gradations of decay' so distressing to himself and his friends."{{Cite book|title=The principles and practice of medicine: designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine|last=Osler|first=William|publisher=Appleton and Company|year=1899|location=New York|pages=109}} Coincidentally, Osler himself died of pneumonia.

File:Portrait of Grace Revere Osler in Oxford, England, 1894 (cropped).jpg

File:13 Norham Gardens.jpg

An inveterate prankster, he wrote several humorous pieces under the pseudonym "Egerton Yorrick Davis", even fooling the editors of the Philadelphia Medical News into publishing a report on the extremely rare phenomenon of penis captivus, on December 13, 1884.{{cite book|last= Davis|first= Egerton Yorrick|editor1-last= Golden|editor1-first= Richard L|title= The Works of Egerton Yorrick Davis, MD: Sir William Osler's Alter Ego|series= Osler Library studies in the history of medicine, no. 3| publisher = Osler Library, McGill University|year= 1999 |location = Montreal|isbn= 978-0-7717-0548-9|oclc= 48551127}} A collection of writings by the fictitious surgical character created by Osler, E. Y. Davis The letter was apparently a response to a report on the phenomenon of vaginismus reported three weeks previously in the Philadelphia Medical News by Osler's colleague Theophilus Parvin."[http://lifeinthefastlane.com/2008/11/egerton-y-davis/ Egerton Y. Davis]", Chris Nickson, Life in the Fastlane, November 16, 2008 Davis, a prolific writer of letters to medical societies, purported to be a retired U.S. Army surgeon living in Caughnawaga, Quebec (now Kahnawake), author of a fake paper on the obstetrical habits of Native American tribes that was intended as a joke on his rival, Dr. William A. Molson. The piece was never published in Osler's lifetime, nor was it intended to be published; Osler knew the content was outrageous, but he wanted to make a fool of Molson by getting the piece to the brink of publication in the Montreal Medical Journal, of which Molson was the editor. Osler would enhance Davis's myth by signing Davis's name to hotel registers and medical conference attendance lists; Davis was eventually reported drowned in the Lachine Rapids in 1884.

Throughout his life, Osler was a great admirer of the 17th century physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne.

He died at the age of 70, on December 29, 1919, in Oxford, during the Spanish flu epidemic, most likely of complications from undiagnosed bronchiectasis.{{cite journal |author=Wrong O |title=Osler and my father |journal=J R Soc Med |volume=96 |issue=6 |pages=462–64 |year=2003 |pmid= 12949207|doi=10.1177/014107680309600914 |pmc=539606}} His wife, Grace, lived another nine years but succumbed to a series of strokes. Sir William and Lady Osler's ashes now rest in a niche in the Osler Library at McGill University. They had two sons, one of whom died shortly after birth. The other, Edward Revere Osler, was mortally wounded in combat in World War I at the age of 21, during the 3rd battle of Ypres (also known as the battle of Passchendaele). At the time of his death in August 1917, he was a second lieutenant in the (British) Royal Field Artillery;{{cite web|last=Starling|first=Peter|title=The Life and Death of Edward Revere Osler|url=http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/on-this-day/28-august-1917-the-life-and-death-of-edward-revere-osler/|access-date=31 March 2021|website=Western Front Association}} Lt. Osler's grave is in the Dozinghem Military Cemetery in West Flanders, Belgium.{{cite journal|last= Starling|first= P H|title= The case of Edward Revere Osler|date=March 2003|journal= Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps|volume= 149|issue= 1|pages= 27–29|pmid= 12743923|doi=10.1136/jramc-149-01-05|doi-access= free}} According to one biographer, Osler was emotionally crushed by the loss; he was particularly anguished by the fact that his influence had been used to procure a military commission for his son, who had mediocre eyesight.{{cite book|last= Bliss|first= Michael|title= William Osler: a life in medicine|year= 1999|location= Oxford, New York|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-512346-3|oclc= 41439631|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/williamosler00mich}} Lady Osler (Grace Revere) was born in Boston in 1854; her paternal great-grandfather was Paul Revere.{{Cite journal|date=1931-09-26|title=Grace Revere Osler. A Brief Memoir.|journal=Journal of the American Medical Association|volume=97|issue=13|pages=954|doi=10.1001/jama.1931.02730130058045|issn=0002-9955}} In 1876, she married Samuel W. Gross, chairman of surgery at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and son of Dr. Samuel D. Gross. Gross died in 1889 and in 1892 she married William Osler who was then professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

Osler was a founding donor of the American Anthropometric Society, a group of academics who pledged to donate their brains for scientific study.{{cite journal |last1=Spitzka |first1=Edward Anthony |title=A Study of the Brains of Six Eminent Scientists and Scholars Belonging to the American Anthropometric Society, together with a Description of the Skull of Professor E. D. Cope |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |series=New Series |date=1907 |volume=1 |issue=4 |page=176 |doi=10.2307/1005434 |jstor=1005434 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1005434 |access-date=3 January 2024|url-access=subscription }} His brain was donated to the American Anthropometric Society after his death and is currently stored at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. A study of his brain, conducted in 1927, concluded that there were differences between the brains of the highly intelligent and normal brains.{{cite web |last1=Avery |first1=Ron |title=Philadelphia Oddities: Wistar Brain Collection |url=https://www.ushistory.org/oddities/brain.htm |website=www.ushistory.org |publisher=Independence Hall Association |access-date=31 December 2023}} In April 1987 it was taken to the Mütter Museum, on 22nd Street near Chestnut in Philadelphia where it was displayed during the annual meeting of the American Osler Society.[https://web.archive.org/web/20131112004515/http://articles.philly.com/1991-04-03/news/25777383_1_brains-annual-meeting-brothers "They Put Their Brains To Work William Osler, Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope And William Pepper Were Among The Greatest Brains In Turn -of-the-century Philadelphia. And They Still Are"]. Articles.philly.com (April 3, 1991). Retrieved on May 30, 2014.[https://www.mcgill.ca/library/sites/mcgill.ca.library/files/No60February1989.pdf Osler Library Newsletter No. 60 February 1989] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705151644/http://www.mcgill.ca/library/sites/mcgill.ca.library/files/No60February1989.pdf |date=July 5, 2013 }}. mcgill.ca He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1885.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1885&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-21|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

In 1925, a biography of William Osler was written by Harvey Cushing,{{cite journal|last= Cushing|first= Harvey|author-link= Harvey Williams Cushing|title= The Life of Sir William Osler|journal= Bulletin of the Medical Library Association|volume= 14|issue= 4|pages= 50|url= https://archive.org/details/b29825672|year= 1925|location= Oxford|publisher= Clarendon Press|oclc= 268160|pmid= 16015960|pmc= 234817}} who received the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for the work. A later biography by Michael Bliss was published in 1999. In 1994 Osler was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.{{cite web|title= Sir William Osler|url= http://www.cdnmedhall.org/sir-william-osler|publisher= Canadian Medical Hall of Fame|access-date= March 24, 2010|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110526110449/http://www.cdnmedhall.org/sir-william-osler|archive-date= May 26, 2011|df= mdy-all}}

Osler lent his name to a number of diseases, signs and symptoms, as well as to a number of buildings that have been named for him.{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/16164722|title=William Osler and his Gulstonian Lectures on malignant endocarditis|website=ResearchGate|access-date=2019-02-18}}{{Cite web|url=https://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/blog/archive/2013/11-Facts-About-Sir-William-Osler.html|title=11 Facts About Sir William Osler|website=Stanford Medicine 25|access-date=2019-02-18}}

• Osler's sign is an artificially high systolic blood pressure reading due to the calcification of atherosclerotic arteries
• Osler's nodes are raised tender nodules on the pulps of fingertips or toes, suggestive of subacute bacterial endocarditis. Osler described them as "ephemeral spots of a painful nodular erythema, chiefly in the skin of the hands and feet." Osler nodes are usually painful, as opposed to Janeway lesions which are due to emboli and are painless.
• Osler–Weber–Rendu disease (also known as hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia) is a syndrome of multiple vascular malformations on the skin, in the nasal and oral mucosa, in the lungs and elsewhere.
• Osler–Vaquez disease (also known as Polycythemia vera)
• Osler–Libman–Sacks syndrome is an atypical, verrucous, nonbacterial, valvular and mural endocarditis. Final stage of systemic lupus erythematosus.
• Osler's manoeuvre: in pseudohypertension, the blood pressure as measured by the sphygmomanometer is artificially high because of arterial wall calcification. Osler's manoeuvre takes a patient who has a palpable, although pulseless, radial artery while the blood pressure cuff is inflated above systolic pressure; thus they are considered to have "Osler's sign".{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
• Osler's rule: States that a neurological defect has to be related to a specific lesion, in contrast to Hickam's dictum, which states that the neurological defect can be due to several lesions.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
• Osler's syndrome is a syndrome of recurrent episodes of colic pain, with typical radiation to back, cold shiverings and fever; due to the presence in Vater's diverticulum of a free-moving gallstone which is larger than the orifice.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
• Osler's triad (also known as Austrian Syndrome): association of pneumonia, endocarditis, and meningitis.{{Cite journal|last1=Cheyron|first1=D. du|last2=Lesage|first2=A.|last3=Page|first3=O. Le|last4=Flais|first4=F.|last5=Leclercq|first5=R.|last6=Charbonneau|first6=P.|date=2003-11-01|title=Corticosteroids as adjunctive treatment in Austrian's syndrome (pneumococcal endocarditis, meningitis, and pneumonia): report of two cases and review of the literature|url= |journal=Journal of Clinical Pathology|language=en|volume=56|issue=11|pages=879–881|doi=10.1136/jcp.56.11.879|issn=0021-9746|pmc=1770097|pmid=14600140}}{{Cite journal|last=Austrian|first=Robert|date=1957-04-01|title=Pneumococcal Endocarditis, Meningitis, and Rupture of the Aortic Valve|journal=Archives of Internal Medicine|language=en|volume=99|issue=4|pages=539–44|doi=10.1001/archinte.1957.00260040039004|pmid=13410159|issn=0003-9926}}

• Sphryanura osleri is a trematode worm found in the gills of a newt.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
• Oslerus osleri is a metastrongyloid nematode lungworm parasite of wild and domestic canids. Osler discovered the parasite while teaching comparative pathology at McGill.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

File:Sir William Osler quote in stone.jpg (in Manitoba Canada and North Dakota, US)]]

• Osler Building at The Johns Hopkins Hospital currently The Johns Hopkins Hospital Human Resources. Until 2012 the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) was located on the 7th floor
• Sir William Osler Elementary School – Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia
• Ecole Sir William Osler School – Elementary School Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Sir William Osler Elementary School – HWDSB Elementary School in Dundas, Ontario
• Sir William Osler High School,{{cite web|url=http://www.tdsb.on.ca/SchoolWeb/_site/viewitem.asp?siteid=10000&pageid=5942&menuid=6827 |title=Sir William Osler High School – Welcome to Sir William Osler High School |publisher=Tdsb.on.ca |date=June 10, 2010 |access-date=January 24, 2011}} Agincourt area of Scarborough in what is now Toronto, Ontario
• Sir William Osler Public School[http://swo.scdsb.on.ca/ SWO.scdsb.on.ca]. SWO.scdsb.on.ca (May 4, 2014). Retrieved on May 30, 2014. Simcoe County District School Board Elementary School in Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario and 3 kilometres away from his birthplace, Bond Head, Ontario
• Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal. Osler left his 8000 volume collection of books on the history of medicine to his alma mater. The library now holds over 100,000 volumes and is Canada's de facto 'national library of the history of medicine'
• Promenade Sir-William-Osler (Formerly the upper section of rue Drummond.) adjacent to the campus of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and leading to the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building, which houses the Osler Library of the History of Medicine
• William Osler Health System 1998 near Brampton, Ontario
• Osler House is the student mess for clinical medical students of Oxford University and is found at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford
• Osler Ward is the Respiratory Medicine ward of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
• Osler House is also the name of the old Observer's House, next to the Radcliffe Observatory in Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Grade I listed building{{NHLE|num=1369464|desc=Osler House|access-date=14 February 2017}}
• Osler House is one of the two undergraduate hostels of the JIPMER medical school in Puducherry, India
• Osler Textbook Room 1999 at Johns Hopkins Hospital[http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/osler/oslerroom.htm The Osler Textbook Room]. Medicalarchives.jhmi.edu. Retrieved on May 30, 2014. in the room in the Billings Building where Osler wrote "Principles and Practice of Medicine". It houses a collection of Osler memorabilia
• Osler Center for Clinical Excellence 2002[http://www.hopkinsbayview.org/oslercenter/ HopkinsBayview.org]. (June 24, 2011). Retrieved on May 30, 2014. devoted to teaching "the basic elements of a sound doctor patient relationship"
• Osler Hall is Main Hall of "Med Chi" or [http://www.medchi.org/ Medical and Chirurgical Faculty, the Maryland State Medical Society],[http://www.medchi.org/ Medchi.org]. Medchi.org (April 8, 2014). Retrieved on May 30, 2014. located on Cathedral Street in Baltimore. The Med Chi House of Delegates meets and deliberates in Osler Hall wherein hang numerous portraits of famous Maryland physicians including a large portrait of Osler
• Osler House (a medical residence) in Townsville, Queensland, Australia is believed to be named after him {{cite QHR|15706|Osler House|600931|access-date=1 August 2014}}
• [https://www.thespec.com/local-dundas/news/2022/11/24/dundas-osler-house-added-to-city-s-heritage-designation-work-plan.html/ Osler House], Osler's childhood home in Dundas, Ontario.
• Osler Parking Structure and Osler Lane, at University of California, San Diego were changed following a petition submitted by a Native American medical student from the Pauma Band of Luiseno Mission Indians in 2021.{{Cite web |last=Wilkens |first=John |date=2021-08-14 |title=Native Americans ask UCSD to rename facilities that honor Dr. William Osler |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2021/08/14/native-americans-ask-ucsd-to-rename-facilities-that-honor-dr-william-osler/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250305034058/https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2021/08/14/native-americans-ask-ucsd-to-rename-facilities-that-honor-dr-william-osler/ |archive-date=2025-03-05 |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=San Diego Union-Tribune |language=en-US}}

• American Association for the History of medicine, William Osler Medal.{{Cite web|url=http://www.histmed.org/about/awards/william-osler-medal|title=William Osler Medal {{!}} American Association for the History of Medicine|website=www.histmed.org|access-date=2017-07-28}}{{Cite web|url=https://pritzker.uchicago.edu/page/competitions|title=Competitions {{!}} Pritzker School of Medicine {{!}} The University of Chicago|website=pritzker.uchicago.edu|access-date=2017-07-28}}
• Osler Library, McGill University. Pam and Rolando Del Maestro William Osler Medical Students Essay Awards.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/osler/essay-contest|title=Pam and Rolando Del Maestro William Osler Medical Students Essay Awards {{!}} McGill Library - McGill University|website=www.mcgill.ca|access-date=2017-07-28}}
• Osler Lecture at the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.{{Cite web|url=http://www.apothecaries.org/faculty-of-the-history-philosophy-of-medicine-parm/prizes|title=Osler Lecture|website=www.apothecaries.org}}
• Student Award in Oslerian Medicine{{Cite web|url=https://www.utmb.edu/osler/Awards/StudentAward|title=Student Award in Oslerian Medicine {{!}} UTMB Health {{!}} UTMB.edu|website=www.utmb.edu|access-date=2017-07-28|archive-date=July 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728142715/https://www.utmb.edu/osler/Awards/StudentAward|url-status=dead}}

Stewart Arnott portrays Osler in episode 5 of season 11 "Dr. Osler Regrets" (October 23, 2017) of the Canadian television period detective series Murdoch Mysteries.{{cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/darryl-pring/3030029683/ |title=Darryl Pring |date=2025 |access-date=April 30, 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://gem.cbc.ca/murdoch-mysteries/s11e05 |title=Dr. Osler Regrets |date=September 24, 2018 |access-date=April 30, 2025}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Library resources box

|by=yes

|others=no

|label=William Osler

|lcheading=Osler, William, – Sir, – 1849–1919. }}

{{refbegin}}

• Borghi, Luca. Osler and Italy. An intermittent love story, Amazon KDP, 2019, pp. 190, ISBN 9781701243002
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Bryan |editor1-first=Charles S |title=Sir William Osler: an encyclopedia |date=2020 |publisher=Norman Publishing HistoryofScience.com in association with the American Osler Society |location=Novato |isbn=9780930405915 |edition=First}}
• [http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/osler/osler150.htm Celebrating the Contributions of William Osler]. [http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/ Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives] 1999. [http://www.jhmi.edu/ Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions].
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070325102358/http://www.collectionscanada.ca/physicians/002032-230-e.html Famous Canadian Physicians: Sir William Osler] at Library and Archives Canada.
• Kingsbury, Mary. “Book Collector, Bibliographer, and Benefactor of Libraries: Sir William Osler.” The Journal of Library History. 16 no. 1 (1981): 187–98.
• Lyons, C. (2015). “The Touch Divine of Noble Natures Gone”: Sir William Osler as a Book Collector. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada/Cahiers de La Société Bibliographique Du Canada, 53(2), 209–232.
• {{cite book|last= Osler|first= William|editor1-last= Francis|editor1-first= William W|editor2-last= Hill|editor2-first= Reginald H|editor3-last= Malloch|editor3-first= Archibald|title= Bibliotheca Osleriana: A Catalogue of Books Illustrating the History of Medicine and Science|edition= Revised|year= 1969|orig-year= 1929|location= Montreal|publisher= McGill-Queen's University Press|isbn= 978-0-7735-9050-2|oclc= 75916}} The Introduction and other editorial matter is freely available [http://internatlibs.mcgill.ca/bib-osler/dsc-intro.htm on-line].
• {{cite book|last1= Osler|first1= William|last2= Silverman|first2= Mark E|last3= Murray|first3= T J|last4= Bryan|first4= Charles S|title= The Quotable Osler|year= 2002|location= Philadelphia|publisher= American College of Physicians|isbn= 978-1-930513-34-1|oclc= 50477294}}
• {{cite journal|title= Sir WILLIAM OSLER Bt., M.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.P|journal= British Medical Journal|volume= 1|issue= 3079|doi= 10.1136/bmj.1.3079.30|pages= 30–33|date= January 3, 1920|pmc=2337064}}

{{refend}}

{{Archival records|title=Sir William Osler Collection|location=Osler Library of the History of Medicine|description_URL=https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/sir-william-osler-collection|inventory_number=P100}}

{{wikiquote}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/GF/ Sir William Osler] in the US National Library of Medicine's Profiles in Science
• {{cite book|title=Sir William Osler|author1=Richard L. Golden |author2-link=Charles G. Roland |author2=Charles G. Roland |year=1988|publisher=Norman Publishing|isbn=978-0-930405-00-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Z33qBcbP6MC&q=insects+%22horace+knight%22+-imdb&pg=PA172}}
• [https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/sir-william-osler-collection Sir William Osler Collection] at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University
• [https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/harvey-cushing-fonds Harvey Cushing Fonds] at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine contains letters by Osler compiled during the writing of Cushing's biography of Osler.
• {{cite DCB |title=Osler, Sir William |first=Charles G. |last=Roland | author-link = Charles Gordon Roland |volume=14 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/osler_william_14E.html}}
• [http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/osler/index.php William Osler Photo Collection], Osler Library of the History of Medicine
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120123091858/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/sir-william-osler Sir William Osler] – The Canadian Encyclopedia
• [https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/osler/oslerbio/ Osler Library, brief biography of William Osler]
• {{Gutenberg author | id=660}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Osler}}
• {{Librivox author |id=9751}}
• [https://utmedhumanities.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/the-student-life-sir-william-osler/ The Student Life Essay by Osler at ArtBeat]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20181217084823/http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/osler/aequessay.htm Aequanimitas] from the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
• [http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1627.html Biography on WhoNamedIt.com]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100414153011/http://osler.co.uk/archived/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11:sir-william-osler&catid=12:william-osler&Itemid=24 Biography from Osler House, Oxford, focusing on his Oxford years]
• [http://www.oslerhouse.com/ Osler House – Dundas – B&B, Meetings, Celebrations, Receptions, Retreats] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528234911/https://www.oslerhouse.com/ |date=May 28, 2022 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070706203448/http://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques_STU/Plaque_Simcoe02.html Ontario Plaques — Sir William Osler]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20181106135625/http://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/about-gtc/osler-mcgovern-centre.html Osler-McGovern Centre] at 13 Norham Gardens, owned by Sir William Osler while Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University (information from Green Templeton College, Oxford)
• [http://www.americanosler.org/ The American Osler Society]
• [http://www.osler.org.uk/ The Osler Club of London]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20181226182709/http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/osler/osler150.htm Osler biography, chronology, bibliography & resources] (from Johns Hopkins)
• [http://www.systemofmedicine.com Systemofmedicine.com, Oslerian medical education resource] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717131903/https://systemofmedicine.com/ |date=July 17, 2021 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071221225408/http://www.williamoslerhc.on.ca/ William Osler Health Centre]
• {{cite journal|author=Murray, T. Jock|author-link=Thomas John Murray|title=Read any good books lately?|journal=McGill J Med|date=January 2009|volume=12|issue=1|pages=90–91|pmc=2687923|quote=Osler's bedside table Library for Medical Students|pmid=19753296 }}

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{{s-new|Creation}}

{{s-ttl|title=Baronet
(of Norham Gardens) | years=1911–1919}}

{{s-non|reason=Extinct}}

{{s-end}}

{{Canadian Medical Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osler, William}}

Category:1849 births

Category:1919 deaths

Category:Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in England

Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom

Category:Canadian baronets recommended by the British government

Category:Book and manuscript collectors

Category:Canadian expatriate academics in the United States

Category:Canadian medical researchers

Category:Physicians from Ontario

Category:Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford

Category:Johns Hopkins University faculty

Category:Johns Hopkins Hospital physicians

Category:Members of the American Anthropometric Society

Category:McGill University Faculty of Medicine alumni

Category:Pre-Confederation Ontario people

Category:Trinity College (Canada) alumni

Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty

Category:People from Dundas, Ontario

Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)

Category:Regius Professors of Medicine (University of Oxford)

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Canadian people of English descent

Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians

Category:Presidents of the History of Medicine Society

Category:Presidents of the American Pediatric Society

Category:Canadian expatriates in Germany

Category:Canadian expatriates in England

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:Presidents of the Classical Association

Category:American medical writers

Category:Osler family

Category:People from Bradford West Gwillimbury

Category:Presidents of the Bibliographical Society