Thumbnail sketches of eminent physicians : Sir William Osler / [J.C. Trent].

Date:
[1940]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Thumbnail sketches of eminent physicians : Sir William Osler / [J.C. Trent]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In this respect it resembled the clinics of the German universities. The other hospitals in this country were manned by local prac¬ titioners who formed a rotating staff, each member of which served a few months of the year. This lack of continuity of service, and its dependence on local men who were busy practitioners offered a serious handicap to efficiency. Dr. Osier’s training, as well as his natural gifts, had fitted him admirably for his new post. After spending two years in the Toron¬ to School of Medicine, he had continued his clinical studies in Montreal. Upon gradua¬ tion he went to England and Germany for two years of study. His first year was spent in London, where he devoted himself to re¬ search work in the physiological laboratory of Burdon Sanderson. There his pioneer studies of the blood plates made his name known. In Berlin he attended the lectures and demonstrations of Virchow, the founder of cellular pathology. In directing his medi¬ cal activities into the field of pathologic anatomy, he was inspired by Virchow. On his return to Canada in 1874, Osier was made professor of the Institutes of Medicine, and under this title was given the instruction in physiology and pathology. During the following ten years he performed 1000 autopsies and described carefully his findings. He issued the first pathologic re¬ port to be published from a Canadian insti¬ tution. In 1878 he was appointed a physician to the Montreal General Hospital. Up to that time his work had been chiefly in the labor¬ atory, lecture hall, and autopsy room. On the day of his election to the clinical position, he set out for England to take what he later advised his students to take—namely, a “quinquennial brain-dusting.” For several months he “walked” the London hospitals and attended the bedside clinics of Murchi¬ son, Gee, and other leading teachers. In Philadelphia he associated himself with that distinguished neurologist and littera¬ teur, S. Weir Mitchell. While in Philadel¬ phia, he collected and analyzed a large series of cases of the cerebral palsies of children, and later of chorea. Both included many cases that he had studied himself and a com¬ plete review of the literature. Both were published in book form. Such extensive studies had rarely, if ever, been made up to that time in America. He continued his pathologic work in Philadelphia, and Cush¬ ing stated that he performed 191 autopsies at Blockley (Philadelphia General Hos¬ pital) . Osier established at the Hopkins a resi¬ dent staff, which was another innovation in American hospitals borrowed from German clinics. His first chief resident was H. A. Lafleur, who came from McGill; two assist¬ ant residents, Scott and Tolman, he brought with him from Philadelphia. All the other American hospitals had then, and continued to have for many years, only interns, who served usually for just twelve months. As late as 1902 I could learn of no hospital ex¬ cept Hopkins that had residencies. The edu¬ cational number of the Journal of the Amer¬ ican Medical Association issued in 1949 listed more than 3000 medical residencies and even more surgical residencies in this country. On Lafleur’s return to Montreal his place was taken by W. S. Thayer, who came to Hopkins from the Massachusetts General Hospital. His term of service as resident ex¬ tended from 1891 to 1901. The description of William Osier given by Thayer, his dis¬ ciple and assistant for fifteen years, is worth quoting(1): “How well I remember him as he was in those days . . . the ‘Chief’ as we called him, vigorous, handsome. The eyes I remember most clearly; deep, dark, rich, brown eyes; at rest grave, even sad; sometimes, when he looked up suddenly from his work in a moment of deep thought, almost severe. The genius of Sargent caught such a moment in his well-known crayon, a passing expression familiar only to those who knew Osier best. Severe at such moments, grave and inscrutable when at rest, they were warm and glowing and kindly and direct as they met one’s glance, and singularly mobile, in a flash sparkling and dancing with merriment as he seized with lightning rapidity the humorous aspects of the situation, and broke into a quick nervous, or more rarely when taken off guard, into a loud, short hearty laugh. His glance never evaded an¬ other’s. His manner of speaking was charming. His voice was quiet and even, but rich and sympathetic. His movements were easy and measured; his gait, rather rapid with long swinging strides. His com¬ posure and poise were unusual. He talked quietly, simply, and not very much. He practiced himself a virtue which he often praised, the ‘virtue of taci¬ turnity’. But he was a good listener and had un¬ usual skill in guiding a conversation. If the con¬ versation took a turn of which he disapproved, he could cut it short or change the subject with ease . . . In the fifteen years during which I saw him nearly every day, I never heard him speak a hasty or ill-considered word . . . His self-control was per¬ fect. Better, I think, than anyone that I have known, he practised what he preached.” 1 Thayer, W. S.: Reminiscences of Osier In the Early Balti¬ more Days, Osier and Other Papers, Johns Hopkins I ress, Baltimore, 1931, pp. 18-41.
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