william osler william osler sir william osler, 1st baronet, frs frcp (/ˈɒzlər/; july 12, 1849 – december 29, 1919) was a canadian physician and one of the "big four" founding professors of johns hopkins hospital. osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians, and he was the first to bring medical students out of the lecture hall for bedside clinical training. he has frequently been described as the father of modern medicine and one of the "greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope". osler was a person of many interests, who in addition to being a physician, was a bibliophile, historian, author, and renowned practical joker. outside of medicine, he was passionate about medical libraries and medical history and among his achievements were the founding of the history of medicine society (formally "section"), at the royal society of medicine, london. in the field of librarianship he was instrumental in founding the medical library association of great britain and ireland, the (north american) association of medical librarians (now known as the medical library association) with three others, including margaret charlton, the medical librarian of his alma mater, mcgill university. he left his large history of medicine library to mcgill, where it continues to exist as the osler library. sir william oslerbt frs frcpphotograph of osler, c. 1912born(1849-07-12)july 12, 1849bond head, province of canadadieddecember 29, 1919(1919-12-29) (aged 70)oxford, englandnationalitycanadianalma matertrinity college, torontomcgill university (mdcm)known forco-founding physician of johns hopkins hospitalspousegrace revere oslerchildren2 sonsscientific careerfieldsphysician, pathologist, internist, educator, bibliophile, author and historianinstitutions mcgill university johns hopkins university school of medicine johns hopkins hospital university of pennsylvania university of oxford signature biography family william osler's great-grandfather, edward osler, was variously described as either a merchant seaman or a pirate. 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. 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. as a teenager, featherstone osler was aboard hms sappho when it was nearly destroyed by atlantic storms and left adrift for weeks. serving in the navy, he was shipwrecked off barbados. in 1837, featherstone osler officially retired from the navy and emigrated to canada, becoming a "saddle-bag minister" in rural upper canada. when featherstone osler and his bride, ellen free picton, arrived in canada, they were nearly shipwrecked again on egg island in the gulf of saint lawrence. they had several children, including william, britton bath osler and sir edmund boyd osler. early life william osler was born in bond head, canada west (now ontario), on july 12, 1849, and raised after 1857 in dundas, ontario. (he was called william after william of orange, who won the battle of the boyne on july 12, 1690.) his mother, who was very religious, prayed that osler would become a priest. 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, toronto (now part of the university of toronto), in the autumn. at the time, he was becoming increasingly interested in medical science, under the influence of james bovell and the rev. william arthur johnson, encouraging him to switch his career. in 1868, osler enrolled in the toronto school of medicine, 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. 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. career 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. during this time, he also showed interest in comparative pathology and is considered the first to teach 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", was on the imperturbability (calm amid storm) and equanimity (moderated emotion, tolerance) necessary for physicians. osler in 1909, at the bodleian library, oxford, holding sir william stirling maxwell's copy of vesalius's tabulae anatomicae in 1889, he accepted the position as the first physician-in-chief of the new johns hopkins hospital in baltimore, maryland. shortly afterwards, in 1893, osler was instrumental in the creation of the johns hopkins school of medicine and became one of the school's first professors of medicine. osler quickly increased his reputation as a clinician, humanitarian, and teacher. he presided over a rapidly expanding domain. in the hospital's first year of operation, when it had 220 beds, 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. 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 and was founding senior editor of its publication the quarterly journal of medicine until his death. in 1911, he initiated the postgraduate medical association, of which he was the first president. in the same year, osler was named a baronet in the coronation honours list for his contributions to the field of medicine. in january 1919 he was appointed president of the fellowship of medicine and was also in october 1919 appointed founding president of the merged fellowship of medicine and postgraduate medical association, now 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 of his papers is also held at the united states national library of medicine in bethesda, maryland. assessment osler c. 1880 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." 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. the four doctors by john singer sargent, 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. 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, 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 and also a president of the bibliographical society of london (1913). 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. it is notable in part for supporting the use of bloodletting as recently as 1923. 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". 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. controversies racism 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. osler wrote “i hate latin americans” in a letter to henry vining ogden. 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.” 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. gerontology 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