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. osler's speech was covered by the popular press which headlined their reports with "osler recommends chloroform at sixty". the concept of mandatory euthanasia for humans after a "fixed period" (often 60 years) became a recurring theme in 20th century imaginative 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 illess, the old man escapes those "cold gradations of decay" so distressing to himself and his friends." coincidentally, osler himself died of pneumonia. personal life and family grace revere osler 13 norham gardens: sir william osler's residence in oxford 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. 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. 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kahnawake), author of a controversial paper on the obstetrical habits of native american tribes that was suppressed and unpublished. 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 influenza epidemic, most likely of complications from undiagnosed bronchiectasis. 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; lt. osler's grave is in the dozinghem military cemetery in west flanders, belgium. 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. lady osler (grace revere) was born in boston in 1854; her paternal great-grandfather was paul revere. 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. osler's brain was taken to the wistar institute in philadelphia to join the wistar brain collection. 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. he was elected as a member to the american philosophical society in 1885. in 1925, a biography of william osler was written by harvey cushing, 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. eponyms 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. conditions 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." 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. 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. osler's triad (also known as austrian syndrome): association of pneumonia, endocarditis, and meningitis. sphryanura osleri is a trematode worm found in the gills of a newt. oslerus osleri is a metastrongyloid nematode lungworm parasite of wild and domestic canids. osler discovered the parasite while teaching comparative pathology at mcgill. buildings a quote by sir william osler engraved in the stone wall within the peace chapel of the international peace garden (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, agincourt area of scarborough in what is now toronto, ontario sir william osler public school 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 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 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 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 devoted to teaching "the basic elements of a sound doctor patient relationship" osler hall is main hall of "med chi" or medical and chirurgical faculty, the maryland state medical society, 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 osler house, osler's childhood home in dundas, ontario. awards american association for the history of medicine, william osler medal. osler library, mcgill university. pam and rolando del maestro william osler medical students essay awards. osler lecture at the worshipful society of apothecaries. student award in oslerian medicine