William Osler: A Life in Medicine
- Book Review,
by Michael Bliss
From Library Journal
Medical historian Bliss (The Discovery of Insulin) has written the authoritative modern biography of 19th-century Canadian physician William Osler. Idolized by many as one of the greatest of all modern physicians, Osler emerges from this critical text as a brilliant, influential physician and teacher, full of compassion for his profession and patients. Bliss offers a glimpse of the rise of modern medicine and medical education as it unfolded around Osler and provides a view of the time as well as of the man. This volume replaces Harvey Cushing's two-volume tribute, The Life of Sir William Osler (1956), as the definitive text in the field. Highly recommended for history collections in all academic libraries and essential for medical collections.AEric D. Albright, Duke Medical Ctr. Lib., Durham, NC Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From The New England Journal of Medicine, March 16, 2000
Since his death in 1919, William Osler has been the subject of intense biographical interest. Although Harvey Cushing's Pulitzer prize-winning Life of Sir William Osler (London: Oxford University Press, 1925), which is more than 1400 pages long, remains the definitive (if uncritical) biography, it belongs to a life-and-letters tradition of a more leisurely age than our own. Bliss's streamlined narrative of fewer than 600 pages is meant to introduce Osler to a generation for whom he is little more than a medical icon. Born in a rural community in Ontario, Canada, Osler attended the medical school at McGill University, which was relatively small at that time, and earned his medical degree in 1872. Following the fashion of the day, he traveled to Europe to study in London, Berlin, and Vienna; he was deeply impressed by German clinical medicine and laboratory research. On his return to Canada, he was appointed to a professorship at McGill. His growing reputation led to an appointment in clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1884. When Johns Hopkins Hospital opened its doors in 1889, Osler was invited to become one of the six founding members of what was intended to be the country's leading medical school; the school was established four years later. His Principles and Practice of Medicine (New York: Appleton, 1892), which has been called the first great textbook of modern medicine, earned him an international reputation. Active on many fronts, Osler became the best-known physician in America. But he was overworked, and in 1904 he accepted the less-demanding Regius Professorship of Medicine at Oxford University, a largely honorary position that provided a base for his multifarious activities, which he carried on with unmatched vigor until his death. To write a biography of Osler 80 years after his death is a demanding task. A contemporary biographer might be expected to react to the long tradition of Oslerian hagiography by cutting his subject down to size. A number of present-day historians would welcome the opportunity to deconstruct this figure of the Victorian medical establishment in the interest of defrocking doctors and unmasking medicine as a political enterprise. Fortunately, Bliss eschews an agenda-laden approach. A respected medical historian best known for his biography of Sir Frederick Banting, the codiscoverer of insulin, Bliss poses new questions about such matters as sex, class, and race that would not have interested earlier generations of readers. Did Osler share the racial prejudices of his contemporaries? Was he patronizing in his attitude toward women? Did he make distinctions among his patients on the basis of their social standing? Are there skeletons (particularly sex scandals) in his closet? The answers that Bliss gives may surprise some readers. Osler displayed little of the patronizing attitudes toward blacks, women, and the poor manifested by many of his contemporaries. Nor can Bliss find evidence of scandal: persistent rumors of youthful indiscretions, when investigated, lacked substance. Bliss admits that he found almost nothing that would undercut Osler's enormous reputation. In an era when heroes of the past are often shown to have had feet of clay, it is refreshing to see a medical paragon such as Osler emerge from close scrutiny with his personal integrity not merely intact but enhanced. Bliss explores several themes that, although not new, illuminate Osler's outlook and intellectual development. The son of an Anglican minister, Osler abandoned his boyhood faith and espoused the Darwinian secular liberalism, with its unquestioned belief in progress, that gained popularity in the late 19th century. But his loss of religious faith left a void that was never quite filled. Unable to profess a belief in life after death, he compensated by finding meaning in work and by memorializing great physicians of the past, regarding memory and influence alone as bestowing immortality. As Osler turned away from Christianity, he found consolation in the writers of Greco-Roman antiquity, especially the Stoic philosophers. A humanist and genial skeptic, he laced his speeches, which were enormously popular in their day, with classical and biblical allusions that contemporary readers may find challenging. Bliss's biography can hardly be termed revisionist. Although he recounts the well-known features of Osler's life and career that have often been discussed elsewhere, his access to previously unused materials sheds light on a number of points. Perhaps the best chapter is the last: "Osler's Afterlife," in which Bliss traces Osler's reputation since his death. Adored in his lifetime, he was acclaimed after his death as his era's "most famous, most beloved, and most influential physician." His textbook was published in updated versions until 1947. Cushing memorialized his life in his great biography, numerous reminiscences were published, and Osler's essays continued to enjoy a wide readership. The Osler cult was assiduously cultivated by a number of his students and admirers, especially his nephew William W. Francis, who catalogued and guarded his library (and relics) at McGill. By the 1950s, memories of Osler had faded, but he became the subject of renewed interest in the 1960s, as a model of medical humanism in a world in which medicine was increasingly dominated by science and technology. Toward the end of the century, books and articles on Osler appeared regularly. If the Osler mystique has faded somewhat, his image possesses a remarkable longevity, and he continues to be one of the most quoted physicians of all time. Bliss's biography will of course be compared with that of Cushing. A few readers will miss the luxuriant detail that Bliss has omitted, but most readers will welcome a biography that is both more manageable in scope and more up to date in its assessment not merely of Osler but also of the bustling and creative medical world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in which he practiced. For a generation of readers whose shared values are so different from Osler's, William Osler: A Life in Medicine is certain to generate a new appreciation of the man and his remarkably diverse achievements. Reviewed by Gary B. Ferngren, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2000 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.
From Booklist
Osler, a Canadian, became famous in the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, first in Canada, then in the U.S., and finally in England. In 1926, seven years after his death, neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing wrote a two-volume biography of him that won a Pulitzer Prize. Why, then, is another biography needed? First, Osler was a major player in the history of medicine as clinician, teacher, and literary and scientific author. Second, much new material has become available since the 1920s. Finally, Bliss proved himself with his biography of Frederick Banting, the discoverer of insulin, as well as other scholarly and readable books. He individuates Osler and his family members, colleagues, and patients, setting them all in enough, but not too much, social, medical, and political historical context. Thoroughly documented, this is a biography that is pleasurable to read and deserving of a place in virtually every public, college, and medical library. William Beatty
From Kirkus Reviews
A well-told, enjoyable, enlighteningand much neededbiography of a giant of medical practice and education. William Osler (18491919) was a pastor's son from rural Canada, the 8th of 9 children, who began his professional career as a pathologist; his career in medical teaching and clinical practice was eventually framed by stints at McGill, Johns Hopkins, and finally Oxford. By the time of his death, Osler was considered by colleagues and patients alike to be the greatest physician in the world; while at Hopkins he had revolutionized the clinical education of medical students; he wrote the groundbreaking text The Principles and Practice of Medicine, which finally went out of print in 1947, 16 editions later (and marked the last time such a wide-ranging tome had a single author), and was generally revered as the first great medical humanist. Osler's previous biographer, the great neurosurgeon (and Osler contemporary) Cushing, delivered a plodding, admiringand until now authoritativeaccount of Osler's life and work in 1925. Medical historian Bliss (The Discovery of Insulin) here is able to sort through the mountains of material penned by Osler and his contemporaries to present a much more complete, clear-eyed, and ultimately admiring portrait of Osler, his work, and the times in which he lived. Bliss is able to sort out the cult-like devotion to Osler: In 1999, we can rightly dismiss most of his medical writing as dated, of only historic or very specialized interest. And yes, Bliss agrees, Osler can be viewed as a great medical humanistso long as it was remembered that the real Osler was also a rigorous disciple of science and the scientific method. A clear picture of an extraordinarily curious, intelligent, kind, and humorous man emerges. Osler reportedly regretted that he wouldn't be able to conduct his own post-mortem exam, having taken such a lifelong interest in the case. And along the way, readers will gain a clear picture of the Osler landscape: the coming of modern medicine, the training of doctors . . . localism and holism in medical thought . . . feminism, humanism, science and the humanities, Victorianism, the rise of the United States, the North Atlantic cultural triangle all come under Bliss's lens. A first-rate biography of a towering medical influence. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Book News, Inc.
Bliss tells the story of Osler (1849-1919) who was born in backwoods Canada, taught and wrote about medicine at McGill University, Johns Hopkins University in the US, and at Oxford in Britain. He was a scholar of the natural history of disease and revolutionized the bedside practice of medicine. He was also a noted humanist.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR
Sherwin B. Nuland, The New Republic, December 13, 1999
Cushing's is a biography more honored than read....Not so for Bliss's warm, engaging, and in places quite humorous book. This is the sort of writing that has the air of coming easily off the pen, in spite of its scholarly documentation and the enormous wealth of research erudition hidden between its lines. Bliss's panoramic biography has been as scrupulously documented as Cushing's, but one would hardly know it by reading it as I believe it is meant to be read: as a fascinating story about a fascinating man.
A.M. Clarfield, MD, Journal of the American Medical Association, January 26, 2000
With the publication of this new book by Professor Michael Bliss of the University of Toronto, the physician now has an excellent, readable biography written by a true scholar of medical history who knows his man and material intimately....Reading this excellent and inspiring biography will surely make us try all the harder.
Science News, January 1, 2000
Bliss adroitly captures the turn-of-the-century emergence of modern medicine, which Osler gracefully dominated.
William F. Gavin, Washington Times, October 31, 1999
Medical historian Michael Bliss' William Osler is a big, sturdy, readable account of Osler's life and the medical advances that were made in his lifetime, a period the author calls "the age of bacteriology"....Mr. Bliss tells his story remarkably well, varying his style with little ventures into present-tense storytelling. The author has a firm grasp of medical esoteria, and possesses a sly wit.
Book Description
William Osler was born in a parsonage in backwoods Canada on July 12, 1849. In a life lasting seventy years, he practiced, taught, and wrote about medicine at Canada's McGill University, America's Johns Hopkins University, and finally as Regius Professor at Oxford. At the time of his death in England in 1919, many considered him to be the greatest doctor in the world. Osler, who was a brilliant, innovative teacher and a scholar of the natural history of disease, revolutionized the art of practicing medicine at the bedside of his patients. He was idolized by two generations of medical students and practitioners for whom he came to personify the ideal doctor. But much more than a physician, Osler was a supremely intelligent humanist. In both his writings and his personal life, and through the prism of the tragedy of the Great War, he embodied the art of living. It was perhaps his legendary compassion that elevated his healing talents to an art form and attracted to his private practice students, colleagues, poets (Walt Whitman for example) politicians, royalty, and nameless ordinary people with extraordinary conditions. William Osler's life lucidly illuminates the times in which he lived. Indeed, this is a book not only about the evolution of modern medicine, the training of doctors, holism in medical thought, and the doctor-patient relationship, but also about humanism, Victorianism, the Great War, and much else. Meticulously researched, drawing on many new sources and offering new interpretations, William Osler: A Life in Medicine brings to life both a fascinating man and the formative age of twentieth-century medicine. It is a classic biography of a classic life, both authoritative and highly readable.
Book Info
Univ. of Toronto, Canada. Biography about the evolution of medicine, the training of doctors, holism in medical thought, the doctor-patient relationship, humanism, Victorianism, the Great War, and more. At the time of his death, many thought William Osler to be the greatest doctor in the world. For the general reader.
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