Osler, Sir William (ō`slər), 1849–1919, Canadian physician, M.D. McGill Univ., 1872. Renowned as a physician and as a medical historian, he was also the most brilliant and influential teacher of medicine in his day. He was professor at McGill (1875–84), the Univ. of Pennsylvania (1884–89), Johns Hopkins (1889–1904), and Oxford (from 1905). In 1911 he was knighted. His many medical observations include those on blood platelets and on the abnormally high red blood cell count in polycythemia. He wrote The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892), one of the most prestigious medical textbooks in modern times, often revised, and A Concise History of Medicine (1919).

Bibliography

See Aphorisms from His Bedside Teachings and Writings (W. B. Bean, ed. 1950); biographies by H. Cushing (1925) and E. G. Reid (1931); bibliography by R. L. Golden and C. G. Roland (1988).

Osler, Sir William

William Osler, at the bedside of a patient, while professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, …

(credit: Courtesy of the Osler Library, McGill University, Montreal)

(born July 12, 1849, Bond Head, Canada West, Can.—died Dec. 29, 1919, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) Canadian physician and professor. He became the first to identify blood platelets (1873) and later taught at the medical school at McGill University (1875–84) and then at Johns Hopkins University's medical school (1889–1905). There he helped transform clinical teaching; students studied patients in the wards and took their problems to the lab, and experts pooled their knowledge to benefit both patient and student in public teaching sessions. Osler's Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892) became the most popular medical textbook of its day. He was involved in the formation of two physicians' associations and the Quarterly Journal of Medicine. Osler nodes on the hand are seen in some cardiac infections, and two blood disorders also bear his name.