Osler, William (1849–1919), physician and medical educator.Osler was born at Bond Head, Canada, the son of the Reverend Featherstone Lake Osler and Ellen Free Picton Osler. He graduated in medicine from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in 1872 and after studies abroad returned to McGill as professor of the institutes of medicine in 1874. In 1884 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1889 he was appointed professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and physician in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Drawing on European models, Osler introduced to the Johns Hopkins Medical School, which opened in 1893, a system of clinical clerkships that put a premium on bedside instruction. A charismatic teacher, he became a role model for a generation of U.S. medical students. His influence was further extended through his best‐selling textbook,
The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892), and numerous essays on the medical life. In 1905 he became Regius Professor at Oxford and in 1911 was made a baronet. In England, Osler and his wife made their home a haven for a generation of Rhodes scholars and other visiting Americans. He died at Oxford in 1919.
A clergyman's son, Osler became a high priest of modern medicine and contributed greatly to America's rise to international medical prominence. His patient‐centered teaching and his genteel, bibliophilic scholarship inspired later medical humanists. His legacy is perpetuated through various clubs, lectureships, and the American Osler Society.
See also
Medical Education;
Medicine: From the 1870s to 1945;
Welch, William H.
Bibliography
Harvey Cushing , The Life of Sir William Osler, 2 vols. 1925.
Michael Bliss , William Osler: A Life in Medicine, 1999.
Michael Bliss
