McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
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H3A 0C9
Letter to George Armstrong, November 23, 1914
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A major figure in modern medical history, Sir William Osler is well known as a scientific researcher, a great medical pedagogue, a humanist, and an advocate for a patient-centered approach to medicine.
Born in Bond Head, Ontario, in 1849, Osler earned his medical degree at McGill University, and later taught at McGill's Faculty of Medicine from 1874 until 1884. Osler then joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he was appointed Chair of Clinical Medicine before becoming Physician-in-Chief and one of the "Big Four" founders of Johns Hopkins Hospital and medical school in Baltimore – the first school of its kind to train medical students in a modern residency program. Osler finished his career as Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, where he also devoted time to his passion for book collecting. His library of nearly eight thousand rare and historic works of the history of medicine and science is known as the Bibliotheca Osleriana, documented by a published catalogue of the same title.
Sir William Osler was knighted in 1911 in recognition of his contributions to medical science and teaching. His library of 7600 volumes on the history of medicine and science bequeathed to McGill University forms the nucleus of the present Osler Library of the History of Medicine. His life and contributions to medicine are described in detail in the Pulitzer-Prize winning biography "Life of Sir William Osler" (London: Oxford University Press, 1925) by Harvey Cushing.
Letter to George Armstrong from William Osler, 13, Norham Gardens, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. He has urged Keogh to take (McGill) unit as soon as possible. Mentions that there are difficulties, as the question of holding the coast is still doubtful. Mentions that he has looked at the photographs of atrocities and of mutilations and has asked in the hospitals about it, nothing gets closer to what this damned third person has advanced. He would like to mutilate personally the author. His opinion is that there have been probably atrocities, particularly in the sack of Louvain, but thinks that it has been grossly exaggerated
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Cushing's colour code: White (Correspondence)