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Letter to James William White, May 16, 1910
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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 James William White from William Osler, 13, Norham Gardens, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. He was under the impression that he had written him from the Athenaeum Club after seeing Henry James. The latter is deeply depressed, his nephew Henry James Junior stayed with him for a while, and now William James is there. There are not good accounts. Extract from a letter William James sent where he describes the state of mind of Henry James. Skinner has recommended changing his mind and that Henry James friends work in that direction. Comments on Skinner. Osler's opinion on the matter is that the disease is relatively superficial and the remissions seem independent of assignable outward influences. Mentions that Henry James had written to him 18 months ago about anginoid symptoms, which had disappeared. Hopes that White will visit him to cheer him up.
Copy or transcription.
Cushing's colour code: White (Correspondence)