#william osler

[key-cat]

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.

われわれの大事な仕事は、遠くの方にかすかにあるものを見ようとすることではなく、手元に明らかに存在するものを行うことである。

William Osler ウイリアム・オスラー　

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Conservatism and old fogeyism are totally different things; the motto of one is “Prove all things and hold fast that which is good” and of the other “Prove nothing but hold fast that which is old.”

- William Osler

Osler, a Canadian physician and one of the founding professors of the John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, was playing on words from what was written in the bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.“

[didanawisgi]

[spockvarietyhour]

Class given by Sir William Osler, 1905

[mednerds]

With too many, unfortunately, working habits are not cultivated until the constraining dread of an approaching exam is felt, when the hopeless attempt is made to cram the work of two years into a six month’ session, with results only too evident to your examiners.

William Osler M.D., Introductory Lecture on the Opening of the Forty-Fifth Session of the Medical Faculty, McGill University. 1877. Canada Medical and Surgical Journal 1877;6(5):193-210

[themedicalstate]

Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability

Sir William Osler

[coplins]

William Osler

“Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians, and he was the first to bring medical students out of the lecture hall for bedside clinical training.“ (Wikipedia)

Incidentally, he was also known to be a prankster and something of a troll.

Okay guys, is it just me, or...?

[murdoch-histories]

“Dr. Osler Regrets” is another very interesting Murdoch Mysteries episode featuring another famous Canadian historical figure, Dr. William Osler. He was described as the father of modern medicine and to quote one admirer, one of the "greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope", so it’s understandable why Dr. Ogden is a fan. 

Osler was born in Bond Head, Canada West (now known as Toronto) on July 12, 1849. Originally, he intended to become a minister, but became interested in medical science after entering Trinity College School and Trinity College, Toronto (now called the University of Toronto) as well as through the influence of two mentors, James Bovell, and Rev. William Arthur Johnson, who encouraged him to change his career goal. Osler would receive his medical degree in 1872. 

Following this, Osler became a professor in McGill University in the medicine faculty, creating the first formal journal club. During this time, he also became the first to teach veterinary pathology in North America. 

Aside from his great achievements in medicine, however, Osler was a slightly controversial figure as he was a bit of a practical joker, writing many humourous pieces in the Philadelphia Medical News under a pseudonym. In fact, the episode was based on a real event in February 22, 1905 where he gave some very controversial words about old age, suggesting a college where men over the age of 67 be "peacefully extinguished by chloroform", likely angering more than a few of his audience. He meant it as a joke, but like most newspapers today, the media took it seriously, headlining that "Osler recommends chloroform at sixty". 

Osler died at the age of 70, on December 29, 1919 from pneumonia.