Thumbnail sketches of eminent physicians : Sir William Osler / [J.C. Trent].

Date:
[1940]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Thumbnail sketches of eminent physicians : Sir William Osler / [J.C. Trent]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is the personal element in the practice of medicine, and so many are the wagging tongues in every parish that evil-speaking, lying and slandering find a shining mark in the lapses and mistakes which are inevitable in our work.” Osier was unjustly criticised for his fare¬ well address at the Hopkins in 1905, in which he spoke of “the comparative uselessness of men above forty years of age.” He was not, however, responsible for the statement that those above sixty should be chloroformed— no one could have been more sympathetically and kindly interested in the aged than Osier —, and the reference was merely a quotation from Anthony Trollope’s novel, “The Fixed Period.” In answer to the storm which his address aroused, he said: “The criticisms have not shaken my convictions that the tell¬ ing work of the world has been done and is done by men under forty years of age. The exceptions which have been given only illus¬ trate the rule. It would be to the general good if men at sixty were retired from active work. We should miss the energies of some young-old men but on the whole it would be of greater service to the sexagenarii them¬ selves.” As a matter of fact, Osier was one of the exceptions; for he was just under forty years of age when he went to the Hopkins, and his most productive period was the next ten years. Sir William’s influence spread all over the world. For example, when the Duke Medical School was organized in 1930, the first ques¬ tion to be answered was “Should the profes¬ sors be men of established reputation who had ‘arrived’ or should the university gamble on promising younger men with a future?” Fortunately I had heard Osier discuss this question several times. Though most people thought of the original “Four Doctors” of the Hopkins as great men (and they were when we knew them after they had made their reputations), they were comparative youngsters when originally appointed by President Daniel Coit Gilman; Osier was 39, Halsted 37, Welch 34 and Kelly 31—an av¬ erage age of 35 years. Duke might not be able to find the equals of those Hopkins pio¬ neers of modern medicine; but our best chance lay in appointing men under 40 years of age. That explains why the average age of the original Duke medical faculty was 35 years, and demonstrates how Osier’s ideas permeated medical thought. One of Osier’s most helpful aphorisms was: “To study the phenomena of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all.” It made me realize how essential a medical library is to every medi¬ cal school. Although buildings can be built and a staff assembled, a library has to be hunted in the four corners of the earth. As a result, the collecting was started three years before the school opened, and the Duke Medical Library is now among the ten best in the country. Another suggestion which came from Sir William’s interest in medical history was the naming of the Duke Hospital wards for emi¬ nent Southern physicians and surgeons. Needless to say, a ward was named Osier, on the assumption that his having lived in Balti¬ more for fifteen years had made him a Southerner. Wilburt C. Davison, M.D. Durham sjs Hs * II THE WAY OF A TEACHER Teaching in order to impart regimented understanding is necessary to an extent, at least for the undergraduate, in order for a segment of learning to be presented. Then by an examination the teacher can try to ascertain just how much of this pumped-in wisdom has been retained by the student. If, however, the teacher has not, over and above this order of instruction, an extra¬ ordinary Something which transcends teach¬ ing as we usually know it—an influence which he imparts unconsciously—, he fails to attain greatness. Precepts and ideals abhor labels. They have a way of their own as they emerge from an instructor and enter into the fiber of those in the process of being- instructed. They establish not only a way of learning, but a way of living. The textual content of a given subject is soon forgotten. The spirit of the great teacher, his method of approach to problems in his domain of understanding, and the technique which he employs in their solution endure, not only as an inspiration to lighten the pathway of the student, but as a stimulus to high accom¬ plishment. Such was the influence of Sir William Osier in the medical dispensary, in the wards, and in the rooms of patients. As he visited such areas of distress and maladjust-