Osler Transmitted--a Study in Humanism

Abstract

ALFRED WHITE FRANKLIN THE PLAN of my oration is to consider three questions, by whom is Osler transmitted, by what means and to what end? And because Osler is praised as a humanist, we shall need to examine that chameleon word, on our way to the finish that crowns the work-the moral. My title, Osler transmitted, well understood by Oslerolators, comes from Osler's classification of authors as Creators, Transmuters and Transmitters when opening the Bodley Shakespeare Exhibition in Oxford on 24 April 1916. He instanced Shakespeare as the world's greatest creator, Francis Bacon as the first of the modem transmuters, and Robert Burton as the last of the great transmitters. 'At the command of Prospero', he began, 'the authors. .. would arrange themselves in three groups', the transmitters (of learning) 'swarming black over Port Meadow and the soft, low-lying Cumnor hills', the creators fitting perhaps on to Harvard President Eliot's seven-foot book shelf. 'The melting-pot of the transmuters has changed the world. .. [they] have given to man his world dominion.' Osler put them into his Bibliotheca Prima in his Library Catalogue, 'the essential literature grouped about the men of the first rank, arranged in chronological order'. These transmuters have forged from the designs of the creators the tools of thought and action, from antiquity through the intellectual highlands of seventeenth-century England where dwelt Bacon, Harvey, Willis, Sydenham, Boyle, and on as far as nineteenth-century Rontgen. Twentieth-century wonders have since added more than a handful of fresh transmuters. OSLER TRANSMITmS Osler was a transmitter. He first transmitted himself to the medical profession of the world through 7he Principals and Practice of Medicine, published in 1892 and for the next twenty-five years the standard student textbook in English and in the many foreign tongues of its translations. He transmitted himself, too, through his pupils in the four universities, McGill, Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins and Oxford, men and women who helped transform medical practice and education. His own thoughts on medical education still ferment, witness the recent book called Wm. Osler the Continuing Education, containing fourteen of his addresses on this subject, each treated to a modem commentary by a different Oslerian. Behind this publication and the foundation of the American Osler Society, both in 1969, fifty years after Osler's death, stands the figure of Wilburt C. Davison, Rhodes Scholar, Osler's friend from 1913-1919, Hopkins graduate, 6migr6 to Duke and its Oslerian inspirer. For those who knew not Osler, the word comes from the two volumes of Harvey

Sir William Osler (1849–1919) and God’s House in Ewelme

“…52 Even AW Franklin (1905–1984), a warm admirer of Osler, suggested that hehad a kindly regard for the less privileged person but, [as] a man of his time, he had no general sympathy for the poor who are always with us, to excite pity and solicitude but not to be inspirers of social action. 53 However, the testimony of those who knew of Osler’s work in the Ewelme Almshouse does not accord with Franklin’s suggestion, and while Patrick Mallam (1900–1973), son of one of Osler’s colleagues at the Radcliffe Infirmary, may have been correct when he wrote that the Regius, “as titular landlord”, regarded the two Almshouse families with Friedreich’s Ataxia and Alkaptonuria “kindly and almost as a collection of esoteric incunabulae to show his medical friends”, Osler was, as Franklin acknowledged, a man of his time and such attitudes remained common throughout much of the twentieth century. When speaking of Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), Osler himself reminded his audience that “… a man must be judged by his times and his surroundings”.…”

“…had a kindly regard for the less privileged person but, [as] a man of his time, he had no general sympathy for the poor who are always with us, to excite pity and solicitude but not to be inspirers of social action. 53…”

Osler studies enter second century

“…A few admiring Oslerians ventured to point out chinks in their hero’s armour. Thus, in 1972, Alfred White Franklin (1905–1984), co-founder of the OCL with Walter Reginald Bett (1903–1968), suggested that Osler ‘had a kindly regard for the less privileged person but, [as] a man of his time, … had no general sympathy for the poor …’ 6 In 1973, George T Harrell (1908–1999) of the AOS reported on Osler’s sometimes-exorbitant consultation fees. 7 In 1974, AOS member Charles G Roland (1933–2009) critiqued ‘Osler’s rough edge’, noting: ‘Occasionally I find Osler too good to be true’.…”

“…it was through him that the international medical wheels turned with an easy movement'. 4 Wilburt C Davison (1892-1972, after reading some 440 articles about Osler, observed that 'none of his students would brook any criticism about him', adding: 'We regarded him as perfect'. 5 'Second-generation' Oslerians included inaugural members of the Osler Club of London, founded in 1928, and later the American Osler Society (AOS), founded in 1970, which was about the same time 'humanism in medicine' became a cause ce´le`bre for those alarmed about the unintended consequences of technology in health care.…”

“….' 6 In 1973, George T Harrell (1908T Harrell ( -1999 of the AOS reported on Osler's sometimes-exorbitant consultation fees. 7 In 1974, AOS member Charles G Roland (1933-2009 critiqued 'Osler's rough edge', noting: 'Occasionally I find Osler too good to be true'.…”