Sir William Osler - Hektoen International

The Royal Society of Medicine of London: A brief history

November 23, 2022

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, England RSM, 1 Wimpole Street, London. Photo by Philafrenzy, 2017, on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. The origins of the Royal Society of Medicine in London can be traced back to 1805. It was in that year that a breakaway group of learned physicians and surgeons formed a new medical society, […]

William Osler

December 8, 2021

Sir William Osler circa 1912. Unknown photographer. Via Wikimedia. CC BY 4.0. It is good to review periodically the lives of famous men lest they be forgotten by new generations. In medicine few people have been the subject of more books, articles, and reviews then Sir William Osler. He has been called the father of […]

The Call of the Wild and COVID-19

July 6, 2021

Liam Butchart Stony Brook, New York, United States Samantha Rizzo Washington DC, United States Winter Scene in Moonlight. Henry Farrer. 1869. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought a terrible toll upon all of us and has brought the medical system—and the providers who inhabit it—to its knees. There is a […]

William Osler: clinician and teacher with a pediatric interest

November 4, 2020

Göran Wettrell Lund, Sweden Figure 1. Sir William Osler in Oxford, photo presented by Lady Osler. Sir William Osler has been described as one of the greatest physicians of his time, especially known for his bedside medicine and teaching (Figure 1). He has also been characterized as “a pediatric-minded worker within the widespread wine-yard […]

Harvey Cushing: Surgeon, Author, Soldier, Historian 1869-1939

August 17, 2020

John Raffensperger Fort Meyers, Florida, United States Harvey Williams Cushing. Photograph by W.(?)W.B. Credit: Wellcome Collection. (CC BY 4.0) Harvey Cushing was a third-generation physician, born to a family of New England Puritans who had migrated to Cleveland, Ohio, in the mid 1830s. His father and grandfather were successful physicians; family members on both […]

Sir Victor Horsley’s fatal blind spot

July 30, 2020

Faraze A. Niazi Jack E. Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States Sir Victor Horsley. Photograph by G.C. Beresford. Credit: Wellcome Collection. (CC BY 4.0) A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind. -Robert Oxton Bolton Sir Victor Horsley is generally regarded as the […]

Howard Kelly’s avant-garde autopsy method

February 3, 2020

Julius P. Bonello, George E. Tsourdinis Peoria, Illinois, United States Figure 1. Dr. Howard Kelly (Photo courtesy of The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions)3 Once dubbed the “Prince of Gynecology,” Dr. Howard A. Kelly was one of the most prominent surgeons in the United States in the early […]

Wilder Penfield

January 23, 2020

JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom Fig 1. Wilder Penfield, Stamp Wilder Penfield was not only a great surgeon and a great scientist, he was an even greater human being. -Sir George Pickering, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University Wilder Penfield (1891-1976) (Fig. 1) was the most gifted pioneer of Canadian neurosurgery. […]

Physician, heal thyself

January 30, 2019

Moustapha Abousamra Ventura, California, United States Author’s right coronary artery before stenting “Physician, heal thyself” is a biblical reminder (Luke 4:23) that while physicians are eager and able to heal illness in others, they are often unable to heal themselves. A similar saying, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes,” was mentioned in the Oxford […]

Aequanimitas and apathy

May 26, 2017

Lee W. Eschenroeder Charlottesville, Virginia Sir William Osler On May 1, 1889, Sir William Osler, one of the greatest clinicians and educators of all time, stood before students at the University of Pennsylvania and delivered the valedictory address “Aequanimitas.” Since that day equanimity, or “imperturbability” as Osler also named it, has become one of […]