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Letter to Henry Barton Jacobs, February 5, 1915
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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 Henry Barton Jacobs from William Osler, 13, Norham Gardens, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. Mentions that they had a hard time on Salisbury Plain with the weather, and he went there and to the Shorncliffe camp because of the cerebro-spinal fever epidemic. Comments about it. Hopes he had seen the Hutchinson collection. It was good of Marburg to put up the money for it. Replies that his Early Printed Medical Books paper is not ready yet. It will appear in the forthcoming volume of the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society. It is a heavy job. News of Revere. He is in the Officer's Training Corps, and hopes to go with Birkett, Campbell Howard and W.W. Francis. Will get training in ambulance work. Norman Gwyn came here and Osler got him a commission for France. Mentions that were it not for the Khaki, it would be the same in London. Mentions that he has been elected a member of the Roxburghe Club. He has been re-elected President of the Bibliographical Society. The latest book he bought was the Aldine 1495, princeps of Aristotle. Civilities.
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Cushing's colour code: White (Correspondence)