The Life of Sir William Osler 2 vol. by Harvey Cushing

This 2 volumes quarter-leather biography of Sir William Osler is a selection in our ‘Heirs of Hippocrates’ Library. This work won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926. The leather reprint is a facsimile of an original first edition of 1925.

William Osler continues to exert a magical influence even 100 years after his death. A number of Osler societies and clubs that have existed since the 1920s continue to flourish, and new groups arise, such as the American Osler Society in 1970 and the Japanese Osler Society in 1983. Hospitals and hospital wards commemorate his name and Osler professorships adorn several universities. Moreover, many of Osler’s writings continue to be read and to be influential. Besides his research activities and his dedicated scientific work, Osler’s greatest contribution to the medical world has been the system of residency which he developed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, thus introducing a new and deeply humanistic approach to the strictly scientific realm of traditional medicine.

Harvey Cushing, a former student and close friend of Osler’s, was a pioneer of neurosurgery and himself became an icon of modern medicine. He was one of the first physicians to use x-rays for diagnosing brain tumors and developed revolutionary methods of blood pressure measurement. He also discovered Cushing’s syndrome, the first autoimmune disease identified in a human being. Cushing’s monumental biography of Osler earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1926.