Bloodletting is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluids were regarded as "humours" that had to remain in proper balance to maintain health. It is the most common medical practice performed by surgeons from antiquity until the late 19th century, a span of over 2,000 years. In Europe, the practice continued to be relatively common until the end of the 19th century. The practice has now been abandoned by modern-style medicine for all except a few very specific medical conditions. In the beginning of the 19th century, studies had begun to show the harmful effects of bloodletting.
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians. He has frequently been described as the Father of Modern Medicine and one of the "greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope". In addition to being a physician he was a bibliophile, historian, author, and renowned practical joker. He was passionate about medical libraries and medical history, having founded the History of Medicine Society, at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. He was also instrumental in founding the Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Association of Medical Librarians along with three other people, including Margaret Charlton, the medical librarian of his alma mater, McGill University. He left his own large history of medicine library to McGill, where it became the Osler Library.
John William Michael Bliss (1941–2017) was a Canadian historian and author. Though his early works focused on business and political history, he also wrote biographies of physicians Frederick Banting, William Osler and Harvey Cushing. Bliss was a frequent commentator on political events and issues. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott was a Canadian physician, among Canada's earliest female medical graduates, and an internationally known expert on congenital heart disease. She was one of the first women to obtain a BA from McGill University.
William Bennett Bean was an internist, medical historian, teacher and collector.
The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It was established in 1829 after the Montreal Medical Institution was incorporated into McGill College as the college's first faculty; it was the first medical faculty to be established in Canada. The Faculty awarded McGill's first degree, and Canada's first medical degree to William Leslie Logie in 1833.
The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine (FPM) is a British non-profit organisation that was founded after World War I and pioneered the development of postgraduate educational programmes in all branches of medicine. It was founded in late 1918 as the Inter-allied Fellowship of Medicine with Sir William Osler as its president. In the autumn of 1919, Osler merged the IAFM with the Postgraduate Medical Association of which he had been the founding President since 1911. In October 1919, Osler was appointed President of the combined Fellowship of Medicine and the Postgraduate Medical Association and Sir William Osler became the first president of the new organisation. The fellowship is supported by national and international fellows with expertise in the practice of medicine, medical education, clinical research, and related disciplines. The office and meeting rooms of the fellowship are in Central London. It is governed by a council that meets quarterly.
Harold Randall Griffith was a Canadian anesthesiologist and a leader in the fields of anesthesiology.
John P. McGovern was an American allergist, investor and philanthropist. He established the McGovern Allergy Clinic in Houston, Texas, created the Texas Allergy Research Foundation and the John P. McGovern Foundation, and co-founded the American Osler Society.
Charles Gordon Roland was a Canadian medical historian. Roland's publications and public lectures consisted of history and bibliography, medical communications, and medicine, particularly Canadian medical history in the 19th century, the influence of William Osler, and on military medicine. Many of his research materials related to Osler are held at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine at McGill University. His research interests focused on medical aspects of World War II, culminating in two books on the Warsaw Ghetto and on Canadian prisoners of war of the Japanese in the Far East.
The Osler Club of London, founded in 1928, is a medical society with the purpose of encouraging the study of history of medicine, particularly amongst medical students, and to keep "green the memory of Sir William Osler". Membership in the club is open to medical professionals, medical students, persons associated with the history of medicine and in allied sciences.
Edward William Archibald was a Canadian surgeon. Archibald was born in Montreal, Quebec, and received his initial education in Grenoble, France. Upon returning to Canada, he attended McGill University, receiving his Doctor of Medicine there in 1896. Archibald became interested in the specialist field of surgery, and began an apprenticeship at Royal Victoria Hospital. After a year in Europe studying under two well known physicians, the young surgeon was appointed to the staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital's Department of Surgical Pathology. However, Archibald became ill with tuberculosis, and moved to New York City for treatment. Upon his recovery, the surgeon returned to Royal Victoria Hospital. There, he developed what he had learned in Europe, and came to be dubbed Canada's first neurosurgeon.
Thomas John "Jock" Murray is a Canadian neurologist, medical historian and author.
Alfred White Franklin FRCP was an English neonatologist and paediatrician who edited numerous books on child abuse, founded the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, kept an interest in medical history and wrote on child matters. He was a prominent figure in the field of child abuse prevention.
Charles Stone Bryan is an American retired infectious disease physician, researcher, author and Heyward Gibbes distinguished professor emeritus of internal medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (UofSC). His contributions to medicine have included working on a formula for administering the maximum possible dose of penicillin to people with kidney failure which would treat the infection and avoid penicillin toxicity, and treating and writing on HIV/AIDS. He is also a noted medical historian and an authority on the life of William Osler.
Aequanimitas was one of Sir William Osler's most famous essays, delivered to new doctors in 1889 as his farewell address at the Pennsylvania School of Medicine, prior to his transfer to Johns Hopkins. It was published in the same year and in 1904 appeared in his collection of essays titled Aequanimitas with Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine. A second edition was produced in 1906, and a third in 1932. In the essay, Osler advocates two qualities "imperturbability" and "equanimity", which he defined as "coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances".
Mark Edwin Silverman was an American cardiologist, medical historian, medical educator and author of more than 200 medical articles and a number of books, who founded the cardiology program at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
Rolando Fausto Del Maestro is an Italian-born Canadian neurosurgeon, the William Feindel Professor Emeritus in neuro-oncology and director of the Neurosurgical Simulation Research Center at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, where he has been involved in simulating real brain surgery by creating virtual setting scenarios, founded upon the principles of flight simulation.
The Bean prize, also known as the William B. Bean Student Research Award and named for William Bennett Bean, is awarded annually to medical students by the American Osler Society (AOS) for research in history of medicine and humanities.
