The Principles and Practice of Medicine

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The Principles and Practice of Medicine title page, first edition, 1892. The Principles and Practice of Medicine title page 1st edition 1892.jpg
The Principles and Practice of Medicine title page, first edition, 1892.

The Principles and Practice of Medicine: Designed for the Use of Practitioners and Students of Medicine is a medical textbook by Sir William Osler. It was first published in 1892 by D. Appleton & Company, while Osler was professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. The book established Osler as the world's leading authority in the teaching of modern medicine. [1]

Contents

The text was translated into French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese, and for over 40 years it was the world's most significant medical textbook. [2]

First edition

Osler dedicated the book to his teachers; William Arthur Johnson, James Bovell and Robert Palmer Howard. There are 11 sections, preceded by a list of charts and illustrations.

Later years

After 1927, its popularity was succeeded by Cecil Textbook of Medicine . [3]

A revised eleventh edition appeared in 1932. [4]

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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, and he was the first to bring medical students out of the lecture hall for bedside clinical training. 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.

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Thomas McCrae was professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, and student and later colleague of Sir William Osler. Often quoted in medical training for his remark "more is missed by not looking than not knowing". He was the brother of John McCrae, author of "In Flanders Fields".

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.

Jonathan Campbell Meakins was a Canadian physician and medical author and member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. In authorship he is known as J. C. Meakins. He published over 160 works, including the textbook The Practice of Medicine. He was also the founder and first president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He was the Dean of the McGill University's Faculty of Medicine from 1941-1948.

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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".

References

  1. Golden, Richard. A history of William Osler's The principles and practice of medicine. Osler Library studies in the history of medicine No. 8. Montreal, McGill University, 2004. ISBN   0-7717-0615-4
  2. Famous Canadian Physicians at Library and Archives Canada
  3. Pittman, James (2015). "7. Publications and professional activities". Tinsley Harrison, M.D.: Teacher of Medicine. NewSouth Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN   978-1-58838-226-9.
  4. Osler, William; McCrae, Thomas (May 1932). "The Principles and Practice of Medicine". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 75 (5): 573. doi:10.1097/00005053-193205000-00064. ISSN   0022-3018. S2CID   237021290.