SIR WILLIAM OSLER, BART., M.D., LL.D. 287 



was entirely devoted to tributes to Osier. Thomas, Barker, 

 Councilman, MacCallum, Thayer, Brown, McCrae, Hamman, 

 Futcher, Jacobs, Brush, Woods, Chatard, Noyes, Hurd, Kelly, 

 and Boggs, all of whom had been either Osier's co-workers or 

 pupils, related their personal experiences, showing the wide 

 spheres of his activities as a teacher, sanitarian, physician, citizen, 

 scholar, and lover of books. The articles which are of particular 

 interest to us as students of tuberculosis were those of Louis V. 

 Hamman, who wrote on "Osier and the Tuberculosis Work of the 

 Hospital," and of Henry Barton Jacobs, on "Osier as a Citizen 

 and His Relation to the Tuberculosis Crusade in Maryland." 



In November, 1919, Osier contracted pneumonia, but he him- 

 self hoped for an early recovery, and on Christmas day he sent a 

 typically cheerful cablegram to Johns Hopkins Hospital, announc- 

 ing that he was making a good fight. Four days later he died. 

 Perhaps he only sent that message to give Christmas cheer to his 

 many friends on this side of the Atlantic. He must have analyzed 

 the seriousness of his condition, for after his death the following 

 note, dated December 23, 1919, was found among his effects: 

 "Dear friends, the harbor is nearly reached, after a splendid 

 voyage with such companions all the way; and my boy waiting 

 for me." How the soul of this great man is revealed in these 

 simple words! 



Cheerfulness and unbounded capacity for work, a devotion to 

 the highest ideals of medicine and humanity, a marvelous scholar- 

 ship, loyalty to his friends, and kindliness to the humblest of the 

 humble, were the outstanding characteristics of Sir William 

 Osier. His life-long friend, Professor William H. Welch, of Balti- 

 more, well said of him: "To Osier nothing human was foreign. 

 His home, both in Baltimore and Oxford, was a center of hos- 

 pitality." Those who had the rare privilege of walking with Pro- 

 fessor Osier through the medical wards or who had the good for- 

 tune of being present at some of his receptions to students will 

 never forget the human side of his character. 



Osier's loyalty to his friends was indeed genuine, particularly 

 when they were in need or in distress, as the author has reason to 

 remember with deepest gratitude. Osier was still smarting 

 under the ignominious slander manufactured by a sensational 



