SIR WILLIAM OSLER, BART., M.D., LL.D. 291 



Osier was a sanitarian to the end. As a demonstration of his 

 firm belief that cremation is the most rational, sanitary, and 

 economic disposal of the dead, he had expressed the wish that his 

 body should be thus disposed of. His life-long friend and col- 

 league, Professor J. George Adami, of McGill University, Mon- 

 treal, in the Memorial Number of the Journal of the Canadian 

 Medical Association, describes the funeral service of Sir William, 

 and among other things says: 



"From one end of the Dominion to the other there will be those deeply 

 attached to Osier 'Our Osier' who hunger to possess a fuller and more per- 

 sonal knowledge of the illness that took him from among us, and of the solemnly 

 beautiful last service at Oxford on New Year's Day. Most touching at Christ 

 Church was the Psalm 'Lord Thou hast been our refuge.' Clear and yet sub- 

 dued, the balanced voices of the choir led the congregation that filled the nar- 

 row Norman nave, transepts, and chancel of the Cathedral and poured over 

 into the side aisles. . . . After a most impressive service the congregation 

 was dismissed, and with the benediction dispersed, leaving all that was mortal 

 of the great physician at rest for the night in the Lady Chapel, by the grave of 

 his old friend, Burton, of ' the Anatomy of Melancholy. ' The next morning his 

 remains were conveyed to London to the crematorium, where Lady Osier and 

 her sister, Mrs. Chapin, Mr. Frank Osier, Dr. W. Francis, and Dr. Molloch 

 were alone present at the Committal Service. 



" Doubtless by the time this reaches Canada it will be known that, in accord- 

 ance with the expressed desire and as a last gift, Sir William's ashes are to be 

 conveyed to Montreal, there to be deposited in the midst of his books in the 

 Medical College of his student days, in which he held his first Chair, and 

 which, to the end, retained his deep affection. With loving care those books 

 were brought together, the first and the finest editions of the masterpieces of 

 medical literature. How he loved to expatiate over their virtues! With what 

 enjoyment he hunted for and acquired each rare volume! In that collection is 

 concentrated the whole history of medical progress. There is nowhere so choice 

 and well-selected a corpus of medical literature. Noble in itself, the gift is 

 doubly ennobled by having associated with it all that is mortal of the great 

 physician whose remains, after all his wanderings, are to come thus to rest in 

 the country of his birth. McGill is to become his shrine, and for generations 

 to come those who love medicine and its history will find their inspiration in 

 that room where, surrounded by the books he loved so well, repose the ashes of 

 Sir William Osier. Could there be nobler gifts or greater service to Canadian 

 medicine?" 



This gift will be deeply appreciated in the land of his birth, but 

 the scientific work done by Osier, the influence he exerted as a 

 medical teacher, the friendships he formed wherever he went, 



