September 12, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



245 



aneurism and mycotic endocarditis, first de- 

 scribed the ball-valve tlirombus at tke mitral 

 orifice, the visceral complications of erythema 

 multiform (1895), chronic cyanosis with poly- 

 cythemia (1895), the erythematous spots in 

 malignant endocarditis (1908), and other clin- 

 ical minutiae recorded in the bibliography of 

 730 titles in the Osier number of the Bulletin 

 of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (July, 1919). 

 These discoveries are all the more remarkable, 

 in that Osier's life has not been that of the 

 laboratory physician, but one of absolute and 

 exclusive devotion to his patients and his 

 pupils. N'o other physician has been such an 

 universal friend to his colleagues, to students 

 and to the younger members of his profession. 

 He enjoys the esteem and affection of the 

 entire medical profession. 



An account of the presentation is given in 

 the British Medical Journal (July 19, p. 80) : 



111 presenting the volumes, Sir Clifford AlllDTitt 

 said: 



In these volumes we hope you will find the kind 

 of offering from your fellow workers which will 

 please you best — immaterial offerings indeed, but 

 such as may outlive a more material gift. As to 

 you we owe much of the inspiration of these es- 

 says, and as in many of their subjects you have 

 taken a bountiful part, so by them we desire to 

 give some form to our common interests and affec- 

 tions. 



We pray that health and strength may long be 

 spared to you and to her who is the partner of 

 your life; and that for many years to come you 

 will abide in your place as a Nestor of modem 

 Oxford, as a leader in the van of medicine, and as 

 an example to us all. 



In reply Sir William Osier said: 



Sir Clifford Allbutt, Ladies and Gentlemen: As 

 the possessor of a wild and wagging tongue that 

 has often got me into trouble, I thought it woxild 

 be better on such an occasion to make full notes 

 beforehand of what I wanted to say. Two cir- 

 cumstances deepen the pride a man may justly 

 feel at this demonstration of affection by his col- 

 leagues on both sides of the Atlantic — one, that 

 amid so much mental and physical tribulation my 

 friends should have had the courage to undertake 

 this heavy two-volume task, and the other, that 

 this honor is received at the hands of my brother 

 Eegius, a friend of more than forty years. (Ap- 

 plause.) There is no sound more pleasing than 



one's own praises, but surely an added pleasure is 

 given to an occasion which graces the honorer as 

 much as the honored. To you. Sir Clifford, in 

 fuller measure than to any one in our generation 

 has been given a rare privilege; to you, when 

 young, the old listened as eagerly as do now, when 

 old, the young. (Applatise.) Like Hal ben Tag- 

 zan of Avicenna's allegory, you have wrought de- 

 liverance to all with whom you have come in con- 

 tact. 



To have enshrined your gracious wishes in two 

 goodly volumes appeals strongly to one the love 

 of whose life has been given equally to books and 

 to men. A glance at the long list of contributors, 

 so scattered over the world, recalls my vagrant 

 career — Toronto, Montreal, London, Berlin and 

 Vienna as a student; Montreal, Philadelphia, Bal- 

 timore and Oxford as a teacher. Many cities, 

 many men. Truly with Ulysses I may say, "I am 

 a part of all that I have met." 



Uppermost in my mind are feelings of gratitude 

 that my lot has been cast in such pleasant places 

 and in such glorious days, so full of achievement 

 and so full of promise for the future. Paraphras- 

 ing my lifelong mentor — of course I refer to Sir 

 Thomas Browne — among multiplied acknowledg- 

 ment I can lift up one hand to heaven that I was 

 born of honest parents, that modesty, humility, 

 patience and veracity lay in the same egg, and 

 came into the world with me. To have had a 

 happy home in which unselfishness reigned, par- 

 ents whose self-sacrifice remained a blessed mem- 

 ory, brothers and sisters helpful far beyond the 

 usual measure — all these make a picture delightful 

 to look back upon. Then to have had the bene- 

 diction of friendship follow one like a shadow, to 

 have always had the sense of comradeship in work, 

 without the petty pinpricks of jealousies and con- 

 troversies, to be able to rehearse in the sessions of 

 sweet, silent thought the exjierienees of long years 

 without a single bitter memory — to have and to do 

 all this fills the heart with gratitude. That three 

 transplantations have been borne suecessfldly is a 

 witness to the brotherly care with which you have 

 tended me. Loving our profession, and believing 

 ardently in its future, I have been content to live 

 in it and for it. A moving ambition to become a 

 good teacher and a sound clinician was fostered 

 by opportunities of an exceptional character, and 

 any success I may have attained must be attrib- 

 uted in large part to the unceasing kindness of col- 

 leagues and to a long series of devoted pupils 

 whose success in life is my special pride. 



To a larger circle of men with whom my con- 



