‘Hearts Unto Wisdom’: William Osler, Physician and Philosopher

The ‘Father of Modern Medicine’ undertook the roles of professor, physician, and writer to advance the healing arts.
‘Hearts Unto Wisdom’: William Osler, Physician and Philosopher
Always the family man, William Osler valued the time he spent with his wife and surviving son, Revere. Revere's death in World War I was a blow from which he never emotionally recovered. Fæ/CC BY-SA 4.0
Jeff Minick
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“I desire no other epitaph … than the statement that I taught medical students in the wards, as I regard this as by far the most useful and important work that I have been called upon to do.”

The physician who wrote those words got his wish. Sir William Osler (1849–1919) is honored today as the “Father of Modern Medicine” in large part because of his emphasis on teaching and learning medicine from hospital wards, surgeries, and morgues rather than from lectures and textbooks. “Medicine is learned by the bedside and not in the classroom,“ he said. ”Let not your conceptions of disease come from words heard in the lecture room or read from the book. See, and then reason and compare and control. But see first.”
Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.