In his time the most famous physician in the world canadian born william osler 1849 1919 is still the best known figure in the history of medicine this biography by michael bliss draws on many sources to recreate oslers life and medical times for a new generation. There is a profound lesson in william osler a life in medicine for our own era and its bizarre and pitiful oblivion of all that really lies at the heart of medicine suffering character judgment courage conscience compassion ignorance and you and i not process control impersonal abstraction colossalism profiteering niggardliness or cosmetic morality patrick gunkel lesen sie . William osler was born in a parsonage in backwoods canada on july 12 1849 in a life lasting seventy years he practiced taught and wrote about medicine at canadas mcgill university americas johns hopkins university and finally as regius professor at oxford. Qualifying mdcm doctor of medicine master of surgery william osler became a lecturer at the age of twenty six in 1874 when clinical medicine was in a state of embryogenesis. When sir william osler died in 1919 he was widely judged to have been among the greatest physicians of all time it is hard to imagine any present day doctor attracting such near universal adulation