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Articles

Volume 05, Number 2 (1980)

Dr. William Osler: Some Reflections

  • Tom Middlebro'
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1980-06-06

Abstract

William Osler was a physician and a man of letters in the mid-nineteenth century. His writings were influenced by the turbulence of the Anglican Church at the period, and by the philosophic disruptions engendered by Darwin. He transformed his waning idealism for religious faith into his love for medicine. He was important to medical reforms throughout North America. He believed that science, while distinct from what he termed "priest-craft," was not adverse to spirituality or even to religion "proper."