This is, quite honestly, a hefty tome, but no less may be expected when writing about the greatest American physician who ever lived. Bliss presents us with a detailed, well-paced, and engaging biography of Dr. Osler, from his childhood days in Canada to his final years at Oxford. Being both a student of medicine and a Baltimorean (currently), I took a special interest to the chapters devoted to his post as the first chief of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Unlike the time-honored work by Cushing, Bliss's book is no hagiography; it makes no false overtures about Dr. Osler's iconic grandeur, instead letting the reader discover for himself (or herself) that Dr. Osler was, in fact, as great a man as people say he was. (All that being said, I still value the two-volume Cushing biography, and there is no way I will rid myself of the precious first-edition set I snatched up last year at the Maryland Historical Society bookshop!)

One need not practice Oslerolatry (that is, the veritable worship of Dr. Osler expressed by many of the older faculty at Hopkins and elsewhere) to appreciate this book, though having an interest in medicine and/or medical history may help. Critics often lament that American doctors no longer have any professional integrity, and that taking the Hippocratic Oath is a sham. Read this book, and discover how great the American physician can be...and THEN lament that they don't make them like they used to.

Any attempt to describe the life of such an illustrious personage, as one could imagine must be a rather daunting task. However, Michael Bliss's smooth-flowing rendering of Dr. William Osler's life is made not only manageable, but a sheer joy to read.

Of course this book will be compared with the innumerable number of other writings about William Osler, most notably of course the Cushing version. And Bliss clearly acknowledges the plethora of carefully collected documentations and personal correspondences that Cushing had accumulated in crafting his tale. However, I think this book stands on its own as a unique rendering of Osler mainly because of one simple fact. Bliss has had the luxury of time on his side to not just document the time and lives and the state of Medicine in the late 19th century, but most importantly, he relates it to the current, modern day state of affairs in those areas as well. He has woven a story that encompasses through the life of the great Osler, the tremendous influences of 19th medicine on modern day medicine. Even if one is not in the health-related professions or the biomedical sciences, one cannot miss the fact that this is a book as much about humanism as it is about medicine.

Biography, like history is riddled with biases, especially if it is about people and events that have revolutionazied mankind. This is particularly so in regards to William Osler, whose life and work have been immortalized, and a man who had acheived a legendary status even during his own life time. Bliss's work is as unbiased as it could possibly be given the already intrinsic biases about his subject. In this sense, this book is also unique from the previous biographies of Osler.

Overall, this is a most enjoyable read. This is definitely a "page-flipper" that takes you into the life, struggles, and triumps not only of Osler, but in a sense, of the entire human race.

I was not an unbiased reader when I picked this up -a graduating medical student about to begin a medical residency. There is a minimum of technical medicine in this biography -it reads more like a novel, filled with Osler's own writing. Bliss poured through his technical papers, his speaches, letters and medical jokes (published under the pseudoname Eagerton Y Davis) and gives us a taste of what an incredible man he must have been. Full of energy, a mind constantly at work, yet a tender-hearted soul who was a pioneer in the art of medicine, of making the doctor-patient relationship warm and empathetic in an era when this was unpopular. Bliss reveals that this is a person we should remember and who's example we all should take to heart: diligent work, a positive attitude, and concern for humanity made manifest each day in one's daily living. Read this book!

If you are a student of medicine (current, former, or hopeful), chances are that you will read at least one essay, address, or other writing of Sir William Osler. And, like all students past, you won't have a clue about what in the world the good doctor was saying. Dr. Osler was a peerless medical scholar, an erudite man of letters whose vast learning towered over that of his contemporaries and even moreso of the doctors of today. He was to medicine what Samuel Johnson was to lexicography. Unless you have degrees in philosophy, philology, literature, and classics (in addition to medicine), you will most likely be just as confused as you will be inspired by Dr. Osler's writing.

Thankfully, we have this new book from Duke University Press. With more annotations than a Harvard Law Review issue, this well-selected sample of Dr. Osler's most well-known papers and addresses presents an effective "translation" to satisfy all medical scholars who, though they seek to emulate Osler's compassion and skill, just can't understand all of his references. When I first read "Aequanimitas," I felt like an ignoramus. After reading it again in this present volume, I felt like an enlightened student eager to carry the Aesculapian staff into the new milennium (or something like that). I highly recommend this book to all medical students and physicians who seek a model of professional excellence in Dr. Osler, but who have heretofore scratched their heads when reading his papers. Revisit "A Way of Life." Read the footnotes. Then don your white coat, tend to your patients, and be proud of the great American medical tradition set forth by Dr. Osler so many years ago.

I know three of the medical doctors (All members of the Osler Society) who assembled these choice selections uttered and (mostly) penned by Sir William Osler . . who seems to have felt strongly on only one controversial subject = that men seldom did any worthwhile creative work after age 40 and would do well to be "chloroformed" at age 60. Sir William died at age 70. The term "Internal Medicine" was coined in German-speaking Europe during Sir William's post-graduate training years there and he established the definition of the "specialty" at Johns Hopkins. The "specialty" has now out-lived its usefulness but our reverence for the man who contributed more than any other to the art and science of patient care obviously is being passed along to many young men and women who choose to be REAL PHYSICIANS.

Ted Grant is one of Canada's premier photojournalists. He became interested in the medical world after his own surgery, and began documenting life in the medical profession.

Sir William Osler could be thought of as the philisophical founder of modern medicine, and this book is filled with quotes from Dr. Osler and others in the profession. The pictures capture, in black and white, what the ideals of the medical professions (nurses, doctors, etc.) look like in daily practice.

Superb reproduction and powerful images go together to produce a book that really captures, with insight and compassion, Osler's legacy. Mr. Grant maintains, with this work, his place at the top of the profession of photojournalism.

A must-have for doctors' coffee tables, and for anyone who loves true documentary photojournalism. Just make sure those tables are strong, this one big book!

What a fascinating contribution to American medical history! Weistrop succeeds in transforming one man's story -- Ogden was a pioneering figure in biomedicine in Milwaukee, a provincial Midwestern city -- into a window on the historical cross currents of 19th and 20th Century America. Through dogged archival research, Weistrop uncovered Ogden's voluminous correspondence, and his book weaves together the personal and professional dimensions of Ogden's exemplary life. Weistrop deftly portrays the emerging professionalism of medicine and the specific concerns of a provincial elite: both precursors to the contemporary contours of medical practice in many parts of this country. As I understand, Weistrop himself is a practicing physician, so his book can be read as both a historical document and an exemplar of professional self-consciousness.