THE manuscript of Sir William

2009-04-03T03:42:00.000-07:00

THE manuscript of Sir William Osler's lectures on the "Evolution of
Modern Medicine," delivered at Yale University in April, 1913, on the
Silliman Foundation, was immediately turned in to the Yale University
Press for publication. Duly set in type, proofs in galley form had been
submitted to him and despite countless interruptions he had already
corrected and revised a number of the galleys when the great war came.
But with the war on, he threw himself with energy and devotion into
the military and public duties which devolved upon him and so never
completed his proof-reading and intended alterations. The careful
corrections which Sir William made in the earlier galleys show that the
lectures were dictated, in the first instance, as loose memoranda for
oral delivery rather than as finished compositions for the eye, while
maintaining throughout the logical continuity and the engaging con moto
which were so characteristic of his literary style. In revising the
lectures for publication, therefore, the editors have merely endeavored
to carry out, with care and befitting reverence, the indications
supplied in the earlier galleys by Sir William himself. In supplying
dates and references which were lacking, his preferences as to editions
and readings have been borne in mind. The slight alterations made, the
adaptation of the text to the eye, detract nothing from the original
freshness of the work.

In a letter to one of the editors, Osler described these lectures as "an
aeroplane flight over the progress of medicine through the ages." They
are, in effect, a sweeping panoramic survey of the whole vast field,
covering wide areas at a rapid pace, yet with an extraordinary variety
of detail. The slow, painful character of the evolution of medicine from
the fearsome, superstitious mental complex of primitive man, with his
amulets, healing gods and disease demons, to the ideal of a clear-eyed
rationalism is traced with faith and a serene sense of continuity. The
author saw clearly and felt deeply that the men who have made an idea or
discovery viable and valuable to humanity are the deserving men; he
has made the great names shine out, without any depreciation of the
important work of lesser men and without cluttering up his narrative
with the tedious prehistory of great discoveries or with shrill claims
to priority. Of his skill in differentiating the sundry "strains"
of medicine, there is specific witness in each section. Osler's wide
culture and control of the best available literature of his subject
permitted him to range the ampler aether of Greek medicine or the
earth-fettered schools of today with equal mastery; there is no quickset
of pedantry between the author and the reader. The illustrations (which
he had doubtless planned as fully for the last as for the earlier
chapters) are as he left them; save that, lacking legends, these have
been supplied and a few which could not be identified have with regret
been omitted. The original galley proofs have been revised and corrected
from different viewpoints by Fielding H. Garrison, Harvey Cushing,
Edward C. Streeter and latterly by Leonard L. Mackall (Savannah, Ga.),
whose zeal and persistence in the painstaking verification of citations
and references cannot be too highly commended.

In the present revision, a number of important corrections, most of
them based upon the original MS., have been made by Dr. W.W. Francis
(Oxford), Dr. Charles Singer (London), Dr. E.C. Streeter, Mr. L.L.
Mackall and others.

This work, composed originally for a lay audience and for popular
consumption, will be to the aspiring medical student and the hardworking
practitioner a lift into the blue, an inspiring vista or "Pisgah-sight"
of the evolution of medicine, a realization of what devotion,
perseverance, valor and ability on the part of physicians have
contributed to this progress, and of the creditable part which our
profession has played in the general development of science.

The editors have no hesitation in presenting these lectures to the
profession and to the reading public as one of the most characteristic
productions of the best-balanced, best-equipped, most sagacious and most
lovable of all modern physicians.

volkarefiz

THE manuscript of Sir William