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Presentation to Sir William Osler, F.R.S

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Presentation to Sir William Osler, F.R.S PRESENTATION TO SIR WILLIAM OSLER, F. R. S„ BART. ON THE OCCASION OF THE SEVENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTHDAY AT OXFORD, JULY II, I919 HERE was a very large gather- Moore, Sir Humphrey RoIIeston, Sir Fred- ing in the Barnes Hall of the erick Mott, and Dr. Raymond Crawfurd. Royal Society of Medicine Sir William Osler, ladies and gentlemen: [London] on Friday July nth, To me, as one of your oldest friends in time, 1919, to commemorate by the presentationand perhaps the oldest in age, has fallen Tof two specially prepared volumes of medi- the honour of announcing our celebration cal and biological essays the arrival of Sir of your seventieth birthday, one universal William Osler at the age of seventy. The of many years of supreme service in two volumes contain contributions of about kindred nations and for the world. The 150 writers drawn from both sides of the last lustrum of your three score-and-ten, if Atlantic. now merged in victory, has been a time of Professor Sir T. Clifford Allbutt occupied war and desolation, of broken peoples and the chair and made the presentation. He stricken homes. Yet through this clamour was supported by Col. Sir D’Arcy Power, and destruction your voice, among the R. A. M. C., Sir Donald MacAIister, Gen- voices in the serener air of faith and truth, eral Birkett, C. A. M. C., Mr. J. Y. W. has not failed, nor your labour for the Macalister, Sir Wilmot Herringham and sufferings of others grown weary. Dr. Charles Singer. Among those present But, while thus we celebrate your leader- were Lady Osler, Lady Power, Sir George ship in the relief of sickness and adversity, Perley, High Commissioner for Canada, we are far from forgetting the sunnier Dr. Pasteur, Lieut. General Sir John Good- theme, the debt, none the less, which we win, Director General Army Medical Ser- owe to you in other fields of thought. In vice, Sir Bertrand Dawson, Sir David you we see the fruitfulness of the marriage Bruce, Lady Strathcona, Sir Anderson of science and letters and the long inheri- Critchett, Sir William Hale White, Mrs. tance of a culture which, amid the manifold Charles Singer, Major W. W. Francis, forms of life and through many a winter C. A. M. C., Sir Archibald Garrod, Mr. and summer, has revived to inspire and D. J. Armour, Dr. Archibald Malloch, adorn a civilization which, so lately, has Professor G. Drezer, Prof. Ramsay Wright, narrowly escaped the fury of a barbarian. Mr. R. R. Steele, Dr. E. Ainley Walker, And now I will not avoid a topical allu- Surgeon Vice Admiral Sir Robert Hill, sion, an allusion to your recent Presidential Medical Director of the Royal Navy, Address to the Classical Association at Major General G. Ia F. Foster, Director Oxford: an address which, in its various General Medical Services Canadian Forces, learning, its wisdom and its wit, brilliantly Sir G. H. Savage and Sir Walter Fletcher. illustrated this fecundity of letters and The Chairman: Ladies and gentlemen, science, embodied a common spirit of we are assembled here today to do honour science and art, and conferred a distinction to our colleague, Sir William Osler. Unfortu- upon our profession. nately, another important meeting has In these volumes, we hope, you will find clashed with this one, so that several of our the kind of offering from your fellow friends who would willingly have been here, workers which will please you best: imma- are very disappointed at their inability to be terial offerings indeed, but such as may out- with us. Among them are Sir Norman live a more material gift. As to you we owe much of the inspiration of these essays, and Vienna as a student: Montreal, Phila- as in many of their subjects you have taken delphia, Baltimore and Oxford as a teacher. a bountiful part, so, by them, we desire to Many cities and many men, truly, with give some form to our common interests Ulysses, I may say “ I am part of all that and affections. I have met.” We pray that health and strength may Uppermost in my mind are feelings of long be spared to you, and to her who is gratitude that my lot has been cast in such the partner of your life: and that for many pleasant places and in such glorious days years to come you will abide in your place so full of achievement and so full of promise as a Nestor of modern Oxford, as a leader for the future. Paraphrasing my life-long in the van of medicine, and as an example mentor—Sir Thomas Browne—among mul- to us all. tiplied acknowledgments I can lift up one Sir Clifford Allbutt then made the pres- hand to Heaven that I was born of honest entation. parents, that modesty, humility, patience Sir William Osler: Sir Clifford Allbutt, and veracity lay in the same egg and came ladies and gentlemen, as the possessor of into the world with me. To have had a a wild wagging tongue, which has often happy home, in which unselfishness reigned, got me into trouble, I thought it would be parents whose self-sacrifice remains a better, on such an occasion, to put down blessed memory, with brothers and sisters what I am going to say. helpful far beyond the usual measure— Two circumstances deepen the pride a all these make a picture delightful to look man may justly feel at this demonstration of back upon. Then to have had the benedic- affection by his colleagues on both sides of tion of friendship follow one like a shadow, the Atlantic—one, that amid so much men- to have always had the sense of comrade- tal and physical tribulation my friends ship in work, without the petty pin-pricks should have had the courage to undertake of jealousy and controversy, to be able to this heavy task, the other, to receive this rehearse in the sessions of sweet silent presbyopic honour at the hands of my thought the experiences of long years with- brother Regius, friend of more than forty out a single bitter memory—to do this fills years. There is no sound more pleasing the heart with gratitude. That three trans- than one’s own praises, but surely an plantations have been borne successfully added pleasure is given to an occasion is a witness to the brotherly care with which praises the honourer as much as the which you have tended me. Loving our honoured. To you, Sir, more than to anyone profession, and believing ardently in its in our generation, has been given a rare future, I have been content to live in it and privilege: when young, the old listened to for it. The moving ambition to become a you as eagerly as do now when old the good teacher and a sound clinician was young. Like Hai ben Zagzan of Avicenna’s fostered by opportunities of exceptional allegory, you have wrought deliverance to character, and any success I may have all who have consorted with you. attained must be attributed, in large part, To have enshrined your gracious wishes to the unceasing kindness of colleagues and in two goodly volumes appeals strongly to to a long series of devoted pupils whose one the love of whose life has been given success in life is my special pride. equally to books and men. A glance at the And to a larger circle of men with whom long list of contributors, so scattered over my contact has been through the written the world, recalls my vagrant career— word—general practitioners of the English- Toronto, Montreal, London, Berlin and speaking world—I should like to say how deeply their loyal support has been appre- thanks to Sir Clifford Allbutt. The function ciated. he has carried out is one we all feel grateful And if, in this great struggle through for. And, more than that, those of us who which we have passed, sorrow came where come from Cambridge feel proud of him. she had not been before, the blow has been We were perfectly aware that when the softened by the loving sympathies of many Regius Professor of Cambridge undertook dear friends. And may I add the thanks of to make the presentation to the Regius one who has loved and worked for our Professor of Oxford, it would be done in profession, the sweet influences of whose the most perfect possible manner. The— home have been felt by successive genera- to use his own words—variety of learning, tions of students? the wit, the wisdom, and, I may add, the To the Committee and Editors I am deep feeling, which characterised his utter- deeply indebted for the trouble they have ance in making the presentation to our taken in these hard days, and to the pub- dear friend Osler, fully justified our expec- lisher, Mr. Hoeber, for his really pre-war tation and our pride. It was only right that bravery. And our special thanks are due to Oxford and Cambridge should join in the you, dear friends—and in this I include presentation, and that Oxford and Cam- Lady Osier’s—you who have graced this bridge should join in thanks to him who happy ceremony with your kindly presence. has taken the chair. Sir D'Arcy Power: Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Clifford Allbutt: Ladies and gentlemen, it is my very pleasant duty to close this that you should so cordially and kindly interesting meeting by proposing a vote of thank me for taking the chair on this occa- thanks to Sir Clifford Allbutt for having sion came to me, when a few minutes ago I come here this afternoon to preside over us heard of it, with great surprise.
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