OSLER LIBRARY NEWSLETTER McGill University, Montreal, Canada No. 72 - February 1993 LYMAN POWELL, WILLIAM OSLER, gers all but touched the floor. Then AND OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES came the memorable lines: ir William Osler’s magnum ‘Has there any old fellow got mixed opus, The Principles and Prac- with the boys? tice of Medicine, is a classic If there has, take him out, without example of a single- making a noise. authored textbook. Never- Hang the Almanac’s cheat and the theless, he freely Catalogue’s spite! acknowledged the help of Old Time is a liar! We’re twenty to- numerous colleagues in the night!' " (6) preparation of the first edition of 1892. In a prefatory note Osler offers thanks to his resi- While the precise date of this visit with dents Henry A. Lafleur and William S. Holmes is not known, it may possibly be Thayer, the latter assisting in the section on associated with the vain call that Osler re- Blood Disease; to D. Merideth Reed, soon to ceived from Boston in May 1891 to assume die of the disease, for the statistics on tuber- the vacant Chair of the Theory and Practice culosis; and to Henry M. Thomas for his help of Physic at the Harvard Medical School. (7) with the sections on Nervous Disease and On the subject of Osler and age, Powell re- Topical Diagnosis. He also extends his grati- calls, “The man Osler was never lost in the tude to his secretary Miss B.O. Humpton and Lyman P. Powell world-famous doctor. He was human. His to Lyman P. Powell “of the Johns Hopkins staff all loved him. ....All joined in celebra- University Library for a careful revision of tion of his [42nd] birthday, and though he the manuscript.“ (l) In all of Osler’s writings, “At tea the next day with the charming was somewhat short of entering middle life, Powell’s name appears only once more in an man in trouble, the business before us he quaintly said to me: ‘Don’t count the annotation in the Bibliotheca Osleriana de- was immediately dispatched, and years. I’ll get old fast enough.’ ” scribing the writing of the textbook: Osler - as was his custom ---- with Osler’s textbook has been proclaimed a swift enthusiasm talked of things in literary as well as a scientific masterpiece. "... I had arranged to send MS. by July 1st general. Quick flashes of wit, instinc- Powell’s role in this accomplishment has [1891], and on that date I forwarded five tive expressions - dear to a young been acknowledged by Osler with but scant sections, but the publishers did not begin man ----- of good fellowship, revelations detail. For further eludication we must turn to print until the middle of August. of wide observation and much travel- to the account given by Powell shortly after The first two weeks in August I spent ling, snatches of delightful reminis- the death of Osler: in Toronto, and... I practically finished cence made the hour speed by.” the manuscript by about October 15th. “For months I spent every afternoon During the summer the entire manu- Osler was a splendid raconteur, and with Osler. In the morning to his ste- script was carefully reviewed for the among these many remembrances was a nographer he poured out a memory so press by Mr. Powell of the English De- fascinating vignette of a meeting in 1891 retentive that he rarely had to verify a partment of the University.“(2) with Oliver Wendell Holmes, unmentioned fact and out of a rich medical experi- in Cushing’s Life: ence page after page of typhoid fever, Here, Osler’s memory of Powell’s depart- mental affiliation was less than accurate. “ ‘I spent a day with him last week,’ This number of the Newsletter features In 1891 Osler, under pressure from his my host remarked. ‘You know, he is far Dr. Richard Golden in not one, but two publisher to complete the manuscript, ad- more than Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. authorial roles. First, he is responsible for dressed a request for help to the University He has had a great career in medicine. the lead article in this issue; secondly, his president: “Could President Gilman sug- He has discovered things. Back in 1843 new monograph, Oslerian Verse, has just gest some young man to whip the rapidly he ferreted out that puerperal fever been released in Osler Library Studies in accumulating manuscript into literary was contagious, and as a result thou- the History of Medicine, and is the subject form?” Gilman recommended for the task sands of mothers have lived to bring of its own article. Dr. Golden’s passion Lyman Pierson Powell (1866-1946), gradu- their babies up. And he is such a boy for things Oslerian, and the articles re- ate student in history, assistant editor of the in spite of his 82 years.’ Then Osler sulting therefrom, are familiar to regular Johns Hopkins Studies in History, and act- leaped to his feet with the spring of readers of the Newsletter. He is a member ing librarian of the department. (3) Powell youth, walked swiftly back and forth of the Library’s Board of Curators, a past had previously attended Dover Academy, across the room, flecking the ashes president of the American Osler Society, Dickinson College, and had graduated A.B. from his cigarette, and, in vivid imita- and co-author of the standard bibliog- from Johns Hopkins University in 1890 be- tion of his aged friend, made his visit raphy of Osler’s writings. Somehow, he fore embarking upon two years of graduate live again before me. He even quoted finds time to practice internal medicine studies in history, jurisprudence and eco- Holmes: ‘Who says I am growing old? on Long Island, and contribute to the nomics. (4,5) I am as young as any of you boys. Look professional literature - evidence of an Lyman Powell describes his first meeting at this’ ------ flinging his arms wildly energy and diversity of interests almost with Osler: around and stooping over until his fin- as prodigious as Osler’s. The initial letter on this page is reproduced from Alexander Nesbitt (ed.) Decorative alphabets and initials, plate 107, Dover Publications, 1959. tuberculosis, meningitis, neuroses and Surgeon-General’s Library and the Index A “GOLDEN” VOLUME OF other technical themes. When I arrived Medicus, and the planner of the Johns Hop- “OSLERIAN VERSE“ at 2 o’clock the typewritten pages were kins Hospital; W.W. Keen (1837-1932), Phila- turned over to me for arrangement. delphia surgeon, pioneer neurosurgeon and A second volume in the series of Osler Osler was modest. He embarrassed the author; Henry Pickering Bowditch (1840- Library Studies in the History of Medicine has mere boy by assertions that he really 1911), renowned Harvard physiologist who been published. This is Oslerian Verse, an an- could not write a book. But seldom established the first physiology laboratory thology of poetry by and about Sir William could I find more than a trifling inad- in the United States; Nicholas Senn (1804- Osler and his circle, selected and annotated by vertance due to a rapidity at times tu- 1909), Chicago surgeon and founder of the Dr. Richard Golden. Forty poems, some of multuous. When the first edition of Association of Military Surgeons of the them never before published, are gathered to- that book of 1,079 pages appeared at United States; and Charles McBurney (1845- gether under nine topical rubrics, ranging the end of six months without neglect 1913), New York surgeon who described from “Children” (where one can read Osler’s of any other duties, or of his supreme “McBurney’s point“ and “McBurney’s inci- doggerel postcard to the young W.W. Francis) joy, the work immediately took its sion” in appendicitis.(8,9) Although many al- to “Aequanimitas” (which includes a touch- place as the first in medicine.“ (3) ternative selections can be easily ing lyric on mortality by a young American envisioned, Osler’s list cannot be faulted ex- physician). Included in the volume are a num- Perhaps this is the account of a hero-wor- cept for the self-omission dictated by his ber of evocations of Osler by his second cousin shipper of a modesty equal to that of his natural modesty. Marion Osborne, a tribute by Weir Mitchell, a subject, but although it has the eloquent and In the latter phase of his life Powell re- Gilbertian patter-song by W.W. Francis, and persuasive ring of truth as evidenced by the turned to the ministry, serving as rector of my personal favourite, Thomas R. Boggs’ many literary triumphs that followed from St. Margaret’s Church in New York City “When William Osler Makes his Rounds”: the pen of Osler, it is logical to assume that from 1926 to 1934. He lectured extensively Powell’s contribution was a significant one. in the United States and Canada, contrib- Haste! Haste! ye clerks, make breakfast After leaving Johns Hopkins, Powell did uted articles to many magazines, and was brief, further postgraduate work at the University the author of a number of books on relig- And follow close your lord and chief; of Wisconsin and the University of Pennsyl- ious, historical and educational themes. (4,5) With paper blank and pen in fist, vania where he was a fellow and university The lives of these two men touched briefly Let not a single note be missed, extension lecturer. Embarking on studies for but momentously in 1891 with a significant When William Osler, K.C.B., F.R.S., the ministry he graduated from the Phila- effect on the literary quality of Osler’s mag- F.R.C.P., delphia Divinity School in 1897 and was or- num opus, and leaving Powell profoundly im- Makes his rounds...