~OSLER LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

McGill University, Montreal, Canada No. 63-February 1990

OSLER LIBRARY STUDIES IN THEHISTORY OF MEDICINE

s this issue of the Osler

Library Newsletter goesto press, another OslerLibrary publication isalso on its way to theprinters. This is the firstvolume of a new publi-ca tions series, Osler

Library Studies in the History of Medicine. Theseries is designed to fill a specific researchand information gap. Its mandate is to pro-duce monographs, editions, reference worksand research tools centred on the OslerLibrary and its collections, on its founder SirWilliam Osler, on the history of the Facultyof Medicine of McGill University, and insome measure on the history of medical edu-cation and practice in the Faculty's immedi-ate environment, that is, the city of Montrealand the province of Quebec. The OslerLibrary is Canada's premier resource for thehistory of medicine, and is set in the heart ofthe nation's oldest and most influential med-ical school; it is felt that the Library can bestcontribute to the development of medicalhistory by making itself, and its institutionaland intellectual milieu better known to thecommunity.

This being the rationale of Osler LibraryStudies in the History of Medicine, one canhardly imagine a more appropriate volumeto inaugurate it than Dr. Edward H.Bensley's McGill Medical Luminaries. McGillMedical Luminaries is a collection of bio-graphical essays of over forty major figuresin the Medical Faculty's past, beginningwith the four founders - William Caldwell,William Robertson, John Stephenson andAndrew Fernando Holmes - and continuingthrough to the generation of Wilder Pen-field, c.P. Martin and J.5.L. Browne. Eachessay is illustrated with a portrait of the sub-ject, and source references are provided.

But just who qualifies as a "luminary"?Dr. Bensley's answer is disarmingly candid:any individual whom Dr. Bensley considersas such. "The final selection," he states in hispreface, "has been mine and mine alone. Iwill welcome comments on my choices, andindeed any other aspect of the work.Favourable comments will be appreciated,but unfavourable ones will be interestingand probably more helpfu1." Anyone famil-iar with Dr. Bensley and his work as a histo-rian will rest assured, however, that hispersonal choice is likely to be the best andmost judicious that could be made. A mem-ber of the Faculty for half a century, Dr.Bensley has served as its Associate, Acting

and Vice Dean through much of the 1960' s,and more recently has einerged as its insti-tutional historian. His numerous articles onMontreal's and McGill's medical past, andhis contributions to the Dictionary of Cana-dian Biography, earned him the prestigiousJohn B. Neilson award from AssociatedMedical Services of Toronto; he also holdsthe post of Honorary Lecturer in MedicalHistory at McGill. Hence he is uniquelyqualified to choose and to chronicle McGill's"medical luminaries", and his "final selec-tion" will undoubtedly become the authori-tative one.

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Not tha t McGill Medical Luminaries isintended to read like an anthology of funeralorations. On the contrary, "Bensley's Worth-ies" are a rather colourful and occasionallycontroversial lot, and their lives contain afund of anecdote, and even humour.Amongst the founding fathers, for example,we encounter William Caldwell, who foughta duel over the issue of establishing theMontreal General Hospital, and WilliamRobertson, who read the Riot Act during abloody election day fracas in Montreal.Amongst the Deans there was T.G. Roddick(1846-1923), who introduced Lister's anti-septic system into Canada, and was in thehabit of sending his poorer patients grocer-ies instead of bills for his services. Thenthere was Osler's first resident at The JohnsHopkins Hospital, Henri Lafleur, who wasso sensitive to noise that on one occasion heasked the nurse to stop the ward clock

because its ticking made it impossible forhim to percuss the patient's chest properly.Some of the luminaries were essayists andpoet$, like Sir Andrew Macphail; one of theirnumber, David Landsborough Thomson,published a mystery novel entitled The Mur-der in the Laboratory, and another, SamuelErnest Whitnall, wrote humorous pieces forPunch magazine under the nom de plume of"Tingle" .

But the "luminaries" earned their admis-sion to the pages of Bensley's catalogue forquit-e serious reasons. Many of them weregenuine pioneers pf medicine in Canada,introducing new techniques, and sometimesentire new specialities into the country. Theyfounded institutes, lau,nched and editedjournals, created hospitals and special clini-cal units, and organized societies. Above all,they taught generations of medical studentsat McGill, and laboured to build an out-standing educational centre. McGill MedicalLuminaries acknowledges that, when all issaid and done, there are many differentkinds of talent and achievement that workin synergy to shape a medical schoo1.

In launching Osler Library Studiesin theHistory of Medicinewith Dr. Bensley's book,the Osler Library is also acknowledging aspecial kind of talent. Dr. Bensley is ourHonorary Osler Librarian, and editor of thisNewsletter, but behind these publically rec-ognized roles there are less visible, but noless valuable contributions which he makes

to the Library. Since coming to work in theLibrary, I have consulted no reference workon Canadian or local medical history morefrequently than I have consulted Dr. Bensleyhimself, whose meticulously maintainedresearch files have proved an almost inex-haustible source of accurate and detailedinformation which he shares with readygenerosity. Now one seam of this mine oflore has been opened to public view, and Ihave little doubt that researchers, friendsand graduates of the Faculty, and librarianswill long echo my own pleasure and grati-tude.

Faith Wallis

NOTE: McGill Medical Luminaries will be available for

purchase by the beginning of April, 1990. It is paperbound, 179 pages in length, illustrated, and indexed.Copies may be ordered from the Osler Library,McGill University, 3655 Drummond Street, Montreal,Quebec, Canada H3G 1Y6. Prices for Friends of theOsler Ubrary are $12 (Canadian), or $10 (U.s.);the regular price is $15 (Canadian) or $10 (U.S.).

The initial letter on this page is reproduced from Alexander Nesbitt (ed.) Decorative alphabets and initials, plate 75, Dover Publications, 1959.

SIR WILLIAM OSLER MEETSMISS DOROTHY L. SAYERS

No. 3648 in the BibliothecaOslerianahasone of the most channing titles of any vol-ume in Osler's library. Essai sur la medecinedu coeur by Marc Antoine Petit (1766-1811),published in Lyon in 1806, is not a treatiseon cardiology, but a series of poetic reflec-tions upon human relationships in the heal-ing profession. But BibliothecaOsleriana 3648conceals another fascinating human rela-tionship: the brief encounter between Oslerand Dorothy L. Sayers.

When they were in contact in 1917, Sayerswas employed by the Oxford publisher BasilBlackwell. Aside from her budding literaryreputation, especially as a translator fromRomance languages, she probably showedfew symptoms of being marked out forfame. Even when the Bibliotheca Oslerianawas published in 1929, the note appended tothe description of no. 3542 simply stated that"the 'Essai' is in verse; a MS. trl. of a frag-ment of it, with correspondence, isinserted." The author of the "MS. trl." andthe correspondence was perhaps consideredtoo obscure to merit notice - or perhaps, onthe contrary, her brand of celebrity was con-sidered a little unbecoming for the pages ofBibliotheca Osleriana. For in 1923, the schol-arly Miss Sayers published Whose Body?, herfirst detective novel featuring her particularcreation, the aristocratic sleuth Lord PeterWimsey; thus she inaugurated her brilliantcareer as a mystery novelist.

Whether it was ignorance or fastidious-ness that kept her out of the Bibliotheca,Dor-othy Sayers definitely deserves to beproperly admitted. The prolific chronicler ofLord Peter Wimsey's triumphs of detectionwas also an essayist, dramatist and poet. Shepublished translations of French and Italianmedieval literature as well, the most famousbeing the terza rima rendering of Dante'sDivine Comedy which she undertook for Pen-guin Classics. The background for thismany-sided talent was laid by her privateeducation in a cultivated rural English par-sonage - she was reading Latin and Frenchby the time she was six - and by a first-classdegree at Oxford, or rather, by first-classmarks in her final examinations, for Oxfordin 1915 did not yet grant degrees to women.After a year of teaching in Hull, she pub-lished her first collection of poems andlanded a new job, both with the Oxford pub-lisher Basil Blackwell. She joined the firm inApril of 1917 as general assistant to BasilBlackwell himself, and her job was, quitesimply, to learn every aspect of the businessso that she could take over if Blackwell wascalled up. Meanwhile she was working on anew volume of poetry and a translation of a12th century French romance, the Tristan ofThomas of Britain.

What precise purpose Sir William Oslerhad in mind when he commissioned a trans-lation of Petit's Essai sur la medecine du coeuris not known. But it is not difficult to seewhat attracted him to the book and itsauthor. Marc Antoine Petit was definitely aman after Osler's own heart. He studied sur-

gery at the Ecole pratique de Paris from 1785to 1787 under Pierre Desault, and thenreturned to his native Lyon when he becamechief surgeon of the Hotel-Dieu in 1793.There he inaugurated a course in anatomyand surgery modelled on Desault's. XavierBichat was his pupil from 1791 to 1793.

Petit was a famous clinician and medicalscientist, but he seems to have seen himself,rather as Osler did, primarily as a medicaleducator. He aimed to teach his studentsmuch more about medicine than mere sur-gical technique. In the preface of the Essaihesays: "The art of healing does not consistexclusively of the precepts which can pro-mote that happy end...; one must addthereto all the resources which mind andheart can create, in order to establish a moreimmediate contact between physician andpatient. Because the person it must care foris a creature of intelligence and feeling, theart of healing must also have precepts forgaining access to that intelligence, and forstimulating, calming and sparing those feel-ings." Petit gave lessons in this "med.ecinede coeur" in the form of inaugural dis-courses at the commencement of his coursesin anatomy and surgery at the Hotel-Dieu.Cast in the form of verse epistles to "Forlis",they were, in Petit's words "for myself firstand foremost, for my disciples, and perhapsas well for the instruction of my son." Theirspirit and contents must have appealedgreatly to Osler, whose belief that thephysician's spiritual and emotional contactwith his patient is a vital ingredient in theformula for healing is well known. Petit'scommittment to clinical instruction, and hisweaving of these humanistic values into thevery tissue of that instruction, must alsohave struck a responsive chord in Osler.Above all, Petit's devotion to his students,and his ernest desire to educate their heartsas well as their heads, mark him as a kin-dred spirit. Osler's sense of that kinship isrevealed in the many passages he marked inpencil throughout the book.

The essays cover such topics as the diffi-culties connected with the practice of medi-cine, the quality of trust in relation tomedical practice, and the effect of the FrenchRevolution on public health, but the poemwhich Osler set Dorothy Sayers to translatewas on "Gratitude towards Physicians". Ittells of how the doctor, roused in the middleof the night by a distraught husband,administers first aid to his wife, apparentlyhaemorrhaging in childbed. The wife ralliesunder the doctor's ministrations, and thehusband expresses appropriately fulsomegratitude. But a short time after the doctor'sdeparture, she sinks rapidly and dies. Thehusband now confronts the doctor with bit-ter accusations, against which the doctordefends himself and his profession.

It is not known exactly when in the year1917 Osler commissioned the translation,nor do we possess his side of their corre-spondence. However, the two letters fromDorothy Sayers pasted into no. 3463permita rough reconstruction of the circumstances.It would seem that Osler envisioned a trans-lation of the entire volume. He heard, prob-

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ably through the academic grapevine, thatMiss Sayers, formerly of Somerville Collegeand now working for Mr. Blackwell, wasaccomplished in French and a fine writer. Heasked her to try her hand at the essay ongratitude, both to test her abilities, and togive her an opportunity to see if the taskappealed to her. On October 15, Sayers sentOsler a few sample pages, and apologizedfor taking so long about her task. Her letter,and her draft translation of the first 42 linesof the "Second Epistle to Forlis" are tran-scribed here.

Oct. 15 1917

Dear Sir William Osler

I am so sorry to have been so long over this,but I am very busy just at present, & haveonly the evenings to work in. I have doneroughly a couple of pages, which I hasten tosend lest a longer delay seem rude.If this is the kind of thing which you are look-ing for, I should be pleased to make somearrangement with you, though, as the job israther a lengthy one, I could not undertake itif you are in any hurry for it, as I am undercontract to produce my "Tristan" in transla-tion in the spring.

Very truly yours

Dorothy 1. Sayers

PETIT: THIRD EPISTLE TO FORLIS;OF GRATITUDE TOWARDS

PHYSICIANS.

The tongue of bronze had tolled the day'slast hour,

And Sleep already, passing with her showerOf poppy-blooms, my thresholdsoftly strown,Her gentle summons I withstood alone;In strict retirement & assessment due

Of good work yet performed, or yet to do,The [correctedfrom: My] hand that fixed my

Memory on the pageBuilt beacon-firesto light the coming age.Knocking in haste! the Bell's reverberant shock!Blowsin redoubledhaste,& knockon knock!Death in his look, paleface & quivering frameA wretch bursts in : "Come quickly, in

God's name!"He gasps, himself half-dead- "My love,

my wife, -Alack! alack! all that I love in life -Forgive me, sir - but even now, maybe-No hope but you - her loss the end of me! -You, you can snatch her from the clutch

of Death -Come! On you hang my hope - my life-

my breath -"He urged me still - & I was following him.'Twas winter-time; a night exceeding dimWrapt us about with thickening veils of cloudAnd hid the stars behind a murky shroud;Torrents of rain ran splashing at our feetOr whipt our shrinking brows with

ice-coldsleet.

Still, spite of storm or wind or piercing cold,Distance was nought because our hearts

were bold.

We enter: find a household steeped [corrected

The Godof Woehascomewith all hisfearsTo heap them on one hapless woman's head,Bathed in her blood, stretched lifeless on

the bed;In frightful shudderings life persists alone,Checked by the efforts of a long-drawn groan.To torments dire that sapped her strength

with throes

The force of youth was all she could oppose -Some twenty summers - & the will to liveOf one to whom life still has joys to give.Her kind companions bustling at her sideTheir helpless charge with vain

attentions plied.Fresh ways they try - despair at once of all,And to mere pity & lamenting fall.My cheerful looks suspend her fears awhileHope through her tears forth issues in a smile.

Osler was apparently pleased with whatDorothy Sayers had done, and did offer to"make some arrangement". However, heevidently wanted the job done quickly, andMiss Sayers was obliged to refuse, due to herother committments. She also refusedOsler's proferred remuneration for the frag-mentary translation.

October 20th 1917. Sir Wm. OslerNorham GardensOxford

Dear Sir William Osler,Thank you for your note. I am sorry that Ishall not have the opportunity of doing thetranslation for you. I should very much haveliked to do it, but 1fear that in the circum-stances I could not undertake to get it donebefore the spring at the earliest, as it is rathera lengthy job. 1 cannot, at the moment, thinkof anybody in Oxford who would be the rightperson to undertake it, but if 1 do hear of any-one I will certainly let you know. The 'timeand brains' which 1 spent on those two pagesare really not worth consideration, thank youvery much!

Yours sincerely,

Dorothy 1. Sayers

So ended the brief collaboration of SirWilliam Osler with the future author of Mur-der Must Advertise, Gaudy Night and The NineTailors. Osler's grief over the death ofRevere, and his own failing health andenergy, doubtless prevented his pursuingthe project further, but one wonders if Dor-othy Sayers likewise laid aside Petit's Essaiin 1917 and never glanced at it again. Herswas a mind which kept what it caught, andfrequently re-cycled it in the form of detailor anecdote in her novels. Perhaps one of hermany fans amongst the readers of the OslerLibrary Newsletter will be able to spade up anepisode in one of the Lord Peter Wimseystories that echoes the verse epistle of "Grat-itude towards Physicians"

Faith Wallis

References

Brabazon, James. Dorothy 1. Sayers: a Bio-graphy. Don Mills, Ontario: General Publish-ing, 1981.

Patel, Maurice. "Deux chirurgiens lyon-nais du XVIIIe siec1e: Claude Poteau, Marc-Antoine Petit." Progres medical 87(1957):337-341.

Rousset, J. "Un trait du caractere de M.A.Petit d'apres un livre de sa bibliotheque."Bulletin de la Societefranqaisede l'histoire de lamedecine 33 (1939):33-36

PORTRAIT OF OSLER AT THEROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE

In the June 1989 issue of the Osler LibraryNewsletter, under the title "Dr. Alex Sakulavisits the Osler Library" reference is made toDr. Sakula's book The Portraits, Paintings andSculptures: Royal Society of Medicine. Duringhis visit, he presented a copy of his book tothe Osler Library. At the time, he noted thatone figure absent from this catalogue is SirWilliam Osler. In spite of the fact that Oslerwas the founder and first president of theSection of the History of Medicine, his por-trait has never joined the Society's collec-tion. Dr. Sakula assured us that he isdetermined to rectify this and he lost notime. During the summer of 1989,he com-missioned Philippa Abrahams, highlyregarded at the National Portrait Gallery, todo a copy in oils of the Seymour Thomasportrait of Osler, based on the original atOxford and the copy at the Royal College ofPhysicians of London. On January 16th ofthis year, Abrahams' copy was presented tothe Royal Society of Medicine where it nowhangs on the wall between the entrances tothe common room and the restaurant. Dr.Sakula has published the details of thisinteresting story in the January 1990 issue ofthe Journalof the Royal Societyof Medicine(vo1.83, pp.42-44).

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JOSEPH N. NATHANSON(1895-1989)

With the death of Dr. Nathanson onDecember 18th at the age of 94, McGill Uni-versity has lost a good friend and the OslerLibrary has lost a loyal supporter. Althoughspending the greater part of his professionallife in New York as a teacher and practi-tioner of obstetrics and gynaecology, henever forgot his medical roots, for heobtained his M.D., CM. here at McGill in1919. Reflecting his interest in medical his-tory, he was a member of the Board of Cura-tors of the Osler Library, a generouscontributor to the Friends of the OslerLibrary, and supported the Dr. JosephNathanson Prize awarded annually to themedical undergraduate who wrote the bestexamination in the history of medicine.Mention should also be made that, over theyears, Dr. Nathanson acquired one of thelargest private collections of Lincoln memo-rabilia. This he presented to McGill Univer-sity and it is now housed in the Joseph N.Nathanson Room in our McLennan Library.McGill University is indeed greatly in hisdebt.

FRIENDS OF THE OSLER LIBRARY

The Library gratefully acknowledges thesupport it has received from Friends, bothold and new, who have responded to theappeal for funds for the 1989-1990 academicyear. To date 263 Friends have given a totalof approximately $17,050. Most of the con-tributions have come from Friends in Can-ada and the United States of America.

However very welcome contributions havecome also from Argentina, Australia, Brazil,Chile, Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom,Switzerland, and West Germany.

The names of Friends whose contribu-

tions are recorded after January 31,1990 willbe listed in the June issue of the Newsletter.

Ted AdlerDaniel M. Albert

t American Osler Society* Sidney W. Arnold

P.G. Ashmore* Dr. & Mrs. Joseph Aspler

E.C AstburyJohn C Ball

t Jeremiah A. Barondess* Ronald Barr* Don G. Batest Ronald Bayne

William K. Beattyt Robert E. Bellt Leonard G. Bendikas* E.H. Bensley

Abel E. Berlandt Dennis L. Bernardini* Zlata Blazina

Harry Bloch* Anastasios Boubalos* J. Robert Bowen* Ivan W. Brownt S.R Bruescht Howard B. Burchell

J. Walker Butin* Robert Campbellt OJ Canale

Mrs. A CanteroRichard M. Caplan

t John C CarsonFranc;ois P. ChagnonG.E. ChalmersBruce CharlesRichard R Cherry

t L. Parker Chesney* Stephen D. Clark

Elizabeth Clark-Price* Alan Coffey

Jack Cohent Robert F. Commitot Audrey Copping* Elizabeth S. Crahant Lamar Crevasset RF.P. Cronin* Richard A Currie

N.A.D'Amatot Danish Osler Society

J. Dana DarnleyCharles S. Davidson

* Frederick A Daviest Nicholas E. Davies

* Eric De BellaigueNicholas DeweyMark J. Diotallevi

* Alfred M. Donovan

* William R Dorseyt Althea Douglas

Jacqueline Duffin* T.W. Dukest James W. Dutton

David G. Eastman* Philip Eibelt John A. Ellerton* David Fardont Charlotte Ferencz

* R Roy Forsey* Robert Fortuine* T. Emmett Francoeur* Richard Frasert Samuel O. Freedmant Richard R Galpin

Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Gellert Menard M. Gertler (In memory of

Frank Gertler)Allan GibofskySA Gillespie

t Douglas S.M. Glasgow* Pierre Gloor

Alan B. GoldPhil Gold

* David S. Goldbloom* Richard L. Golden* James T. Goodrich

Willard E. Goodwin* Douglas L. Gordon

Sheldon' H. Gottliebt Dorothea Gould (In honour of Dr. Segall's

92nd Birthday)* Peter E. Greig

Mrs. Max Guggenheimert Fraser N. Gurd* Rosemary Haddad

Anthony Hallt Eve Osler Hampson* William C Hanigan* George T. Harrell

Theodore J. HaywoodHealth Sciences Library, McMaster UniversityF. David Hoeniger

t John R Hoglet R Palmer Howardt John Hsu

David C Hull* Brahm B. HyamstReed W. Hydet Mark Ivey Jr.

Robert Jackson* Dr. & Mrs. Stanley W. Jackson

Saul JarchoOrville N. JonesEdward D. JosephSerge JothyRH. KampmeierPaul W. Katz

t John Kazutowt B.T. Keenet Marian & Andrew Kelent S. Kenning

Robert C Kimbrough IIIRalph J. Kimmerly

t Douglas G. KinnearNeil Klar

* Gordon KripRoy B. Lacoursiere

* Robert C LarimerCamilo LarrainEdward R Laws

* CP. LeblondSylvio LeBlond

t Wilfred Leith (In honour of Dr. Segall)t CJ. Leonard

Berti Le Sieur* Rachmiel Levine* John Lewist Brian Littlet Lawrence D. Longo* Victor Lui* M.H. MacDonald* Douglas W. MacEwant CD. MacLean

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* J. Peter MacLeodt John H. Mappint Edward L. Margetts

Raul Marino Jr.t John R Martin* Dr. & Mrs. Edgar F.Mauer

Janet W. McArthurt Eleanor McGarry

Bessie McKinlayt J.E Meakins

Medizinhistorisches Institut de UniversitatBern

t J.H. MenetrezErich Meyerhoff

* Tom MiddlebroGabriella Miotto

t RE. Mitchellt John R Mooret J. Fraser Muirhead* Sean B. Murphy

James G. Murray* Morton Nathansont Earl F. Nation

National Museum of Sciences & TechnologyAdeline NichollsJeremy Norman & Co.

t Richard T. O'Kelit Ragnvald Okkenhaug*John A O'Neil

Ynez Viole O'Neill* Eric Ormsbyt Campbell ROsIer* E.W. Outerbridge

Harry Oxorn* Linda Panton

G.K. Parke* W. David Parsons* Rodolfo Q. Pasqualini* John W. Patrick

Pennsylvania Hospitalt Robert Z. Perkins* Irwin J. Pincust John D.E. Price* Raymond Prince

Bernice Quinnt Robert W. Quinn* Herbert Rakatansky

Hugh A RaphaelHarris D. Riley Jr.

t AH. T. Robb-Smitht H. Rocke Robertsont Harold Norman Rode* Alvin E. RodintOr. & Mrs. H. Rosenberg (In honour of Dr.

Segall)* Clarence Rosenhek* Dr. & Mrs. N.P. Rosmant Milton Roxanas* Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Frank H. Russt M.L. Russell

Alex Sakulat Gurjinder P. Sail

J.W. Savacool* John W. Scott* R Scott-Montcriefft Harold N. Segall* Roy Selby

Editorial Committee for the Newsletter:

Edward H. Bensley, Honorary OslerLibrarian and Editor; Faith Wallis, His-tory of Medicine Librarian and AssociateEditor; Wayne LeBel, Assistant History ofMedicine Librarian and Assistant Editor;Lily Szczygiel, Editorial Assistant

Legal Deposit 1/1990 ISSN 0085-4557