One of the best early descriptions of the blood platelets was given by Osler. He noticed that white thrombi were almost entirely composed of them.

First complete account of pernicious anemia. "In 1877, William Gardner and Osler described a patient who was almost certainly the first with the clinical, hematologic, and pathologic features to leave no doubt it was Addisonian pernicious anemia. 12 ^, 13 The case was that of a 52-year-old Englishman who complained of weakness and dyspnea on exertion, numbness of the fingers and the hands (difficulty buttoning his clothes), and a throbbing sensation in his temples. He died of progressive symptoms 3 months later. In the peripheral blood, Osler described macro-ovalocytes that measured up to 14 × 9 µ and large nucleated red cells with abnormal chromatin. At autopsy, pallor of the skin and organs was described, as well as a peculiar lemon tint to the skin and a thin gastric membrane. The bone marrow disclosed intense hyperplasia and was filled with large nucleated red cells having homogeneous stroma and finely granulated nuclei. This was the first clear description of the megaloblast so named by Paul Ehrlich 3 years later. Osler rejected William Pepper’s idea that PA was a form of pseudo-leukemia but hypothesized instead that it was a reversion of the bone marrow to an embryonic state, though why he did not know. Osler remarked it was “a disease … concerning the pathology of which we still have a good deal to learn, and concerning the successful treatment of which we as yet know nothing”  (Marvin J. Stone, "Diabetes mellitus and pernicious anemia: Interrelated therapeutic triumphs discovered shortly after William Osler’s death," Proc. (Baylor Univ. Med. Cent) 33 (2020) 689-692).

First comprehensive description of subacute bacterial endocarditis.

"These important lectures, based on original research, begun in 1882 on the blood - plates of Bizzozero (haematoblasts of Hayem), established Osler's reputation as an original investigator. The aggregation of blood platelets which takes place as soon as the blood is withdrawn from the body is known as 'Osler's phenomenon' " (Golden & Roland 22).

Osler was the first in the English-speaking world to describe what is now called hereditary angioedema. In this paper he presented "an interesting study of the heredity of a case, with a genealogical table" (Golden & Roland).

Osler's monograph on cerebral palsy helped define this condition. "Osler emphasized the diverse causes of childhood hemiplegia. Osler classified his patients with nonprogressive upper motor neuron dysfunction according to the distribution of their weakness (hemiplegia, diplegia, and paraplegia) and separated the children with congenital dysfunction from those whose weakness was acquired later in childhood. The monograph contains numerous case descriptions and emphasizes signs, symptoms, and etiology" (Ashwal, Founders of Child Neurology, p. 329; see also pp. 330-32).

See also  Longo, L.D. & Ashwal, S. "William Osler, Sigmund Freud and the evolution of ideas concerning cerebral palsy," J. Hist. Neurosci., 2 (1993) 255-82.

A collection of articles by various experts supporting the opening of the planned Johns Hopkins Medical School to women. Contributors included Cardinal Gibbons, Mary Putnam Jacobi, Josephine Lowell, C. F. Folsom, Carey M. Thomas, and Osler. "In light of the experience in Switzerland, Dr. Osler expressed himself as entirely in favor of the admission of women on a co-educational basis." When it opened in 1893 The Johns Hopkins Medical School accepted a limited number of women students.

Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Osler’s textbook was the best English work on medicine of its time. He became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford in 1904. Besides being one of the greatest of all clinicians, he was possessed of a fine literary style and an extensive knowledge of medical bibliography. Garrison has written of him: “When he came to die, Osler was, in a very real sense, the greatest physician of our time … Good looks, distinction, blithe, benignant manners, a sunbright personality, radiant with kind feeling and good will toward his fellow men, an Apollonian poise, swiftness and surety of thought and speech, every gift of the gods was his; and to these were added careful training, unsurpassed clinical ability, the widest knowledge of his subject, the deepest interest in everything human, and a serene hold upon his fellows that was as a seal set upon them”.

For Osler’s own account of the preparation of his textbook, see the Bibliotheca Osleriana (No. 6772), item 3544. See also Richard L. Golden & Charles G. Roland, Sir William Osler: An annotated bibliography with illustrations, San Francisco, 1988, and Harvey Cushing’s Life of Sir William Osler, 2 vols., Oxford, 1925. Also see Harvey & McKusick, eds., Osler's textbook revisited (New York, 1967) and  Richard L. Golden, A history of William Osler's Principles and Practice of medicine (Montreal, 2004). 

Copies of the first issue of the first edition have the title of Plato's Socratic dialogue Gorgias misspelled "Georgias" (on the verso of the third leaf), and the publisher's advertisements dated November 1891. The advertisements in later copies of the first printing are dated March 1892. 3000 copies of the first printing were sold within two months. The second printing, with "Georgias" corrected to "Gorgias," was published in April 1892. 

"One year after Charcot's death, Osler published On Chorea and Choreiform Affectations (1894), and in this pithy monograph, Osler offered a particularly useful evaluation of Charcot's neurological contributions. Whereas in most instances, Osler and Charcot agreed, Osler used data from the new fields of genetics and bacteriology to draw a dear distinction between two entities that Charcot had failed to separate, Sydenham's chorea and Huntington's disease. Osler's On Chorea uniquely captures the transition period between the 19th and 20th centuries. With clarity and insight, Osler documents Charcot's important contributions on disease description, differential diagnosis, and treatment. But with equal sobriety, he delineates Charcot's and his generation's limitation, as the 20th century opens toward the search for neurological causes and embraces new laboratory and experimental methodologies" Goetz, "William Osler: On chorea; On Charcot" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10716267).

This 165-page "monograph, based on lectures delivered to the postgraduate class at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1893, includes 67 case reports and 43 illustrations, some of which are photographs that depict patients or autopsy findings. Osler delivered separate lectures on tumors of the stomach, liver, gall bladder, intestines, and kidney. Harvey Cushing explained that these 'carefully prepared lectures on 'The Diagnosis of Abdominal Tumors', [were] subsequently collected and published (1895) in book form....It was evidently his intent to compare, so far as possible, the provisional clinical diagnoses of the cases with the subsequent findings at autopsy or at operation.' Cushing 1:391. It is important to appreciate that Osler's monograph was published before the discovery of X-rays. Maude Abbott claimed, 'These lectures are based on post‑mortem findings with histological studies of the specimens, and thus will always have a permanent value for the clinico‑pathologist.' Abbott (1939) 65." (W. Bruce Fye). 

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

In 1893 Osler was among the first American physicians to use thyroid extract to treat myxedema or cretinism. He made a special study of the disease, corresponding with physicians across America to try to determine its prevalence. In the 1895 revision of his 1893 text he hailed the results of thyroid feeding as 'unparalleled by anything in the whole range of curative measures. Within six weeks a poor, feeble-minded, toad-like caricature of humanity may be restored to mental and bodily health.' In 1897 he delivered a major paper, 'Sporadic Cretinism in America,' to a Washington Congress of Physicians and Surgeons in which he used stunning before-and-after lantern slides [reproduced as half-tone photographs in the journal article] to show marvelous transformations and 'undreamt-of transfigurations,' and in addition to citing all the medical literature on the subject also referred to descriptions by Milton, Shakespeare, and an instance of 'the brave kiss of the daughter of Hippocrates'" (Bliss, William Osler: A Life in Medicine, 243-244).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

"This monograph, based on seven lectures Osler delivered at Johns Hopkins, is his longest publication dealing with heart disease. He discusses the history of the recognition of angina, the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease, various types of angina, the epidemiology of angina and what would come to be called cardiac risk factors, angina's various clinical presentations, associated conditions, theories regarding angina, and the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of angina" (W. Bruce Fye).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This was Osler's first collaboration with Thomas McCrae. Osler and McCrae reviewed 150 cases of cancer of the stomach seen at Johns Hopkins in an encyclopedic fashion. Surgery was often recommended for definitive diagnosis and early treatment. The close interaction between Osler and William Halsted at Hopkins was perhaps one of the earliest examples of multidisciplinary management, which has proved to be such a valuable approach in oncology. “To attain the best possible results the physician and surgeon must cooperate.”  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

“Rendu–Osler–Weber disease.” Multiple hereditary telangiectasis was first described by Legg (No. 2707) in 1876 and later by Rendu (No. 2710) and Weber (No. 2714). Reprinted in Medical Classics, 1939, 4, 243-53.

When describing polycythemia with cyanosis, Osler thought it a new entity, but later acknowledged the priority of Vaquez’s description (No. 3070). Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1939, 4,254-75.

A compilation of 19 addresses given by Osler in various settings. These include many of Osler's most famous essays concerning the philosophical and moral foundations of medicine. Osler wrote, "we are here not to get all we can out of life for ourselves, but to try to make the lives of others happier... The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with potions and powders, but with the exercise of and influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wicked, of the wise upon the foolish."

To the second edition of 1906 Osler added three valedictory addresses that he delivered before his departure from America to assume the Regius Professorship of Medicine at Oxford, bringing the total number of essays in the volume to 22. One of the added essays is Osler's controversial "Fixed Period" address that elicited much criticism in response to his comments on "chloroform at 60." 

Between 1932 and 1953 the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company distributed some 150,000 copies of the third edition of this work  to graduating medical students, increasing significantly the long term impact of Osler's philosophical and moral writings.

Digital facsimile of the third impression (1914) from the Internet Archive at this link.

Osler contributed six chapters to this massive system of medicine: "The Evolution of Internal Medicine", "Diseases of the Arteries,"  "Aneurism," "Raynaud's Disease," "Diffuse Scleroderma,"  "Angioneurotic Oedema." Osler contracted with Lea Brothers to edit a multivolume series of specialized articles by the best authorities he could sign up. The models were the Systems edited by William Pepper in the 1880s and Clifford Allbutt in the 1890s, to both of which Osler had contributed. Based upon the reputation of the editor--in this case Osler's justly deserved fame-- working physicians bought the set to supplement their textbooks and journals. For contributions Osler enlisted many of his old friends, most of whom were leading experts in their fields. The massive 7-volume set, which weighed 36 pounds, contained almost 7,000 pages. In addition to Osler and McCrae, the authors included Maude Abbott, George Adami, Lewellys Barker, George Blumer, Richard Cabot, Henry Christian, Rufus Cole, William Councilman, Harvey Cushing, George Dock, David Edsall, Thomas Futcher, Archibald E. Garrod, Gordon Holmes, Henry Koplik, Warfield Longcope, William MacCallum, Frederick Novy, Eugene Opie, Joseph Pratt, Humphrey Rolleston, Bernard Sachs, and Hugh Hampton Young, among others.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The tender subcutaneous nodes in subacute bacterial endocarditis (“Osler’s nodes”) were first observed by Osler in 1888, and reported in 1909. This paper is the first definite clinical description of subacute bacterial endocarditis.

This collection of biographical essays includes most of Osler's famous writings in this category, with the exception of his essay on Michael Servetus. (Copies were also issued with a New York and a Toronto imprint.) Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

In this speech given by Osler as President of the Medical Library Association Osler spoke first about the essential value for practicing physicians of institutional medical libraries run by professional librarians, and then discussed the value gained for each physician in collecting a personal library, depending on their personal and professional interests. He spoke of forming divisions within the Medical Library Association for professional librarians and another for "amateurs, like myself." Regarding his own approach to book collecting, Osler wrote,

"Personally, I collect on two principles--first, interest in an author, which is a good guide, as the book illustrates the biography, a principle which has the advantage of helping at least to keep you within the limits of purse and shelves, more the latter than the former. Take, for example, the two small groups of books I have placed in our exhibition, the one illustrating Servetus, the other Ulrich von Hutten. Valuable as they are from the standpoint of the professional bibliographer, this is nothing to the interest awakened in the men themselves, in their aspirations, their labour, and their tragic fates. For the amateur this personal note clothes the dry bones of bibliography and makes them live. And my other principle is this: a student of the history of medicine, I look out for books which have left their impress on it in some special way. If one is particular to examine carefully into the claims of a book before admitting it to the select company on your shelves, you here again cultivate a due regard for purse and space. For example, five or six books illustrate the whole subject of auscultation and percussion, only the masterpieces are chosen. I confess there may be a certain satisfaction in tracing out the biography of a book, but it is cold work unless you love the author.

"Judiciously cultivated, bibliography has many advantages as a pastime for the doctor; a little patient care, a very small expenditure of money, and a constant look-out for the books wanted are the essential requisites. Nor is there ever any difficulty in the choice of a subject--anything he may be interested in has its bibliographical side."

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Perhaps Osler's most significant discussion of "faith" and faith healing. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.
The same journal issue also contains Clifford Albutt's "Reflections on faith healing," pp. 1453-1457; Henry Morris's " 'Suggestion' in the treatment of disease," pp. 1457-1466; H. T. Butlin's "Remarks on spiritual healing," pp. 1466-1470; T. Claye Shaw's "Considerations on the occult," pp. 1472-1477, and Jame Rorie's "Abstract of a lecture on psycho-pneumatology; or, the interactions of mind, body and soul," pp. 1477-1478.

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Osler described his four-part classification of anemias of pregnancy: anemia from post-partum hemorrhage, severe anemia of pregnancy, post-partum anemia, and the acute anemia of post-partum sepsis. This was Osler's last substantial scientific publication; it appeared the year he died.

"Osler became a 'despairing optimist' after World War I, in which he lost his son. He closed his last public address, given in May 1919 on “The Old Humanities and the New Science,” with the hope that through the Hippocratic combination of philanthropia (love of humanity) and philotechnia (love of science and technology), humankind might somehow find the wisdom (philosophia) to survive and flourish. Those words became his valedictory, as he died later that year from complications of pneumonia" (Charles S. Bryan). American edition with an extensive introduction by Harvey Cushing, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Digital facsimile of the 1920 edition from Google Books at this link.

https://osler-letters.library.mcgill.ca/about

"About the William Osler Letter Collection

"Sir William Osler (1849-1919) is one of the most renowned and respected physicians in medical history. Born in Bond Head, Ontario in 1849, he studied medicine at McGill University and went on to teach at McGill and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1889 he was one of the "Big Four" founders of the Johns Hopkins Medical School and Hospital. He became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University in 1905 and was knighted in 1911 in recognition of his contributions to medical science and teaching.

"Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) was a pioneering neurosurgeon and close friend to Sir William Osler. Upon Osler's death in 1919, Dr. Cushing undertook to write his biography at Lady Osler’s request. Between 1920 and 1924, Dr. Cushing collected over 7 000 letters to and from Sir William, notes and excerpts from manuscripts. Many of these were copied and the originals returned to their owners. In 1925 Cushing published the two-volume Life of Sir William Osler, which won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. Dr. Cushing later donated his research material to the Osler Library. 

"These materials, especially the letters, are an important source for Oslerian research. This online index provides access to information about materials that was previously only available to on-site visitors. It is intended to increase awareness and use of this rich collection.

"The letters and other documents indexed on this site are part of a larger collection of Oslerian material in the Harvey Cushing Fonds (P417). Photos collected by Cushing and others are available in digital format online at the William Osler Photo Collection. The index also includes original Osler material from other archival collections and fonds, including the Sir William Osler Collection (P100), the Malloch Family Fonds (P107), and the Maude Abbott Collection (P111)."

The final text of these lectures, which Osler characterized as "an aeroplane flight over the progress of medicine through the ages," remained unfinished at Osler’s death, and Osler requested in his will that this and his other unfinished works not be published. In spite of this, the work was prepared for the press by Harvey Cushing, Edward Streeter, Fielding Garrison, and Leonard Mackall, and published two years after Osler's death. It remains one of the most interesting short histories of medicine, written in Osler’s usual charming style, and is still one of the best books with which to commence the study of medical history.

This was the first text that my historically-oriented physician father suggested I read regarding the history of medicine when I was about ten years old. Six and a half decades later I cannot remember how much of the text I comprehended at the time, but I recall that it made a favorable impression. We might say that it began to lay the groundwork for what came later.... - JMN.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bibliographical Society Publication. Based on Osler’s presidential address to the Bibliographical Society in 1914, with minor editing for posthumous publication by Archibald Malloch and W. W. Francis. Introduction by A. W. Pollard. The work opens with an essay by Osler citing many early printed medical texts, including a detailed discussion of the earliest bloodletting calendars, showing the influence of the invention of printing upon the dissemination of medieval medical information. Next follows a descriptive list of 217 medical books printed to 1480. This list was edited, with an Editor's Note, by bibliographer Victor Scholderer. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Cushing received the Pulitzer Prize for this masterful biography, which remains the essential account of Osler's life, work, and selections from his correspondence. Cushing donated his very extensive research material for this book to the Osler Library at McGill University. Cushing's source material was arranged in a separate file for virtually every week in Osler's life for which Cushing had data.

This bibliography of over 7,500 titles, edited by W. W. Francis, R. H. Hill, Leonard Mackall, and Archibald Malloch, is the catalogue of Osler’s magnificent library. For it Osler wrote an unfinished Introduction entitled "The Collecting of a Library." In that he indicated that formal planning for the catalogue with L. L. Mackall, W. W. Francis, and T. A. Malloch was underway before his death. The catalogue, published a full 10 years after Osler's death, follows Osler's distinctive organizational scheme. In many cases the annotations are based on notes that Osler wrote in his books, making this catalogue one of the most interesting to read of all annotated bibliographies in the history of medicine and science, and a reflection of Osler's bibliophilic taste and personality.

Fielding Garrison reviewed "The Osler Catalogue" in the Bulletin of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, 5, 860-863, September 1929. A digital facsimile of his review is available from PubMedCentral at this link.

On the 25th anniversary of the publication of the catalogue, which coincided roughly with the formal opening of the Osler Library at McGill, W. W. Francis published some brief, but distinctive comments on the catalogue and his role as chief editor in its production as "Osler's Catalogue", J. Hist. Med., 9, 464-465, 1954.

The Bibliotheca Osleriana was reprinted in 1969 with addenda and corrigenda, and a preface by Lloyd G. Stevenson, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press. A digital facsimile of the 1969 edition is available from the Internet Archive at this link.

See also The Osler Library, Montreal: McGill University, 1979.

Regarding Osler as a Book Collector see:

• Osler as a Bibliophile by Thomas R. Boggs, Bull. Johns Hopk. Hosp., 30 (1919) 216. 
• Background on the Bibliotheca Osleriana: Osler as a Book Collector by Leonard M. Payne
  Reprinted from Oslerian Anniversary. The record of the 300th meeting of The Osler Club of London held jointly with the Royal College of Physicians of London. London: The Osler Club, 1976, 38-47.
• Books for the Bibliotheca: A Study of Sir William Osler’s Book Bills by Ellen B. Wells
  Reprinted from Osler Library Newsletter, No. 26, October 1977. Montreal: Osler Library, McGill University.
• Illustrations of the Book-worm by William Osler
• An Evening among the Books, December 29, 1969 
  (In commemoration of Sir William Osler, who died December 29, 1919.)
• The Preparation of the "Bibliotheca Osleriana" , by R. H. Hill
  A paper read before the Osler Club, London, on June 20, 1929 .
• See also relevant articles in Sir William Osler: An encyclopedia. Edited by Charles S. Bryan (2020).
   

Regarding Osler's sense of humor see:

• The Gay of Heart by Thomas S. Cullen
  Reprinted from Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 84 (1949): 41-45. Chicago: American Medical Association. Concerns Osler's sense of humor and habit of practical joking, both of which are often forgotten.

Reprint with modern commentary of selected sections of the 7th edition of Osler's Principles and practice of medicine (New York, 1909), which was the last edition that Osler prepared without the help of Thomas McCrae. The editors considered the 7th edition the "apogee" of Osler's textbook."

Sir William Osler wrote to S. Weir Mitchell in 1908, "I buy a few good things now and again. I had a find last week, 140 original letters to Baglivi, 17th century ‑ from Redi, Malpighi, Pitcairn, Bellini, and the famous old anatomists and physicians of the day. B's answers are with them." 

Covers the 55 remaining specimens of pathological preparations by William Osler preserved at McGill University. The book is divided into 4 sections: A: presentation and discussion of those aspects of Osler's activities related to pathology. B: Osler's orientation to the disease represented. C: An atlas of the 55 specimens, each with black & white photograph, original description and annotation. D: reproductions of Osler's handwritten autopsy protocols from 10 of the 55 specimens.

Includes a previously unpublished essay by Maude Abbott, "Osler's contributions to our knowledge of heart disease."

Vol. 1: The philosophical essays. Vol. 2: The educational essays. Vol. 3: The historical and biographical essays.

Ogden was one of William Osler's closest life-long friends and correspondents. Weistrop was able to find and reproduce 334 letters between Ogden, Osler, and Cushing.

This was my first effort as a publisher. I was responsible for the illustrations, the captions, and for chosing the appendices - JMN.

Richard Golden issued an Addenda to this bibliography in 1997.

The most significant biography of Sir William Osler since Harvey Cushing's work published in 1925.

This 267-page work is a definitive bibliographical history of Osler's classic textbook.

The definitive reference on Sir William Osler, his life, his times, his friends, and his influence. Osler was voted "the most influential physician in history" in a 2016 survey of North American doctors, but his interests and influence transcend medicine. This is the first comprehensive reference on Osler's personality, character, life, times and thinking about a broad range of issues relevant to the human condition. The nearly 967 page work written by 135 contributors addresses four questions:

What was Osler really like, and what did he do?

What did Osler write, and who influenced his thinking?

How has Osler been assessed during the century since his death in 1919?

Does Osler still matter, and, if so, how?