Osler's lost thesis

摘要

Summary: William Osler’s thesis was undertaken in 1871 to fulfil the graduationnrequirements of the McGill Faculty of Medicine. The thesis was based upon 20 autopsiesnand the preparation of gross and microscopic specimens. To the despair of historians,nonly a portion, the Introduction, was thought to have survived and part of whichnappeared in Cushing’s biography. In the Osler Library is the final version of thenIntroduction together with parts of newly found earlier drafts and several incompletenautopsy reports and commentaries from the body of the thesis. Osler’s early literary andnclassical erudition is clearly seen, and his philosophy of pathology as the foundation ofnclinical medicine strongly expressed. In addition, from a fragment of commentary on onenof the postmortems, a venture into parasitology is seen representing what appears to benthe first identification of the beef tapeworm in Canada.