Mueller Paul S
Division of General Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
J Med Biogr. 2007;15 Suppl 1:55-63. doi: 10.1258/j.jmb.2007.s-1-06-11.
Because of popular fears about death and dying, his personal interest in the subject and a lack of empirical data regarding the dying process, William Osler conducted a novel 'Study of the Act of Dying' of 486 patients at the Johns Hopkins Hospital between 1900 and 1904. Osler never wrote a manuscript describing the results of this study. However, in his lecture 'Science and Immortality' Osler mentioned the study briefly and reported that 104 patients (21%) experienced physical, mental or spiritual discomforts. He concluded that for most patients 'death was a sleep and a forgetting'. To better understand the results of Osler's study, the original data collection cards and a spreadsheet of the study data used by Osler were carefully examined. One hundred and eighty-six unique patients (38%) experienced discomforts, 79% higher than Osler reported in 'Science and Immortality'. Overall, 76 cards contained data discrepant with Osler's spreadsheet (McNemar's test, P<0.05). A number of factors, including haste, may account for the discrepant results. Nevertheless, the results shed light on the dying process during Osler's time. Furthermore, the results suggest that many dying patients during Osler's time experienced discomforts.
由于公众对死亡的恐惧、他个人对该主题的兴趣以及缺乏关于死亡过程的实证数据，威廉·奥斯勒在1900年至1904年间于约翰·霍普金斯医院对486名患者进行了一项新颖的“死亡行为研究”。奥斯勒从未撰写过描述该研究结果的手稿。然而，在他的“科学与不朽”讲座中，奥斯勒简要提及了这项研究，并报告说104名患者（21%）经历了身体、心理或精神上的不适。他得出结论，对大多数患者来说，“死亡是一种睡眠和遗忘”。为了更好地理解奥斯勒研究的结果，我们仔细检查了原始数据收集卡以及奥斯勒使用的研究数据电子表格。186名不同的患者（38%）经历了不适，比奥斯勒在“科学与不朽”中报告的高出79%。总体而言，76张卡片包含的数据与奥斯勒的电子表格不一致（麦克内马尔检验，P<0.05）。包括匆忙在内的一些因素可能导致了结果的差异。尽管如此，这些结果揭示了奥斯勒时代的死亡过程。此外，结果表明奥斯勒时代的许多临终患者都经历了不适。
