Caplan R M
Department of Dermatology, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242, USA.
Int J Dermatol. 1998 Jan;37(1):72-5. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-4362.1998.00067.x.
A century ago, Dr William Osler was the best-known physician in the world. Although not yet Sir William, an honor bestowed in 1909, his encyclopedic Principles and Practice of Medicine of 1892 had been translated into many languages and was to see several further editions. Meanwhile, his fame as a teacher, speaker, essayist, educational administrator, clinical investigator, medical consultant par excellence, kind and wise mentor and friend, humanist, bibliophile and collector, practical joker, and loving family man had made him a legend when he was barely 40 years old. A native of Canada, who at the age of 35 came to the United States for 21 years and then moved to England for the final 14 years. Osler's stunning list of achievements continued until his death in 1919 and has since become a myth in its magnitude, aided substantially by the 1925 Pulitzer-prize-winning, huge, and adoring biography by his student and acolyte, Harvey Cushing. Today, dermatologists can recite the cutaneous signs of Cushing's disease, but may be less secure in stating (or, more importantly, identifying) a variety of lesions associated with Osler's name. This article reviews those lesions which commemorate the name and dermatologic contributions of this great physician. In addition, other contributions and important personal characteristics that justify keeping his memory alive are discussed.
一个世纪前，威廉·奥斯勒医生是世界上最著名的内科医生。尽管当时他尚未被封为爵士（1909年获此殊荣），但他1892年出版的堪称医学百科全书的《医学原理与实践》已被翻译成多种语言，并多次再版。与此同时，他作为教师、演讲家、散文家、教育管理者、临床研究者、卓越的医学顾问、和蔼睿智的导师与朋友、人文主义者、藏书家和收藏家、爱开玩笑的人以及慈爱的家庭成员的名声，在他年仅40岁时就已使他成为一个传奇人物。他是加拿大人，35岁时来到美国待了21年，随后在最后的14年里移居英国。奥斯勒令人惊叹的成就清单一直持续到1919年他去世，此后，由于他的学生兼追随者哈维·库欣于1925年所著的那部荣获普利策奖、篇幅宏大且饱含崇敬之情的传记，他的成就规模在很大程度上已成为一个神话。如今，皮肤科医生能够说出库欣病的皮肤症状，但对于说出（或者更重要的是，识别）与奥斯勒名字相关的各种病变可能就没那么有把握了。本文回顾了那些纪念这位伟大医生的名字及其皮肤科贡献的病变。此外，还讨论了其他贡献以及那些使人们有理由铭记他的重要个人特质。
