Editing William Osler (section)

==Personal life and family==
[[File:Portrait of Grace Revere Osler in Oxford, England, 1894 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Grace Revere Osler]]
[[File:13 Norham Gardens.jpg|thumb|13 Norham Gardens: Sir William Osler's residence in Oxford]]
An inveterate prankster, he wrote several humorous pieces under the pseudonym "Egerton Yorrick Davis", even fooling the editors of the ''Philadelphia Medical News'' into publishing a report on the extremely rare phenomenon of ''[[penis captivus]]'', on December 13, 1884.<ref>{{cite book|last= Davis|first= Egerton Yorrick|editor1-last= Golden|editor1-first= Richard L|title= The Works of Egerton Yorrick Davis, MD: Sir William Osler's Alter Ego|series= Osler Library studies in the history of medicine, no. 3| publisher = Osler Library, McGill University|year= 1999 |location = Montreal|isbn= 978-0-7717-0548-9|oclc= 48551127}} A collection of writings by the fictitious surgical character created by Osler, E. Y. Davis</ref> The letter was apparently a response to a report on the phenomenon of [[vaginismus]] reported three weeks previously in the ''Philadelphia Medical News'' by Osler's colleague Theophilus Parvin.<ref name="eyd">"[http://lifeinthefastlane.com/2008/11/egerton-y-davis/ Egerton Y. Davis]", Chris Nickson, ''Life in the Fastlane'', November 16, 2008</ref> Davis, a prolific writer of letters to medical societies, purported to be a retired U.S. Army surgeon living in Caughnawaga, [[Quebec]] (now [[Kahnawake]]), author of a fake paper on the [[obstetrical]] habits of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tribes that was intended as a joke on his rival, Dr. William A. Molson. The piece was never published in Osler's lifetime, nor was it intended to be published; Osler knew the content was outrageous, but he wanted to make a fool of Molson by getting the piece to the brink of publication in the ''Montreal Medical Journal'', of which Molson was the editor. Osler would enhance Davis's myth by signing Davis's name to [[hotel register]]s and [[Academic conference|medical conference]] attendance lists; Davis was eventually reported drowned in the [[Lachine Rapids]] in 1884.<ref name="eyd"/>

Throughout his life, Osler was a great admirer of the 17th century physician and philosopher Sir [[Thomas Browne]].

He died at the age of 70, on December 29, 1919, in [[Oxford]], during the [[Spanish flu|Spanish flu epidemic]], most likely of complications from undiagnosed [[bronchiectasis]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wrong O |title=Osler and my father |journal=J R Soc Med |volume=96 |issue=6 |pages=462–64 |year=2003 |pmid= 12949207|doi=10.1177/014107680309600914 |pmc=539606}}</ref> His wife, Grace, lived another nine years but succumbed to a series of strokes. Sir William and Lady Osler's ashes now rest in a niche in the [[Osler Library]] at [[McGill University]]. They had two sons, one of whom died shortly after birth.  The other, Edward Revere Osler, was mortally wounded in combat in [[World War I]] at the age of 21, during the 3rd battle of [[Ypres]] (also known as the [[battle of Passchendaele]]). At the time of his death in August 1917, he was a [[second lieutenant]] in the (British) Royal Field [[Artillery]];<ref>{{cite web|last=Starling|first=Peter|title=The Life and Death of Edward Revere Osler|url=http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/on-this-day/28-august-1917-the-life-and-death-of-edward-revere-osler/|access-date=31 March 2021|website=Western Front Association}}</ref> Lt. Osler's grave is in the Dozinghem Military Cemetery in West [[Flanders]], Belgium.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Starling|first= P H|title= The case of Edward Revere Osler|date=March 2003|journal= Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps|volume= 149|issue= 1|pages= 27–29|pmid= 12743923|doi=10.1136/jramc-149-01-05|doi-access= free}}</ref> According to one biographer, Osler was emotionally crushed by the loss; he was particularly anguished by the fact that his influence had been used to procure a military commission for his son, who had mediocre eyesight.<ref name="Bliss">{{cite book|last= Bliss|first= Michael|title= William Osler: a life in medicine|year= 1999|location= Oxford, New York|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|isbn= 978-0-19-512346-3|oclc= 41439631|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/williamosler00mich}}</ref> Lady Osler (Grace Revere) was born in Boston in 1854; her paternal great-grandfather was [[Paul Revere]].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1931-09-26|title=Grace Revere Osler. A Brief Memoir.|journal=Journal of the American Medical Association|volume=97|issue=13|pages=954|doi=10.1001/jama.1931.02730130058045|issn=0002-9955}}</ref> In 1876, she married Samuel W. Gross, chairman of surgery at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and son of Dr. [[Samuel D. Gross]]. Gross died in 1889 and in 1892 she married William Osler who was then professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

Osler was a founding donor of the [[American Anthropometric Society]], a group of academics who pledged to donate their brains for scientific study.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spitzka |first1=Edward Anthony |title=A Study of the Brains of Six Eminent Scientists and Scholars Belonging to the American Anthropometric Society, together with a Description of the Skull of Professor E. D. Cope |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |series=New Series |date=1907 |volume=1 |issue=4 |page=176 |doi=10.2307/1005434 |jstor=1005434 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1005434 |access-date=3 January 2024}}</ref> His brain was donated to the American Anthropometric Society after his death and is currently stored at the [[Wistar Institute]] in Philadelphia. A study of his brain, conducted in 1927, concluded that there were differences between the brains of the highly intelligent and normal brains.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Avery |first1=Ron |title=Philadelphia Oddities: Wistar Brain Collection |url=https://www.ushistory.org/oddities/brain.htm |website=www.ushistory.org |publisher=Independence Hall Association |access-date=31 December 2023}}</ref> In April 1987 it was taken to the [[Mütter Museum]], on 22nd Street near Chestnut in [[Philadelphia]] where it was displayed during the annual meeting of the American Osler Society.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131112004515/http://articles.philly.com/1991-04-03/news/25777383_1_brains-annual-meeting-brothers "They Put Their Brains To Work William Osler, Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope And William Pepper Were Among The Greatest Brains In Turn -of-the-century Philadelphia. And They Still Are"]. Articles.philly.com (April 3, 1991). Retrieved on May 30, 2014.</ref><ref>[https://www.mcgill.ca/library/sites/mcgill.ca.library/files/No60February1989.pdf Osler Library Newsletter No. 60 February 1989] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705151644/http://www.mcgill.ca/library/sites/mcgill.ca.library/files/No60February1989.pdf |date=July 5, 2013 }}. mcgill.ca</ref> He was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1885.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1885&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-21|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

In 1925, a biography of William Osler was written by [[Harvey Cushing]],<ref>{{cite journal|last= Cushing|first= Harvey|author-link= Harvey Williams Cushing|title= The Life of Sir William Osler|journal= Bulletin of the Medical Library Association|volume= 14|issue= 4|pages= 50|url= https://archive.org/details/b29825672|year= 1925|location= Oxford|publisher= [[Clarendon Press]]|oclc= 268160|pmid= 16015960|pmc= 234817}}</ref> who received the 1926 [[Pulitzer Prize]] for the work. A later biography by [[Michael Bliss]] was published in 1999.<ref name="Bliss" /> In 1994 Osler was inducted into the [[Canadian Medical Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Sir William Osler|url= http://www.cdnmedhall.org/sir-william-osler|publisher= [[Canadian Medical Hall of Fame]]|access-date= March 24, 2010|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110526110449/http://www.cdnmedhall.org/sir-william-osler|archive-date= May 26, 2011|df= mdy-all}}</ref>