Sir William Osler, A Personal Biography

In the early 1930’s, Dr. John Ruhräh wrote his personal recollections of being a student of and under the noted physician, speaker and writer, Sir William Osler, M.D.

Dr. Ruhräh greatly admired Osler’s writings, lectures and his sense of humor and history. But most of all, he admired Dr. Osler's enormous collection of books which Osler had amassed over the years. 

But mostly, Dr. Ruhräh wanted to record his personal memories of Dr. Osler before they disappeared into the mists of time, and were lost forever.

Upon Dr. Ruhräh’s untimely death, the manuscript was left to the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland as part of his estate. Publication of the book was delayed while the estate was settled and when the book was ready to be published, several other works on Osler’s life were in process.

The manuscript was put away for more than 80 years until it was resurrected in 2015 and published by the Center for a Healthy Maryland, the foundation of MedChi.

The manuscript has been published as written, including the phrasing and terminology of the time. The only changes in the book are "graphing" it out, so that there are no longer huge blocks of text. 

Also included are the photographs which Dr. Ruhräh intended to include in the book.

To order a copy of this book, please fill out the form below and return it here.

As an aside, Dr. Bliss came to Baltimore to search through our archives for information for his book on Dr. Osler. He saw Dr. Ruhräh's original manuscript, but didn't think it had anything that would add to his book. Fast forward to 2017 and conversation with Dr. Bliss. He told me that there was a story he'd heard about Dr. Osler giving his winter coat to a homeless man (think: winter in Montreal!), but he could never find a second source for it. Dr. Ruhräh told the tale in this book.