After Osler's death at the age of 70, the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet described him as the most significant medical personality of his day. Oddly, this giant of the healing profession was not known for any breakthrough discovery. Rather, through persistence and a powerful personality, Osler inspired doctors worldwide to adopt a more humanistic approach of medicine focused on patients rather than profits. He has been described as "the model of a cultured, articulate, insatiably curious, highly principled physician."

Born at Bond Head, Ontario, Osler was one of nine children fathered by an Anglican clergyman. His medical career is jokingly said to have started with a surgical procedure on his sister Chattie, conducted at a Sunday School picnic when he was just five. As Osler was trying to chop kindling wood, Chattie repeatedly put her finger on the chopping block to annoy him. After warning her, he...