Book Note

Richard L. Golden. A History of William Osler's "The Principles and Practice of Medicine." Osler Library Studies in the History of Medicine, no. 8. Montreal: Osler Library, McGill University; and the American Osler Society, 2004. xiii + 267 pp. Ill. $25.00 (paperbound, 07717-0615-4).

William Osler once compared learning medicine to running off to sea: if, he said, studying medicine without books was like sailing the sea without charts, studying books without seeing patients was like never having been to sea at all. Richard Golden's history, therefore, chronicles the voyages of that most remarkable work, Osler's Principles and Practice of Medicine, probably the most educationally, culturally, and financially successful textbook in English ever written. Dr. Golden, one of the leading students of Osler's masterpiece, has published much of this work previously in the newsletter of the Osler Library in Montreal, but it is good to have it all in one place. Principally a description of the various editions that this long-lived work has been through, including translations into Russian and Chinese, this history is enhanced with stories of the work's origins and anecdotes about the extraordinary man who wrote it.