Sir William Osler, the father of modern medicine, made openly racist statements — and it’s time to stop celebrating him, medical journal article says
Sir William Osler, the Canadian doctor widely regarded as the father of modern medicine, whose name graces schools and medical institutions on both sides of the Atlantic, held racist views that have been swept under the carpet for more than a century, according to an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Monday.
The article, co-authored by Toronto doctor Nav Persaud, argues that Osler continues to be lionized in medical school, a practice that whitewashes his legacy and erases his more offensive statements, which include I hate Latin Americans," and What are we to do when the yellow and brown men begin to swarm over" to Canada, which he considered a White man's country."
William Osler continues to be held up as an example physicians should follow," the article states. As statues of once-revered individuals who participated in racist crimes are being removed around the world, we should change Osler's place in medical curricula and explicitly address racism in medicine."
Osler's outsized presence in medical schools across the English speaking world overshadows the contributions made by lesser-known racialized physicians who practiced during the same era, including Black Civil War veterans Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta and Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott, as well as Indigenous physicians Dr. Oronhyatekha (Burning Sky) and Dr. Peter Edmund Jones.
No hospitals are named after these doctors.
The CMAJ article states that a biographer modified a transcription of an Osler letter, replacing his use of the word hate" for Latin Americans with don't care for." The statement was ultimately not included in the 1926 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the doctor. The CMAJ article includes an undated illustration that depicts the doctor as an angel, complete with halo and wings, floating above Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which he helped found.
That image is one that institutions around the world continue to use. McGill University, which named its medical history library after Osler, describes him as both the most eminent medical graduate and...the most eminent member of the McGill Medical Faculty."
At the time of his death, he was without question the best known and best loved physician in the English-speaking world. Over the years since then, he has become for many the symbol of the ideal physician who combines a superb knowledge of medicine with a humanistic approach," states the McGill website.
Osler's name is also prominently displayed on two hospitals in the GTA: William Osler Health System in Brampton and Etobicoke.
In an email sent last week to CEO Dr. Naveed Mohammad, Persaud requested a review of the hospitals' names.
Institutions that stand against racism should have names that reflect their values," Persaud wrote.
In response, Donna Harris, a spokesperson for William Osler Health System told the Star: Conversations about the history of prominent figures like Sir William Osler and their place in our society today are important, and our organization will explore this further in consultation with our staff, physicians, volunteers and community in the time ahead."
Beyond expressing racism in public statements, Osler was a member of the American Medical Association when it rejected membership applications from qualified physicians of colour, the article states. He also worked in a segregated ward in a Baltimore hospital and reportedly dismissed a trainee's concern about deaths in the coloured' ward" by saying Black patients are usually both syphilitic and alcoholics."
Two physician-historians, experts in Osler's life and legacy, say the CMAJ article cherry picks a handful of off-hand and private statements and ignores Osler's actions, which show he was neither racist nor sexist.
We are all prisoners of the prevailing paradigms of our times - and to a greater extent than we realize. Osler was capable of challenging those received paradigms and he demonstrated it in several ways," said Dr. Charles S. Bryan, a professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina's medical school who has written extensively on Osler and recently edited a 1,000-page encyclopedia of Osler's works.
Like many doctors of his day, Osler was lukewarm about women in medicine. But once he got to know them, he could not have been more effusive about them," said Bryan, citing the example of Dr. Maude Abbott, who was mentored by Osler and went on to become one of the world's expert cardiologists.
He may have had prejudice, but once he met a person, he was wholly willing to re-evaluate his beliefs."
Bryan said he reviewed the CMAJ article and found it ignored the context around each example of racism or sexism. He recommended it shouldn't be published. When he learned that it would be published anyway, he asked to be allowed to write a rebuttal, but was denied by the CMAJ. The CMAJ asked Bryan to write a letter to the editor instead but he declined to do so.
Dr. Vivian McAlister, a surgeon and professor at Western University in London, Ont., warned against people reading Osler's words and judging them by the standards of today.
(Historical figures) all said things that would make us cringe today, but they were still very noble people," McAlister said. (Osler) inspired all physicians of all races and all backgrounds to do better. He continues to do that today. That is his legacy."
The CMAJ, a medical journal that typically carries scientific articles on health-related subjects, published the Osler article in its medicine and society section, a part of the journal created several years ago to explore more political aspects of medicine.
Persaud co-authored the article with Heather Butts, an assistant professor of health care administration at Long Island University in Brookville, NY, who has expertise in public health, law and education, and Dr. Philip Berger, a laureate of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
The article, which went through the same peer-review process as any other article published in the CMAJ, was rigorously fact-checked, said Dr. Dorian Deshauer, who edits the Medicine and Society section.
The question isn't was Osler a racist?' No. This question is who has been erased? Who has been left out of history?" said Deshauer. Health is political. Our purpose is to help people reflect on that."
Asked whether he thought the article would be used to argue for the removal of Osler's name from the McGill library or the Brampton Civic Hospital, Deshauer said: that's not the intention (of the journal) here.
We wanted to raise the problem of how deeply political health is and ask who has been excluded from the conversation."
The article highlights the careers of two Black and two Indigenous physicians who practised at the same time as Osler, but whom the paper says have been all but forgotten by medical historians.
American Civil War doctor Alexander Thomas Augusta completed his medical training in Toronto and used it to help wounded soldiers on the Union side. After his death, Augusta became the first officer-rank African American soldier to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Indigenous physician Dr. Peter Edmund Jones trained in Toronto around the same time as Osler and went on to help rewrite electoral law in Canada, helping to give some indigenous people the right to vote, the article notes.
Today, no hospitals are named after these physicians, and there was no outpouring of praise in medical journals on the centenaries of their deaths. How many have even heard of them?" the article says. Rather than continuing to heap recognition on Osler and other White men whose names still reverberate through medical school lecture halls today, we can acknowledge the accomplishments of racialized physicians who managed to make important contributions despite racism, and who showed extraordinary courage by fighting racism."
Citing Osler's racist and sexist comments, the Medical Students' Society at McGill passed a motion last year to remove his name from some of the places on campus where it is currently displayed - though the library was explicitly excluded.
In an emailed statement, McGill told the Star we fully acknowledge that, like others throughout history, Sir William Osler held certain beliefs that are wholly unacceptable to the University and to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Many institutions worldwide, McGill included, are currently engaged in important conversations about how best to reconcile a historical record of major contributions with beliefs and practices that are harmful to members of our society... We must learn from our past and strive to always do better."
This summer, Montreal emergency pediatrician and McGill professor Dr. Samir Shaheen-Hussain penned two columns asking why medicine still puts racists on pedestals.
The fact that the father of modern medicine espoused racist and sexist views speaks to a medical culture that still holds on to many of those perspectives - and that plays out in medical admissions and practice to this day. This plays a role in why many marginalized communities have worse health outcomes," said Shaheen-Hussain, who recently published the book, Fighting for A Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism against Indigenous Children in Canada.
After his columns were published, Shaheen-Hussain says he received a large amount of backlash from the medical community and the public at large.
It's fascinating and disturbing, the fierce backlash response to defend Osler. Why is there such a strong reflex to keep this monument intact and pristine?"
Marco Chown Oved is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Reach him at moved@thestar.ca. Follow him on Twitter: @marcooved