Illness and death of Sir William Osler

Abstract

The article presents the pathographic data of the famous doctor and scientist William Osler. The possible causes of his last illness, the features of the course, diagnostic approaches, and the methods of treatment used in medicine in the early twentieth century are discussed. Ironically, William Osler was a victim of a disease he studied almost all his life, becoming the author of one of his famous aphorisms: "Pneumonia is a friend of old people".

Keywords

• william osler
• bronchopulmonary infections
• pneumonia
• pleurisy
• pleural empyema