By Nadeem Toodayan
I am not infrequently introduced by family members to visitors as a hoarder of books. My mother thinks I’m crazy about them. But I for one cannot see what all the fuss is about, as mine is but a modest and mostly well-kept collection. I can draw on any required volume from my library in an instant, have only a few duplicate editions, and have rarely if ever lost books purchased for my personal use. Onlookers may consider my fondness for books extravagant but there really aren’t even that many of them – last I counted, a measly five hundred or so flanked the shelves.
Over the past ten years or so, I’ve assembled a small, personalised library focusing mainly on medical biography and the history of scientific medicine. Broadly considered, all the books in my library have been acquired either for i) their historic scientific or clinical significance, ii) the author’s significance, or, iii) the content’s direct relation to my historical medical researches. Seasonal additions to the library often follow significant medical anniversaries, as I would routinely purchase books relating to the subject of my reminiscences. Most of the medical biographies in my collection were acquired this way, and I would try to supplement each of these with works of the individual biographee wherever possible.
My one great specialty is Osleriana, or books by, about, and relating to the leading nineteenth-century humanist-physician and medical educator, William Osler (1849-1919). It would be difficult for me to talk in measured terms about the abiding influence of Osler’s life and work in medicine on my own career attitudes and professional outlook, but suffice it to say that after over ten years of devouring anything and everything written by or about Dr Osler, I have now compiled what is to the best of my knowledge, one of the most complete collections of Osleriana in Australia. I remember looking into the Royal Australasian College of Physician’s (RACP) History of Medicine Library some years ago, seeking to inspect their Osler holdings. I was both dismayed and delighted with what I found: dismayed that one of the country’s most significant public repositories of historical medical texts appeared to have been so woefully deficient in Osleriana; delighted with the realisation that my own collection was apparently more expansive than that of the RACP!
My book collecting journey began during my medical school years (2007-2011), wherein I was drawn, by some inexplicable force, to examine the lives and contributions of those who had helped shape the profession. I started out, innocently enough, as a forager of the original printed works of eponymously commemorated doctors like Addison, Hodgkin, and Cushing – names known to every medical student, primarily through the diseases they described. And when I say “printed works”, I mean “I myself printed”, that is, I would download the freely available original works online, and then print and bind them for private use. It wasn’t long before I had tracked down Thomas Addison’s (1793-1860) 1855 essay on the Supra-Renal Capsules, Thomas Hodgkin’s (1798-1866) 1832 article on the Absorbent Glands and Spleen, and Harvey Cushing’s (1869-1939) 1932 monograph on The Basophil Adenomas of the Pituitary Body. I was completely enthralled by the clinical mastery and literary erudition of these works, reading them several times over. Little did I know at this time that it was possible to purchase the originals.
I acquired Michael Bliss’ (1941-2017) paperback biography of William Osler: A Life in Medicine (1999) shortly after graduating in 2011. This was one of the first medical biographies I ever bought and really got me to know better the great physician-bibliophile whom I had known about in medical school mostly as the celebrated namesake for “Osler’s nodes” and some other syndromes. Judge of my delight, when about five years later I received a beautiful hardcover presentation copy of the same volume signed by the author! Today this is a centrepiece display item in my private study. It wasn’t long after reading Bliss’ biography that I decided I must purchase Cushing’s original Pulitzer Prize winning Life of Sir William Osler (1925), which was published only five years after Osler’s death. I hadn’t yet got into the habit of buying originals and therefore settled for an attractive Gryphon Editions reprint of the biography.
This introduced me to the company’s “Classics of Medicine” series, which appealed to me greatly. I lapped up several desirable leather volumes, including the seminal works of many distinguished medical authors like Virchow, Lister, Laennec, Willis, Hunter, Boerhaave, Kaposi, and many, many more. And so the roots of my own historical medical library first began to take hold. These modern gilt-edged and gold embossed leather remakes of the originals make for a dazzling display, more especially if flooded in a glass cabinet with well dispersed artificial light – as I was so lucky to have installed for me by my resourceful twin-brother. I still remember our shared satisfaction on first switching on the lights in the darkened room, as:
doubly fair the Aldine pages seem,
Where, broadly gilt, illumin’d letters gleam1
But what good are all these facsimiles without the originals? And what good is an original without a first edition? And what good is a first edition without a dust wrapper? And what good is all of that without the author’s inscription? Year by year, the “bibliomania” virus slowly set in, and I found it increasingly difficult to resist increasingly frequent purchases. Some of these purchases still stand out in my memory. I will relate a few illustrative examples. Very early on in my writing career, I authored an amateur centenary monograph on Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913) and with my brother’s assistance, uploaded an online video tribute to YouTube for the anniversary. I was very pleasantly surprised, quite some years later, to receive an unsolicited message from a fellow YouTuber, asking if I’d like to purchase a full set of Hutchinson’s historical ten-volume Archives of Surgery (1889-1900) which had been neglected in his home and was about to be disposed of. I couldn’t believe my luck! Such complete editions are almost impossible to come by today, except in very specialised historical medical libraries. I later got hold of a few more of Hutchinson’s works but the full set of the Archives is undoubtedly one of the most prized items in my collection.
“When anything turns up which is anomalous or peculiar, anything upon which the textbooks are silent, and the systems and cyclopaedias dumb, I tell my students to turn to the volumes of Mr. Hutchinson’s Archives of Surgery.” -William Osler, 4th July 1900.2
Many an inspired book collector will have waited impatiently for their online purchases to arrive from overseas. These are always exhilarating to receive, but imagine opening something much more valuable than what was originally advertised. This happened to me when I purchased at almost negligible cost, a small specially-bound offprint copy of William Gowers’ (1845-1915) 1894 Dynamics of Life lecture. The book was inconspicuously advertised with remarks to the effect of “previous owner’s name on verso.” Imagine my gratitude to find that the book was actually an inscribed presentation copy to Gordon Morgan Holmes (1876-1965) – the prolific Irish neurologist who standardised the modern neurological clinical examination. Another outstanding neurologist-writer represented in my collection is Macdonald Critchley (1900-1997) who was once Gordon Holmes’ house physician. I well remember wanting to buy much more than I could afford of Critchley’s own historical library when it went up for sale a few years ago, but “responsibly” chose only a limited number of items. I’m still not sure if I made the right decision. Opportunities like that come once in a lifetime!
At the time of his death in late December of 1919, William Osler had amassed a remarkable collection of some 7800 volumes pertaining to the history of medicine and science. He bequeathed his collection to his alma mater of McGill University in Montreal where it now constitutes one of the world’s premiere medical history libraries. I am not remotely as ambitious in my collecting tendencies or goals but sympathise entirely with the ideal of Osler’s Library – a well organised and catalogued tribute to the history of medicine and science. Like all good bibliophiles, I instinctively understood Osler’s January 1911 bibliomania confession to the International Association of Antiquarian Booksellers in London:
You see here before you a mental, moral, almost, I may say, a physical wreck—and all of your own making. Until I became mixed up with you I was really a respectable, God-fearing, industrious, earnest, ardent, enthusiastic, energetic student. Now what am I? A mental wreck, devoted to nothing but your literature. Instead of attending to my duties and attending to my work, in comes every day by the post, and by every post, all this seductive literature with which you have, as you know perfectly well, gradually undermined the mental virility of many and many a better man than I.3
Osler went on to remark that “I will have in the next generation at any rate a deep and lasting revenge” when some of his own medical books would become antiquarian collectables – which he considered would be worthless! I and many others have wilfully facilitated the good physician’s desired recompense.
Editor’s note: This essay was originally published in Biblionews (422, June 2024), the publication of The Book Collectors’ Society of Australia.
Nadeem Toodayan is a physician-trainee from Brisbane, Australia, with longstanding interests in medical history, medical biography, and William Osler (1849-1919). He is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Archives Fine Book Collectors Prize for Young Australians and is a member of the Book Collectors Society of Australia. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Osler Society.
References
1. Ferriar J. The Bibliomania. An Epistle, to Richard Heber, Esq. Philadelphia: Hawthorne Press, 1866, p. 13.
2. Osler W. An Address on the Importance of Post-Graduate Study: Delivered at the Opening of the Museums of the Medical Graduates College and Polyclinic, July 4th, 1900. Br Med J. 1900 Jul 14; 2(2063): 73-75. Quoted on page 73.
3. [Unsigned, Osler W.] The International Association of Antiquarian Booksellers [at the Criterion Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus, Thursday, January 26, 1911]. The Bookseller, 3 February 1911, pp. 143-146. Osler’s remarks are quoted on pages 144-145.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OSLERIANA
1. Osler W. The Principles and Practice of Medicine, Designed for the Use of Practitioners and Students of Medicine. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1892. Hardcover, medium 8vo (244mm × 155mm), pp. 1079. First Edition, second issue. In publisher’s original green cloth with minimally tarnished gold lettered spine. Crown worn and corners slightly bumped; backstrip and hinge loose, but else very good. Text clean and unmarked throughout. Internally a very good copy. My first first-edition copy of William Osler’s famous Principles, the final very widely successful single-author encyclopaedia of general medicine. A commonly cited issue point between this second issue printing and the first issue is the misspelling of Plato’s “Gorgias” as “Georgias” on the verso to author’s note. The first issue is very scarce in the original binding.
2. Osler W. Aequanimitas, With other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., 1904. Hardcover crown 8vo (204mm × 134mm), pp. 389. First American Edition. In publisher’s original red cloth with gilt lettering on front boards and title with colophon on spine. Pages uncut with top edge gilt; sides deckled; slight foxing of title page, flyleaf, verso, and end matter; light wear to crown; backstrip slightly marked; else a very good copy with clean text and bright pages throughout. The first American edition of Osler’s famous compilation of medical addresses, printed during his final year at Johns Hopkins. Many of my favourite Osler quotations come out of this book viz.: “More than any other the practitioner of medicine may illustrate… that we are here not to get all we can out of life for ourselves, but to try to make the lives of others happier… The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.” (pp. 385-386).
3. Francis WW. Hill RH. Malloch A. (eds.). Bibliotheca Osleriana: A Catalogue of Books Illustrating the History of Medicine and Science Collected, Arranged, and Annotated by Sir William Osler, Bart. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929. Hardcover 4to (295mm × 220mm), pp. 785. First edition in publisher’s original blue cloth with gilt title inscriptions; includes original printed cream coloured dust wrapper with blue lettering and iconic Oxford University Press logo on backstrip. Faint horizontal midline crease across dust jacket which is otherwise in a fine condition and covered in mylar. Mild foxing to title page and contents; otherwise a clean fine copy, rarely seen in such condition. The catalogue to William Osler’s historical and scientific library, compiled and annotated during his Oxford years (1905-1919), and finally completed by his cousin-nephew William Willoughby Francis (1878-1959) and colleagues ten years after Osler’s death.
4. Osler W. The Old Humanities and the New Science. An Address before the Classical Association, Oxford, May 16th, 1919. London: John Murray, 1919. Softcover crown 8vo (214mm × 137mm), pp. 32. A rare 1919 offprint in the publisher’s original dark maroon wrappers. Faint creasing of outer upper corners possibly from former dog-earing of pages. Slightly worn edges, otherwise very good condition. This was William Osler’s final ever public lecture, given before Oxford’s Classical Association. Osler was elected president of the Classical Association for that year by the Australian-born Oxford classical scholar, Gilbert Murray (1866-1957). This copy was a gift from a friendly Oslerian correspondent.
5. Cushing H. The Life of Sir William Osler. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1925. [In Two Volumes]. Hardcover 8vo (239mm × 148mm), pp. 685 (Volume I), pp. 728 (Volume II). First edition in publisher’s original dark blue cloth with spine lettered in gilt; dust jackets slightly darkened on backstrip with significant wear and some tearing to edges; fractured and reinforced card slipcase included with paste-on pictorial label of William Osler to panel. A very good copy internally, rare in original dust wrappers. Signed by the author “with the compliments and regards of Harvey Cushing.” Harvey Cushing was William Osler’s neighbour in Baltimore and life-long protégé. He was invited to write the biography by Osler’s widow Grace Revere Osler (1854-1928). Inscribed first editions are very rare.
6. Browne T. Religio Medici, A Letter to a Friend, Christian Morals, Urn-Burial, and Other Papers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862. Hardcover 12mo (185mm × 145mm), pp. 440. In publisher’s original dark green pebble cloth with bronze lettered spine and decorative red stain across all edges. Backstrip worn with some splitting at joints, edges rubbed, and binding a little loose. Protective tissue overlaying foxed frontispiece is torn. Otherwise a good copy. William Osler purchased this same edition of Browne’s collected works as a university student in 1868; it was the second book he ever bought and was destined to become “the most precious book” in his library. The extraordinarily rich and moving prose of the erudite old English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) strongly appealed to Osler and influenced him to study medicine. “The Religio Medici, one of the great English classics” he later stated, “should be in the hands – in the hearts too – of every medical student.”
MEDICAL BIOGRAPHY
7. Bliss M. William Osler: A Life in Medicine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000. Hardcover medium 8vo (243mm × 165mm), pp. 581. A near mint copy in the original decorated dust wrappers with attractive light-grey boards and bright gilt lettering for backbone title. Signed by the late Michael Bliss (1941-2017) with a presentation note dated May 2016 “To my Fellow Oslerian… with every good wish.” I had been in correspondence with Bliss about Osler and other related subjects before he suddenly passed away in 2017. This is the year 2000 reprint of the original 1999 Oxford University Press biography. It is one of the most cherished items in my library.
8. Lien-Teh W. Plague Fighter: The Autobiography of a Modern Chinese Physician. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd., 1959. Hardcover 8vo (229mm × 154mm), pp. 667. A fine first edition copy in the publisher’s highly attractive sky-blue cloth with gilt lettering to the spine, and covered in a near-fine dustjacket protected in mylar. An exceptionally beautiful book; scarce in any condition. Wu Lien-teh (1879-1960) was a trailblazing Malaysian born Chinese physician who helped modernise Chinese medical services and was personally responsible for introducing anti-epidemic face masks during the deadly 1911 Manchurian plague. Dr Lien-teh personally met and mingled with William Osler in Oxford in 1912-1913, elsewhere describing him as: “a great man, a unique teacher, a complete physician, a fine judge, a lovable friend, an accurate historian, and an unrivaled conversationalist.”
9. Guillain G. M. Charcot, 1825-1893: His Life – His Work…. Edited and Translated by Pearce Bailey. New York: Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., 1959. Hardcover crown 8vo (215mm × 138mm), pp. 202. A handsome English edition copy of J. M. Charcot’s French biography bound in full calfskin with decorative gold tooling to covers. Corners slightly rubbed; gilt title on spine lightly faded; some underlining of text in blue pen and occasional marginalia; otherwise a very good clean copy throughout. Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was one of the leading figures of nineteenth-century neurology; he famously provided highly influential descriptions of classical neurological diseases like “multiple sclerosis”, “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,” and “Parkinson’s disease” which he originally named in honour of James Parkinson (1755-1824). Georges Guillain (1876-1961) later succeeded Charcot as Professor of Neurology at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris and is best known to neurologists today for his description of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
10. Kussmaul A. Jugenderinnerungen Eines Alten Arztes. Stuttgart: Verlag von Adolf Bonz & Comp, 1899. Hardcover 8vo (230mm × 154mm), pp. 495. First edition in attractive half leather binding with marbled boards; cover and pages slightly warped; edges rubbed with loosened and worn tail of spine; page edges stained in decorative red; text clean and bright; original 1883-1884 Freiburg photo of Adolf Kussmaul (1822-1902) by Ruf & Dilger tipped in. A very nice first edition German copy of Kussmaul’s autobiography (Memoirs of an Old Physician’s Youth), described by William Osler as the “best of all medical autobiographies.” A translated English edition was jointly purchased with the original German biography.
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
11. Harvey W. The Anatomical Exercises of Dr. William Harvey De Motu Cordis 1628: De Circulatione Sanguinis 1649: The First English Text of 1653 now newly edited by Geoffrey Keynes. Issued on the occasion of the tercentenary celebration of the first publication of the text of De Motu Cordis. London: The Nonesuch Press, 1928. Hardcover crown 8vo (207mm × 122mm), pp. 202. An attractive limited edition tercentenary reprint of Harvey’s classic (copy No. 937 of 1450) bound in brown Morocco with authentically reproduced deckled edges and top page gilt. Decorative raised bands to spine which is sunned and darkened with faint title lettering. External water damage to lower binding with tide lines visible but main text block unaffected. Binding strong and text clean. In 1628, Harvey famously published his discovery that the blood circulates in the body to the incessant beating motion of the heart. Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982) was a celebrated surgeon and bibliographer who collected and collated books on William Harvey (1578-1657), Thomas Browne (1605-1682), William Blake (1757-1827), and others. Keynes was encouraged in his historical and book collecting interests by William Osler, with whom he shared a long friendship and lasting correspondence.
12. Critchley M. The Parietal Lobes. London: Hafner Publishing Company, 1966. Hardcover 8vo (234mm × 151mm), pp. 480. A near fine second edition copy of Macdonald Critchley’s masterpiece on the function and dysfunction of the parietal lobes. Well-preserved bright green dust wrappers with minimal wear to edges; coloured frontispiece drawings depicting parietal lobe anatomy; text clean and unmarked, except for Critchley’s presentation note and signature “with kind regards” to “Dr Selby”. Macdonald Critchley (1900-1997) was one of the leading clinical neurologists and physician-writers of the twentieth century. An eclectic collector of neurological curiosities and books, he amassed an extraordinarily diverse and instructive bibliography of writings over the course of a remarkable seventy-four-year career in neurology.
13. Mitchell SW. The Wonderful Stories of Fuz-Buz the Fly and Mother Grabem the Spider. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1867. Hardcover 12mo (178mm × 130mm), pp. 79. First edition in publisher’s original dark green Morocco grain cloth, complete with decorative gilt cover stamps depicting a spider’s web, spiders, and the referred to fly. Edges slightly worn with some foxing to title page and light spotting of other pages. A nice first edition copy of a very scarce book. Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) was one of the preeminent figures of nineteenth century American neurology. He originally described the now well-established conditions of “causalgia” and “erythromelalgia,” and coined the term “phantom limb” in the course of his work on gun-shot injuries. Outside his work in neurology, Mitchell was a gifted writer and poet who authored several American literary classics which became bestsellers. This children’s story was one of Mitchell’s earliest literary productions; it depicts the struggles of a captive Spanish fly (spectacularly named Fuz-Buz) who is forced to narrate Eastern fairy tales to Mother Grabem’s spiderlings before escaping certain death with the help of a passing bee. I purchased this book ten years ago for its wonderful title alone!
14. Mackay IR. Burnet FM. Autoimmune Diseases: Pathogenesis, Chemistry, and Therapy. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1963. Hardcover medium 8vo (235mm × 150mm), pp. 323. First edition of this Australian classic medical text on “autoimmunity” authored by two leaders in the field, the late Ian Reay Mackay (1922-2020) and Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1899-1985). Bound in publisher’s original reddish-orange fabric cover with a thick and durable 1963 dust jacket. Corners mildly bumped with some foxing of front flap; else clean throughout and in a very good condition. This copy of the book is signed by both authors “with warm regards” from Ian Mackay on ”9 Sept 1975” to a former owner, and the signature of “FM Burnet” inscribed on the title page. When I was studying Burnet’s contributions to medicine in 2017, I met with Ian Mackay in his inner Melbourne nursing home and had him sign an additional copy of his famous “autoimmunity” book for me which he willingly did with “very warm regards.”
15. Hare FE. The Cold-bath Treatment of Typhoid Fever, the Experience of a Consecutive Series of Nineteen Hundred and Two Cases Treated at the Brisbane Hospital. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited., 1898. Hardcover 8vo (232mm X 143mm), pp. 196. First edition in publisher’s original dark maroon cloth, with faded gilt title on spine which is somewhat sunned. Crown and tail of spine slightly worn; pages uncut; obvious foxing of flyleaf and title page; else good quality throughout. Frontispiece shows “male fever ward, Brisbane Hospital” and five other black and white photos show the application of cold-bath treatments at the Brisbane Hospital. Cold-bath therapy was a considerable source of relief for typhoid fever patients in the pre-antibiotic era, and Francis Hare (1856-1929) – an Irish-born physician working in Brisbane – had significant success with the treatment. His published statistics on treated cases drew favourable comment from none other than William Osler, who recorded in the first edition of his Principles that: “Among the most striking figures are those recently published by Hare, from the Brisbane Hospital, Australia.” “Under the expectant plan” of cold-bath therapy, Hare had halved typhoid mortality rates in Brisbane from 14.8 to only 7 per cent.
WISH LIST
In line with my own clinical interests, I have more recently been seeking to expand the history of
neurology section of my medical library. These editions are very scarce and out of reach at present, but I would like to add them to my collection one day if possible.
1. Gowers WR. A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System [In Two Volumes]. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1886-1888. Volume I: Diseases of the Spinal Cord and Nerves. Volume II: Diseases of the Brain and Cranial Nerves, General and Functional Diseases of the Nervous System. Gowers’ Manual was long considered to have been the “Bible of Neurology” at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London – the world’s first ever specialist neurology hospital – and “as a textbook on the subject (of systematic neurology) stands unrivalled in any language” (Osler, 1888). I own reprints of Gowers’ famous textbook and have a weathered first edition of Volume I but would really like to secure good quality first edition printings of both volumes. Gower’s great granddaughter Ann Scott lives in Brisbane; with the assistance of senior Brisbane neurologist Mervyn Eadie and London neurologist Andrew Lees, she authored a new biography of William Gowers in 2012.
2. Parkinson J. Organic Remains of a Former World. An Examination of the Mineralized Remains of the Vegetables and Animals of the Antediluvian World; Generally Termed Extraneous Fossils [In three volumes]. London: C. Whittingham for J. Robson (and others), 1804-1811. James Parkinson is best known today for his historic 1817 Essay on the Shaking Palsy (now termed Parkinson’s disease) but relatively few are aware that he also authored one of the earliest English scientific palaeontology texts. First edition copies of Parkinson’s Essay are extremely scarce but original copies of Organic Remains are much easier to find.
3. Willis T. Cerebri Anatome: Cui Accessit Nervorum Descriptio et Usus. Londini: Typis Ja. Flesher, Impensis Jo. Martyn & Ja. Allestry, 1664. One of the earliest English contributions to neuroanatomy and clinical neurology. The original drawing of the cerebral arterial “circle of Willis” in Cerebri Anatomi was executed by Christopher Wren (1632-1723), who was a close friend and scientific correspondent of Thomas Willis (1621-1675) in Oxford. William Osler considered Willis’ Cerebri Anatome to have been “the best book of its date on the nervous system.”
William Osler (1849-1919) in his Oxford home library, c.1919.