Milestones in Midwifery

to the splendid Lawrence Reynolds Historical Library in the Birmingham Medical Centre and the cordiality of its custodian, Mrs. Martha Lou Thomas. This volume traces the life of Osler through this refreshing and friendly correspondence. The first letter, when Osler was fifteen years of age, is dated 10 January 1865. It was written from Dundas to Milburn at Oakville because the Christmas vacation had separated them. The last, written from 13 Norham Gardens on 25 November 1919, also carried Christmas greetings. It reached Ned Milburn together with a cheque two or three days before Christmas-a fateful Christmas since Osler died on the afternoon of 29 December 1919. This lifetime span enables us to retread Osler's triumphant progress from Barrie Grammar School to Trinity College Grammar School, Weston, where he became head prefect and excelled in the school sports; to a Dickson Scholarship at Trinity College, Toronto in 1867; and thereafter to the Toronto Medical School for a short spell. He entered McGill in 1870, graduated in 1872, and joined the medical faculty in 1874, first as a lecturer and soon as professor. Then came letters in turn from 131 South 15th Street, Philadelphia, 1 West Franklin Street, Baltimore, and finally Norham Gardens, Oxford. The earliest Oxford letters came from 7 Norham Gardens, a temporary abode until the Oslers moved into No. 13, which became known as 'The Open Arms'. Along the road, there are holiday letters from Llandulas, North Wales, and picture postcards from Cairo, the Upper Nile and Sorrento. This is a treasure-house of Osleriana-his letters, examples of his handwriting and photographs of him-so there is something for everyone, whether he loves the aura or detests the myth surrounding this great personality.