Sir William Osler, MD is considered the Father of modern medicine.
He established the first medical residency program at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the system of teaching medical students at the patient’s bedside, so that they got direct clinical experience.
William Osler on Vaccines
Not surprisingly, Osler was a big supporter of vaccines, at least the vaccines that were available at the time – smallpox and typhoid.
In 1910, in the article Man’s Redemption of Man, he wrote:
“I would like to issue a Mount-Carmel-like challenge to any ten unvaccinated priests of Baal. I will go into the next severe epidemic with ten selected, vaccinated persons and ten selected unvaccinated persons – I should prefer to choose the latter – three members of Parliament, three anti-vaccination doctors (if they can be found), and four anti-vaccination propagandists.
And I will make this promise – neither to jeer nor jibe when they catch the disease, but to look after them as brothers, and for the four or five who are certain to die, I will try to arrange the funerals with all the pomp and ceremony of an anti-vaccination demonstration.”
The New York Times described Osler’s Challenge as “Rather a grisly joke. But there would be a grislier reality everywhere if the anti-vaccinationists had their way.”
No one took him up on his challenge.
That shouldn’t be a surprise though, as it hadn’t been that long since Dr. Immanuel Pfeiffer, in 1902, argued that smallpox wasn’t contagious. He was allowed to visit the Gallop’s Island smallpox hospital in Boston. A few weeks later, he was found to be critically ill at his home – with smallpox.
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