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Bullitt History of Medicine Society
February 13, 2002
Watson A. Bowes Jr., M.D.
What Can We Learn from Sir Thomas Browne?
As a freshman medical student I read Harvey Cushing's biography of Sir William
Osler and learned that the second book purchased by Osler was an 1862 edition of
Religio Medici (The Religion of a Doctor) by Sir Thomas Browne. This same volume
was with Osler throughout his life and rested on his coffin along with a single sheath of
lilies at his funeral. (Cushing II, p 686). This initiated my interest in Sir Thomas Browne,
whom I vaguely recalled as the author of one or two examples of 17th century prose in my
English Literature textbook in college.
Osler was introduced to Sir Thomas Browne by the Rev. William Arthur Johnson,
an Anglican clergyman, who was the founder and Warden of Trinity College School, a
prep school for Trinity University in Toronto. Osler enrolled at Trinity College at age 16
intending to study for the clergy, following in his father's footsteps. While at Trinity he
was captivated by Johnson's avocation as a naturalist and his encouragement of the
students in observations and experiments with nature. Johnson and his wife often
entertained the students at the parsonage where Johnson would frequently read aloud
passages of Religio Medici. While in his second year at Trinity College School at age 17,
Osler purchased his second book, the 1862 edition of Religio Medici at W. C. Chitwell's
bookstore in Toronto. Slide: Religio Medici, 1862 edition. Cushing wrote that only the
Bible did Osler know more nearly by heart than Religio Medic. (Cushing I, p 51)
Inspired by Johnson's interest as a naturalist and his love of Sir Thomas Browne's prose
and philosophy, Osler changed his career goal and, after leaving Trinity College, enrolled
in the medical school at McGill University.
Twenty-nine years later, in an address to medical students and faculty at McGill,
Osler recalled the important influence of Religio Medici in his life:
”…no book has had so enduring an influence on my life. I was introduced to it by
my first teacher, the Rev. W. A. Johnson, Warden and Founder of the Trinity
College School, and I can recall the delight with which I first read its quaint and
charming pages. It was one of the strong influences which turned my thoughts
towards medicine as a profession, and my most treasured copy - the second book I
ever bought - has been a constant companion for thirty-one years..."
Browne's Education
Sir Thomas Browne, the third of four children, was born in 1605 in London. His
father, a cloth merchant, died when Thomas was 8 years old, and his mother soon
remarried. The record is mixed about whether Thomas's stepfather misappropriated the
children's inheritance, but there is no question that Browne was provided the best of
education and maintained a good relationship with his stepfather. From age 11 to 17,
Browne attended Winchester School, one of the finest in the England at the time. At age
18 he matriculated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, which during his time became Pembroke
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College. A measure of Browne's academic achievement was that he was selected to give
the student oration at the inauguration ceremony for the new college. (Finch, p 42-53)
Although Browne achieved an impressive classic education at Winchester and
Oxford, the latter was no place to obtain training in Medicine. William Harvey's
description of the circulation of the blood (De Motu Cordis) published in 1628 was not
mentioned in the Oxford medical curriculum 20 years later and students learned the texts
Hippocrates and Galen. Dr. Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), one of the leading
physicians of the time, said, "One had as good send a man to Oxford to learn shoemaking
as practicing physic." (Severn) Consequently, after a year of brief apprenticeship with
one or more practitioners in or near Oxford and a trip to Ireland with his stepfather,
Browne went to Europe to continue his medical education. He was there from 1630 to
1633 spending approximately one year each at the University of Montpellier in the south
of France, the University of Padua in Italy, and the University of Leiden in Holland.
(Hughes) These were the acknowledged centers of excellence in medical education.
Montpellier was in its waning years of importance. Also medical education there was
affected by the common belief that dissection of the human body was sinful. At
Monpellier only one autopsy was performed each year. The University of Padua, where
William Harvey obtained his medical degree in 1602, was the most celebrated medical
school at that time. Leiden was ascending in reputation when Browne matriculated and
obtained an MD on December 21, 1633 after defending his thesis, the title and subject of
which have not survived. The medical education at Leiden placed a much greater
emphasis on clinical teaching than at other medical schools in Europe. (Sugarman)
When Browne was pursuing his medical studies abroad, Europe was in the midst
of the Thirty-Years War and bubonic plague. Ten years before Browne arrived in
Montpellier, the city, which was largely Huguenot (Protestant) was laid waste by the
army of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. In 1629, the year before Browne’s presence
there, the plague infected the population and 2000 deaths occurred. Scarcely a year
before Browne went to Padua a third of the population of the region had died of the
bubonic plague.
His education at Winchester, Oxford, and the several European universities had
served him well. He had read widely and was fluent in Greek, Latin, English, French,
Italian, and Dutch and could read Hebrew, German and Spanish as well. He was a keen
observer, interested in any almost any subject that crossed his intellect and was deeply
concerned about the most vexing philosophical and theological issues of his day. Perhaps
the most surprising thing about his life is how little some of the most “important” events
seemed to be of concern to him: the civil war in England, the thirty years war in Europe,
and the plague in Europe and England. These events were seldom mentioned at any
length in his published work or his correspondence
Upon returning from his medical studies in Europe, Browne was obliged to
practice under the supervision of a well-established doctor before being licensed to
practice medicine. Where this preceptorship occurred is not entirely certain, and the
name of Browne’s preceptor is unknown. There is nothing in Browne’s own writing that
identifies where he was during these years. A number of accounts of Browne’s life
assumed that he was living and practicing near Halifax in Yorkshire; but one of the most
conscientious Browne scholars, Frank Livingstone Huntley (University of Michigan)
summarized the evidence as pointing to Browne’s have been somewhere Oxfordshire
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(Huntley pp. 90-98). Whatever the case, the importance of these four years is that it was
during this time that Browne, before the age of 30, wrote Religio Medici, the book that
was to earn him a secure place in literary if not in medical history.
Lesson: If you believe that the events of your life will be of any interest
to posterity, and you are concerned about the record being accurate,
write the facts down in some form while you still have the wit and
energy to do so.
Browne’s medical practice and family
In 1637 at age 32, having completed his apprenticeship, or his residency as it
might be regarded today, Browne received the Oxford degree of MD and became a
licensed physician. The same year, upon the urging of friends from his Oxford days, he
moved to Norwich, where he resided and practice until his death in 1862 at age 77. In
1641, at age 36, Browne married 20-year-old Dorothy Mileham. Browne’s good friend
and earliest biography, the Rev. John Whitefoot, commenting upon the match said:
“Mrs. Browne was ‘a lady of such symmetrical proportion to her worthy husband,
both in the graces of her body and mind, that they seemed to come together by a
kind of natural magnetism.’” (Gosse p. 24)
Browne's decision to marry is often viewed in the light of his comments in Religio Medici
about marriage:
"I was never yet once, and commend their resolutions who never marry twice, not
that I disallow of second marriage;… I could be content that we might procreate
like trees, without conjunction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the world
without this triviall and vulgar way of coition; It is the foolishest act a wise man
commits in all his life, nor is there any thing that will more deject his coold
imagination, when hee shall consider what an odde and unworthy piece of folly
hee hath committed…." (II, 9)
Nothing is known of Browne' s courtship of Dorothy Mileham or whether she was aware
of what Browne had written about marriage in Religio Medici. If she was aware of it,
she must have found it humorous that he so willingly joined with her in "this triviall and
vulgar way of coition" to produce 12 children.
Lesson: Love trumps the best intentions. Or as Pascal wrote: "The
heart has its reasons of which the reason knows nothing…" (Pensées
#477)
Of the Browne's twelve children, including twins who died in infancy, only four,
a son and three daughters, survived their mother and father. It is clear, from the
correspondence of Thomas and Dorothy Browne to each other and to their children as
well as from recollections of family friends, that theirs was a loving and devoted family
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characterized by deep mutual respect. Dorothy Browne must also have been a patient
and devoted wife, having indulged her husband in his huge collection of books and
specimens that were stored throughout their home in Norwich. Through his
correspondence and other documents, we know that Browne was a successful, busy, and
humble practitioner, a respected authority in the community and a generous
philanthropist to church and educational and civic institutions.
Brown was an omnivorous reader, and his library contained most of the important
medical tests of his time including De Motu Cordis, which was published in 1628. It is
clear that he was conscientious about his own life-long professional education.
Characteristic of the state of knowledge about disease and therapeutics in the 17 century,
the treatments Browne prescribed were intended primarily for the relief of symptoms
rather than to cure disease,. In a very interesting letter of consultation, written entirely in
Latin, Browne offered advice to another physician about a patient with a perplexing
condition of edema, leg ulcers and a rash. Browne called the condition “scorbutic
miasma” and recommended treatment that included 41 medications, all of which were in
the official pharmacopoeia of his day, but none of which would be used to day to treat
any condition or even be recognized by medical students in their course in Pharmacology.
Browne’s extensive correspondence with his son, Edward, also a physician, shows that
Browne was familiar with a wide range of geriatric, pediatric, obstetric, and gynecologic
conditions. Among his interests were disorders of the mind. In an in-depth analysis of
Browne’s writings, Dr. Jerome Schneck, a psychiatrist in New York, found that Browne's
insight about psychiatric illness was considerably ahead of his time. As some evidence
of his esteem as a physician, Browne was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians in 1664.
In 1671, at age 66 Browne was knighted by King Charles the II. The record shows
that the King had intended to bestow the honor on the Mayor of the city, who declined,
and Browne was proposed as a substitute. (Patrides. Above Atlas p 21). Although
Samuel Johnson believed that the honor was given to Browne for his literary celebrity, it
is more likely that it was for his loyalty to the crown during the civil war. Browne was
one of 432 prominent citizens of Norwich who in 1643 refused to subscribe to a fund to
assist Parliament, led by Cromwell, in its war against King Charles I.
One of the more controversial aspects of Sir Thomas Browne's life and character
involve his participation as an expert witness in the trial of Amy Duny and Rose
Cullender, two women accused of bewitching children. On March 10, 1664, the women
were found guilty and hanged. Browne’s role in this sad event has been variously
characterized as, on the one hand, an example of his narrow-minded acceptance of
erroneous religious superstitions, and on the other hand, entirely in keeping with the
prevailing attitudes about witchcraft in his time. Of interest, this event in Browne’s life
was not mentioned in the short biography of his life by Samuel Johnson, written some 70
years after Browne's death, suggesting that Johnson assumed that this matter did not
reflect either for good or ill on Browne's character.
There is considerable disagreement among scholars about the nature and influence
of Browne’s testimony. The only extant description of the events (in William Cobbett's
State Trials) states that Browne testified not only on the subject of bewitchment but also
that he was clearly of the opinion that the women were bewitched.(Bennett, pp. 11-17)
Browne’s belief in witchcraft and witches was stated in Religio Medici:
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“For mine owne part, I have ever beleeved, and do now know, that there are
Witches: they that doubt of these, do not onely deny them, but Spirits; and are
obliquely and upon consequence a sort not of Infidels, but Atheists” (I, 30)
Belief in witchcraft was common in the17th century as evidence well respected
scientists who shared this belief: Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon, and William Harvey
among others. It is true that in the latter years of Browne’s life, opinion about existence
of witchcraft was beginning to change. Nevertheless, between 1660 and 1718 there were
thirteen books published asserting the existence of witches, and a review of the
Transactions of the Royal Society up through 1678 found no repudiation of belief in
witchcraft. (Bennett, p 11). It was not until well into the next century that belief in
witchcraft no longer prevailed. But even then, 100 years after Browne lived, John
Wesley maintained to the end of his life that to give up witchcraft was to give up the
Bible. (Knott)
Lesson: Testimony you give as an expert witness may come back to
haunt you.
Although Osler admired Browne as a competent and well-respected physician and
a first-rate naturalist, he acknowledged “that as a scientific man Browne does not take
rank with many of his contemporaries”. Even though not among the first rank of
scientific minds of his day, Browne might have been expected to be a member of the
Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, the oldest scientific
organization in the world. The Society was founded in 1660 during Browne's lifetime to
promote the natural sciences. Browne’s son, Edward, and his grandson were both
physicians who, while living in London, were members of the Royal Society. There are
two explanations for Thomas Browne’s having not being invited to become a member.
One is that his prose style did not conform to the stated ideal of the Society: “a close,
naked, natural way of speaking…bringing all things as near the mathematical plainness
as they can.” (Oppenheimer) An alternative explanation is that Browne, a busy
practitioner living in Norwich three hours from London, had little opportunity to attend
meetings of the Society. Other prominent men of science living away from London were
not invited into the Royal Society. Also, Browne, although perhaps disappointed by not
being a member of the Royal Society, his relations with the Society and its members.
(Bennett pp. 20-21)
Lesson: When writing a scientific paper, be clear and concise and keep
it simple.
Brown as writer
What may have kept Browne out of the Royal Society was exactly what earned
him an enduring place in the history of English literature. Above all else Browne was a
master craftsman of English prose. Many writers, including Samuel Johnson, Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Thomas DeQuincey, and Herman Melville have
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acknowledged their debt to Browne’s prose style; and James Russell Lowell, engaging in
hyperbole, said that Browne was “our most imaginative mind since Shakespeare.”
(Patrides). In the 20th century, the practicing physician who most nearly achieved
Browne’s literary influence was the poet William Carlos Williams.
The corpus of Browne’s writings consists predominantly of five works apart from
his extensive correspondence: Religio Medici, Vulgar Errors, Hydriotaphia, The Garden
of Cyrus, A Letter to a Friend, and Christian Morals.
Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician), the first of these, which was written
soon after Browne returned from his medical studies in 1634 was not intended for
publication. Impressively, it was written when Browne had few books and no library
available to him and is, therefore a testimony to his previous extensive reading and his
remarkably accurate memory. As was not uncommon at the time, copies of the
manuscript circulated among friends, which resulted in many errors in the recopying.
Eventually the manuscript fell into the hands of Andrew Crooke, a London book seller,
who printed the first unauthorized edition in 1642 with anonymous authorship. Sir
Kenelm Digby, an influential critic, obtained a copy of the unauthorized edition, began
reading it after supper one evening and was so impressed that before sunup had finished
the 190 page book and written a not so flattering review that was almost as long as the
book itself. About 1250 copies were printed and sold rapidly encouraging subsequent
printings. It was then that Browne acknowledged that he was the author and prepared a
corrected manuscript that was published by Crooke in 1643. Having not intended
originally for his reflections to be published, Browne was nevertheless concerned about
the inaccuracies that were in the unauthorized editions. In his characteristic humility,
Browne acknowledged in the preface to the revised edition that his complaints would
seem ridiculous in comparison to the perversions and defamation that King Charles and
members of Parliament were suffering. Furthermore, he was concerned that he would be
judged by statements made in his youth, statements that did not have the benefit of the
wisdom of "advancing judgement" and "maturer discernment." The authorized version
quickly became a “best seller” resulting in Andrew Crooks becoming one of the leading
booksellers in London. Interestingly, the engraving for the frontispiece, the picture of a
man falling into the ocean from a tall rock and being saved by the hand of God, was
made by Will Marshall. He had previously had engraved the portrait of Francis Bacon
that was prefixed to the 1640 publication of Advancement of Learning. A copy of the
original 1642 unauthorized edition of Religio Medici in the library of Dr. Meyer
Friedman, a New York cardiologist, was recently sold at auction by Sotheby’s for
$21,450.
Pseudodoxiae Epidemica: or, Enquiries into Very many Received Tenents, and
commonly Presumed Truths, commonly called Vulgar Errors, was published in 1646
when Browne was 41 years old. This volume, which was more than 600 pages in length,
was his major work and his best seller. It was a monumental effort by Browne to identify
and correct all extant errors of human knowledge of his day. The book is a testament to
his omnivorous reading and extensive observations as a naturalist along with remarkable
organization of odd bits of knowledge. He wrote with authority on vegetables, insects,
Jews, swimming and floating, mermaids, the Red Sea, hieroglyphical pictures of
Egyptians, the death of Aristotle, Methuselah, elephants, and the Tower of Babel to
mention just a few things. Today, many regard the work as quaint and of only historical
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interest. Some scholars, on the other hand, claim that in Vulgar Errors Browne is at his
best in dispelling the common superstitions and traditional misunderstandings not only of
the common people but also of some of the most enlightened minds of his day. And in
doing so he “helped man look out upon the world with a saner eye.” (Cawley)
Hydriotaphia. Urne-Buriall or, A Brief Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately
Found in Norfolk was written as a result of Browne’s avocation of collecting antiquities,
coins and other artifacts found in excavations. In 1657 an excavation in Norfolk turned
up 40 to 50 urns containing human bones and ashes along with ornaments of ivory and
brass and a single opal. These items were given to Browne because of his interest in such
artifacts. Hydriotaphia, published in 1658, was a compilation of Browne’s research on
the history and significance of the burial urns as well as a treatise about the burial rights
and traditions of ancient and modern civilizations. The Garden of Cyrus or, The
Quincuncial , Lozenge, or Net-Work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally,
Mystically Considered was published in the same year. This was a treatise not only on
the five-point arrangements in the ancient Babylonian gardens of Cyrus but of the
gardening customs and horticulture all manner of ancient and modern communities.
Commenting on The Garden of Cyrus, Samuel Johnson said, "Some of the most pleasing
performances have been produced by learning and genius exercised upon subjects of little
importance." Clearly, Johnson was impressed with Browne's prose in this treatise, but
not with his subject matter. Some of the finest examples of Browne’s prose craftsmanship
are found in these two monographs and they can both be read with great enjoyment
without any regard for their esoteric subjects.
Samuel Johnson, perhaps the most learned man of the 18th century, and himself a
master craftsman of English prose, was vexed that Browne’s “exuberance of knowledge,
and plentitude of ideas sometimes obstruct the tendency of his reasoning, and the
clearness of his decisions…” He described Browne’s style as “vigorous, but rugged; it is
learned, but pedantick; it is deep, but obscure; it strikes, but does not please; it
commands, but does not allure…” Johnson lamented that in the 17th century the language
lost “the stability which it had obtained in the time of Elizabeth”, and he noted the
multitude of exotic words that Browne had introduced. Johnson acknowledge that the
new words used by Browne had augmented philosophical diction, and he conceded that
Browne’s uncommon words were necessary to adequately express his uncommon
sentiments. Examples of words first used by Browne are funambulatory, pinax,
digladiation, embasement, discruciating, peregrinations, opprobious, callosity, diuturnal,
electricity, and hallucination. Interestingly, Browne’s correspondence with his family
members reflects none of the characteristics of his major literary works. It is concise, to
the point, and without the use of language crafting so characteristic of Religio Medici and
his other published writings.
A Letter to a Friend and Christian Morales were published after Browne’s death.
A letter to A Letter to a Friend, upon occasion of the Death of his Intimate Friend was
published in 1690, eight years after Browne died. Browne’s biographer, Edmund Gosse
said that “some of Browne’s most judicious admirers have not hesitated to place [A Letter
to a Friend] on the highest level of his compositions. It was written in 1672, and
although intended as message of consolation and sympathy, it was the occasion for
Browne to describe his views on disease, suffering and death gleaned from his long
experience of caring for patients at the end of their lives. Christian Morals was
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published in 1716 from a manuscript that had been found by Browne’s son, Edward.
Apparently it was Browne’s attempt to continue what he had written in Religio Medici
leavened by years of experience and reflection and extensive reading. Browne's
extensive reading and interest in so many and diverse subjects throughout his life are
reflected in his writings. Reflecting this example, Osler recommend to medical students
and physicians that they read from the classics one-half hour at the end of each day.
(Osler. Aequanimitas back page)
Lesson: An essential in the development of a well-educated physician is
a lifetime of reading and studying subjects beyond the requirements of
the profession.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that not everyone is as taken as I
am with Sir Thomas Browne. In an article in the Bulletin of the New York Academy of
Medicine, Dr. Perry Hookman of Cheverly, Maryland describes Religio Medici as "a dark
book filled with sanctimonious claptrap and prejudices". Hookman cannot understand
Osler's intellectual debt to Browne and believes it is a tribute to Osler's tolerance and
humanitarianism that he was able to rise above the prejudice and bigotry of his time in
spite of Browne's being his role model. This seems an instance of Hookman having no
respect for historical context, and suggests another lesson to be learned from studying
Browne and his writing. In my view a much more balanced treatment of Browne's
influence upon Osler is found in the book entitled Osler. Inspirations from a Great
Physician, by Charles Bryan, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at
the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, South Carolina.
Lesson: It is necessary to judge a person's accomplishments in the
context of the culture and circumstances in which they occurred.
The 17th century was the watershed for the Enlightenment and the influence of
empiricism in Western culture. The seminal document of this transformation was Francis
Bacon’s Advancement of Learning published in 1605, the year that Thomas Browne was
born. Bacon’s emphasis on inductive reasoning was the foundation of modern science.
Bacon insisted that the only path to truth was by way of inductive reasoning and the
experimental method. Thomas Browne throughout his life and as reflected in his writing
resisted the unconditional capitulation to reason as the only source of truth. In Religio
Medici he attempted to reconcile knowledge acquired from the study of nature and the
ecclesiastical knowledge from scripture. This coherence of sources of human knowledge
was the substance of Religio Medici, which was intended to be a private exercise for his
own devotion. As a result of the balance of discourse that Browne attempted to achieve,
he was regarded as an atheist by some of his critics.
Browne insisted that in spite of his interest in knowledge gained from the study of
nature, this knowledge was incomplete and potentially incapacitating without the being
leavened and enlightened by the wisdom of scripture. He was convinced that faith must
be informed by reason and reason must be enlightened by faith. He was a great
synthesizer able to accommodate philosophical and religious truth, Catholic and
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Protestant doctrine. He believed that the essence of one’s faith was important and not the
circumstances, and he insisted on people of all persuasions being charitable with one
another. Catholics, Anglicans, and even Quakers found comfort and wisdom in Religio
Medici, but the book was considered sufficiently dangerous by the Catholic Church to be
placed on the Index of forbidden reading. With Anglicans and Puritans at each other’s
throats, Browne assumed a courageous position of tolerance of all religions, Christian and
Pagan alike. In Religio Medici he summed up his opinion about the contemporary
sectarian quarrels as follows:
“… particular Churches and Sects usurpe the gates of heaven, and turn the key
against each other, and thus we go to heaven against each others wills.” (I, 56)
Browne relied on his faith to inform him about those things that simply were an
enigma to his reason. For example, he claimed that reason could not account for people
born with anomalies, known in his day as monstrosities. Browne would not presume that
deformed humans cast doubt on God’s perfection. Rather he would depend upon faith to
see “nature so ingeniously contriving the irregular parts, as they become sometimes more
remarkable than the principall Fabrick.” Browne was convinced that there is nothing in
nature that is ugly simply because “nature is the Art of God.” (Religio I, 16).
In short, Browne described and personally exemplified almost every person’s
struggle between faith and reason.
A contemporary of Browne was Blaise Pascal who was born in France in 1623
and died at age 39 in 1662. His contributions as a first-class scientist and mathematician
included the proof of vacuums, the mathematical descriptions conical sections and the
development of the first calculator. He also introduced the first public bus service, and
invented the first wristwatch. These impressive contributions not withstanding, his
major preoccupation was the reconciliation of his religious faith and his scientific
intellect. At age Pascal he began writing down random thoughts and insights about his
spiritual reflections that were published after his death as The Penses. These
reflections were written at about the age that Thomas Browne wrote the notes that
became the Religio Medici. In neither case were these personal spiritual reflections
intended for publication, but they dealt with the same personal struggle with the
perplexities of the mind and the soul. There is no evidence that these two men were
aware of the other’s writings. But it is remarkable how similar is the essence of their
contributions.
Having begun with William Osler’s fascination with Sir Thomas Browne, I will
end with his assessment of Browne’s importance for students of medicine. He believed
that the Religio was “full of counsels of perfection which appeal to the mind of youth,
still plastic and unhardened by contact with the world.” The lessons that are
gleaned by studying the life and writings of Sir Thomas Browne
according to Osler are “mastery of self, conscientious devotion to duty
and deep human interest in human beings,” all essential qualities for the
student of medicine.
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Bennett J. Sir Thomas Browne. ‘A man off achievement in literature’. Cambridge. The
University Press, 1962.
Bryan CS. Osler. Inspirations from a Great Physician. New York, Oxford University
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Cawley RC. The timeliness of Psuedodoxia Epidemica in Cawley RR, Yost G (eds.)
Studies in Sir Thomas Browne, Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon Press, 1965, pp.
1-40.
Cushing H. The Life of Sir William Osler. Volumes I & II. Oxford, The Clarendon
Press, 1925.
Finch JS. Sir Thomas Browne. A Doctor’s Life of Science and Faith. New York, Henry
Schuman, 1950.
Gosse E. Sir Thomas Browne. New York. The Macmillan Co. 1905.
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Osler W. Sir Thomas Browne. BMJ ii;1905:993-998 (This essay appears also in Osler
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