His greatness is attributed by his biographers and critics not alone to his profound medical knowledge and insight but to his broad general education,for he was a very cultured man.He was interested in what men have done and thought throughout the ages.And he knew that the only way to find out what the best experiences of the race had been was to read what people had written.But Osler’s problem was the same as everyone else’s,only more so.He was a busy physician,a teacher of physicians,and a medical-research specialist.There was no time in a 24hour day that did not rightly belong to one of these three occupations,except the few hours for sleep,meals,and bodily functions.
Osler arrived at his solution early.He would read the last 15 minutes before he went to sleep.If bedtime was set for 11:00 P.M.,he read from 11:00 to 11:15.if research kept him up to 2:00 A.M.he read from 2:00 to 2:15.Over a very long lifetime,Osler never broke the rule once he had established it.We have evidence that after a while he simply could not fall asleep until he had done his 15 minutes of reading.
In his lifetime,Osler read a significant library of books.Just do a mental calculation for half a century of 15-minute reading periods daily and see how many books you get.Consider what a range of interests and variety of subjects are possible in one lifetime.Osler read widely outside of his medical specialty.Indeed,he developed from this 15-minute reading habit an avocational specialty to balance his vocational specialization.Among scholars in English literature,Osler is known as an authority on Sir Thomas Browne,seventeenth century English prose master and Osler’s library on Sir Thomas is considered one of the best anywhere.A great many more things could be said about Osler’s contribution to medical research,to the reform of medical teaching,to the introduction of modern clinical methods.But the important point for us here is that he answered supremely well for himself the question all of us who live a busy life must answer:How can I find time to read?