Osler and Cushing on Vesalius

Both Osler and Cushing still considered that mastering anatomy was essential to medical theory and practice. This was particularly true for a skilled surgeon, such as Cushing, but for the reputed internist Osler as well. Osler and Cushing, devoted bibliophiles, collected outstanding works, including those of Vesalius, and made up extremely valuable libraries meant to preserve original information and documents, able to convey traditions from the past to the new generations. Besides, they thoroughly discussed and interpreted the work and life of Vesalius, his importance as a trailblazer and significance for the history of medical knowledge. These two titans of modern medicine embodied the classic humanistic features of doctors and medicine, a science tightly connected with science, art, philosophy and religion, but equally with ethics and medical deontology. Not haphazardly, today, under various forms, medical «humanities», art and history of medicine are once again reconsidered and optionally included in the academic syllabus.