As a Bibliophile and Man of Letters
- He loved literature, history, philosophy, as well as the classics, which he read in Greek and Latin
- He loved medical history and was an avid collector of books, ancient texts and manuscripts such that his personal library comprised over 8,000 publications, in addition to thousands more, that he sent as gifts to libraries and acquaintances around the world
- He served as a curator of the Bodleian library, president of the Bibliographical Society and president of the prestigious Classical Association of Great Britain
- He was a devotee of Shakespeare, who he often referenced in his own writings, in addition to serving as host of the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebrations at Oxford University in 1916
- He was instrumental in purchasing a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio and restoring it to the Bodleian, after it had been “missing” for 250 years
- His life was a love affair of the art-and-science of medicine, of people, students, literature, learning, writing, public speaking, etc.
- Rare among physicians, he came to be regarded as a popular celebrity in his day
