Mr. Gates's summer vacation: a centennial remembrance.

In 1897, Frederick T. Gates, a Baptist minister and adviser to John D. Rockefeller Sr., read the entire second edition of The Principles and Practice of Medicine by William Osler while on a summer vacation at Lake Liberty, New York. The book reinforced the low opinion Gates had of the efficacy of medicine but convinced him that medical science would be a wise investment for the Rockefeller fortune. The results of this investment included the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, the General Education Board, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the International Health Board. Gates sponsored Rockefeller funding of full-time clinical professorships, an idea that Osler opposed but that eventually became the prevailing model for medical departments at universities in the United States.