Squire Littell

“ This he did from no feeling of self-importance or fondness for display, but because he considered himself the representative of a profession, the honor and respectability of which, so far as it was in his keeping, he guarded with as much vigilance and care as he did his own. He was free in an uncommon degree from all petty pride, vanity, pretension, and conceit. Nature had given him a sound constitution, and had endowed him with good abilities which he had diligently improved; gaining, like the faithful servant, ten other talents besides them. ”

“ The greater part of mankind will not even make the effort to do so. With those, therefore, who have at heart the honor and usefulness of their profession, it has always been a cause of regret that so many obtain the Doctorate, "crammed," it may be, with knowledge purely professional, but without anything worthy of the name of scholarship, without any proper mental cultivation and discipline, and too often without the personal attributes—the mores benevoli—which should characterize the accomplished physician. ”

“ As a teacher of medicine, at the bedside in the Hospital, or from the rostrum of the University, he was unrivalled in his own country and unsurpassed in any other. His treatises on the materia medica and on the theory and practice of physic have been invaluable gifts to the profession; and, in a word, it may be asserted without contradiction, that no one has done so much to improve and extend the important branches which he more particularly cultivated. ”

“ It must not be forgotten, however, that in regard to those points of treatment from which there is most dissent, the profession, hastily casting off from its ancient moorings, and going, as often happens in such cases, from one extreme to the other, has scarcely even yet attained to a haven of rest. It being hardly supposable that the older physicians were so universally in error, it has been suggested that the type of disease has changed, and that it is now less openly inflammatory, or more asthenic, than it was in their day. ”

“ Those who thus added to their qualifications what was beyond ordinary attainment at home, were regarded as the magnates of the profession, and as persons having authority. Rush, Physick, Wistar, Chapman, and others, loomed up to the common eye as almost something more than ordinary mortals. There was only one medical school in the city, and the professors—men certainly of exceptional ability, character, and acquirement—were regarded with the greatest respect and veneration by their pupils. ”

“ The field of knowledge is illimitable, and Dr. Wood was always actively in favor of progress and reform. He continued therefore to read and to write with the same diligence and energy as before. The successive editions of his works required constant supervision to keep pace with the wonderful accumulation of new facts, and with the constantly widening horizon of science, which "like the circle bounding earth and skies" is ever receding as it is approached. ”

“ Wood thus endeavored to make his pecuniary resources, as well as his time and talents, subservient to the welfare of his fellow-men, and his prolific brain was always teeming with thoughts and expedients for that purpose. Hospitals he considered one of the most unexceptionable forms of public charity, because, while they afforded a desirable refuge for the sick, they made in various ways—the increase of medical knowledge, and the practical training of physicians and surgeons—the very afflictions of mankind promotive of the general good. ”

“ Duty thoroughly and conscientiously performed, knowledge extended and matured, and powers enlarged and strengthened by exercise, with the uncommon excellence and attractiveness of his lectures, placed him foremost among the teachers of these two branches of science; and it is not surprising, therefore, that in 1835, a vacancy occurring in the chair of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Wood should have been chosen to fill it. Promotion thus steadily followed step by step, and always found him equal to the labor and responsibility which it involved. ”

“ Parrish was rather robust in form, of medium height, sanguine temperament, handsome countenance, benevolent expression, and very agreeable and popular manners. He dressed in Quaker costume, which well became his comely person; and was one of the last of those who clung to the fashion of small-clothes, silk stockings, and high-topped boots. He was an enthusiast in his profession, the study of which he began rather later than usual, and without the preliminary training which, great as were his qualifications, would have placed him so far above ordinary men. ”

“ The students were enjoined to be sincere and honest, to do nothing merely for effect, to subordinate private interests to the welfare of the sick and to the dignity of their profession, and never to lose sight of its benevolent character, as that alone which properly requites its toils and privations, and renders it worthy of the love and pursuit of elevated minds. ”

“ Well aware that no amount of professional training can countervail the want of a liberal and thorough preparatory education, he was ever a warm advocate of a higher standard of preliminary qualification, as well as of a more extended and comprehensive curriculum. Much, it is true, may be done by industry and conscientious devotion to supply the want; but after graduation the physician has ordinarily no control of his time, and it cannot be wholly retrieved. ”

“ It is no valid objection that the practice is liable to abuse by unqualified persons who, unhappily, gain admission to the profession. Indeed, such practitioners are doubly culpable, for the mischief they directly do, and for the discredit which they bring upon a mode of cure for which, timely and judiciously employed, there is frequently no effectual substitute. ”

“ The Philadelphia Medical Society was the principal debating arena in those days, and had a large membership of the more advanced students, who resorted thither for instruction. Drs. Parrish and Chapman, widely differing as they did on many points of pathology and therapeusis, would often come into collision, and each found in his opponent "a foeman worthy of his steel." The greater dialectical skill of the one—if, indeed, such superiority really existed—was more than counterbalanced by the good sense and practical disposition of the other. ”

“ The victories of peace surpass those of war, in that, inflicting no wound and causing no sorrow, they are productive of unmingled good; and, judging by this standard, the College of Pharmacy in its obituary memorial rightly describes Dr. Wood as one of the great men of the world.
The Chair of Practice, which was the goal of his aspirations, he voluntarily resigned after a self-imposed restriction of ten years, in the full possession of his mental powers, and with all his capability for labor unimpaired. ”

“ Wood, primus inter pares—with all the resources of modern discovery at his command, holds really a more elevated rank than did the foremost of them; because competition is more active, and general acquirement greater and more common, than it was fifty or a hundred years ago. No age can boast a monopoly of intellect, though opportunity and circumstances may give to it greater prominence in some conjunctures than in others. There are those among us capable of equalling, and, with their superior advantages, of surpassing, their predecessors ”

“ His trusteeship of the University was marked by the interest and fidelity which were conspicuous in all his engagements. Cherishing a warm interest in its welfare generally, and particularly in that of the medical department, he would naturally be expected to take a principal share in the business of the trustees; and his judgment, to which in all matters great deference was deservedly accorded, would he regarded by his colleagues almost as law, in questions pertaining to his profession. ”

“ It is surprising that a truth, inherent in the very nature of man, should be so injuriously neglected by those whose peculiar province is education; and still more remarkable that Dr. Wood should actually have been the first in this country, and elsewhere also, to introduce into the chair of medicine the system of ocular demonstration. He had proved its utility and its superiority to the oral and didactic method then in vogue, while occupying the chair of materia medica ”

“ Kind and considerate to the sick, be was a careful and judicious practitioner, punctual in appointments, cautious and accurate in diagnosis, full of resources in emergency, and sagacious, prompt, vigorous, and successful, in his treatment. Possessing thus all the qualifications of a skilful and accomplished physician, be was highly esteemed by his medical brethren, and was regarded by his patients, notwithstanding the reserve and formality of his manner, with the utmost confidence and respect. ”

“ He preserved to the last his love of letters and his early taste for classical literature. He read much on general, as well as on professional, subjects, and duly appropriated what he read. On almost every topic—politics, religion, literature, science—he had well matured and decided opinions. His conversational power was considerable, and be produced with ready and confident expression the treasures of a thoughtful and cultivated mind. Honor, propriety, delicacy, manliness, sincerity, candor, and refinement, were prominent features of his moral nature. ”

“ Dr. Parrish retained in his own hands the chairs of medicine and surgery; Dr. Richard Harlan had the charge of the anatomical theatre; Dr. Wood was the lecturer on materia medica and chemistry; and to Dr. Nathan Shoemaker was assigned the instruction in midwifery.
The school was established in no spirit of rivalry, but had its origin in the necessity of things; and, while entirely independent of any external influence, was preparatory and auxiliary to the University;—the sole object being the better training of young men for admission into that Institution. ”

“ He loved work for its own sake, and for the satisfaction it afforded, but was ever magnanimously intent on making it subservient to higher and holier purposes than mere private interest or gratification. ”

“ He was now engaged in the composition of his great Treatise on the Practice of Medicine, of which he speaks so modestly in the preface; and had an eye, moreover, to the professorship of that department in the University. The office of physician to the Hospital was, therefore, desired, not only for the more satisfactory investigation of disease and the acquisition of practical knowledge, but also for the further object of acquiring ease and readiness in clinical instruction ”

“ Medical quackery was of all others, from its reckless presumption and wickedness in trifling with the important concerns of life and health, the most abhorrent to his just and honorable nature. But he knew that as foul birds gather around their noisome food, so, where ignorance and folly abound, interested knavery and false pretension will always find greedy disciples and credulous dupes. ”

“ With this was united the greatest, perhaps, of all talents, steady and unwearied application. It is, no doubt, true that "the man is yet unborn who duly weighs an hour," but Dr. Wood made a much nearer approach to that estimate than is done by most others; diligently improving the fleeting moment, "hiving wisdom with each studious year," and always seeking to benefit mankind by lessening the sum of human suffering and increasing the resources and extent of professional skill. ”

“ It was a quarterly publication, admirably conducted by an association of gentlemen; and was quite equal in learning and ability to any similar periodical either in this country or in Europe. It had an existance of six years; when it was discontinued, as so many other good enterprises have been, from insufficient patronage.
The East Indies appear to have had a wonderful fascination for Dr. Wood in the early part of his career, and his unemployed leisure, while waiting on practice, was devoted to the eager perusal of every accessible work relating to that country. ”

“ Wood was the connecting link between the physicians of a former age, now known only by tradition, and those of the present generation. At the beginning of the current century, medical men still received their instruction chiefly in private offices, very few, comparatively, leaving the country to perfect their education abroad. ”

“ Wood are on matters connected with his profession—chemical reaction, the medicinal properties and therapeutical value of plants and inorganic substances, pharmaceutical formulæ, the laws of life, health, disease, and other exact and recondite subjects. The bias of his mathematical and logical mind was strongly toward scientific research. ”

“ The inequality of original endowment is less than is usually supposed. Education and the diligent employment even of the single talent, make the general difference between man and man. Labor omnia vincit improbus. ”

“ In a word, they were taught to be truthful, upright, and honorable men, who, animated by the spirit of real philanthropy, drew their inspiration from the inherent nobility of their calling, and not from the hope of pecuniary reward, for which many other occupations furnished greater inducement and opportunity. ”

“ He would gladly have built and endowed such an institution with his own private means, had they been, consistently with other claims, sufficient for that purpose; and he fondly hoped that he had made by his testamentary dispositions provision at least for large extension and accommodation.
It might be supposed that the mental constitution of Dr. Wood would have induced him to take delight in all the problems of abstract science. His reasoning faculty was strong, and he was in his appropriate element in whatever required minute investigation and research. ”