BWdJe.] 494: [Oct. 4, 



of and full satisfaction with the promptness and completeness with which Caspar Wister 

 has discharged the incumbent obligations of its flnaiieial agent, for so many years, and 

 hereby tender to him the sincerest thanks of the Association for such long and honorable 

 service." 



Being a warm personal friend of Gen. McClellan, he accepted an invita- 

 tion from him to join his headquarters at Yorktown. He accompanied 

 the army on its advance from that point and its subsequent movement to 

 the James river, being present at all the battles during that period, known 

 as t lie seven-days battles. 



So varied a life would have tempted most men to indulge, perhaps, too 

 freely in personal reminiscences. But nothing was more distasteful to Dr. 

 Wister than in any way to bring his own personality into prominence. 

 Although no man was less bashful, few men were so modest. His won- 

 derful power of adapting himself to the society he happened to be in, was 

 the only thing which would lead you to suppose that he must have had a very 

 wide experience of men and things. H he was wanted he was always 

 ready when called on, provided that he could not persuade his friends that 

 they had much better select some one else. 



It was this absence of self-appreciation, connected with the fact of easy 

 pecuniary circumstances, which alone prevented his occupying a more 

 distinguished position than he did. Certain it is, that he never occupied 

 any position, the duties of which he did not fill to the entire acceptance of 

 every one. 



Nothing, perhaps, shows this more clearly than the recitalof the various 

 associations, incongruous to almost any one else, of which he was a mem- 

 ber, and generally a leading member. He was a Manager of the House 

 of Refuge and a Director of the Philadelphia Library, President of the 

 Rittenhouse Club and of the Board of Inspectors of the County Prison, 

 member of the Academy of Natural Sciences and President of the Fencing 

 and Sparring Club, Director of the Philadelphia Savings Fund and a mem- 

 ber of this Society since 1859. All of these in addition to the Medical Asso- 

 ciation already referred to. 



His nature was essentially genial ; his frank, manly, unreserved manner 

 was typical of his character. He inspired confidence at once, and a further 

 knowledge of his clear judgment and honest sincerity confirmed it. He 

 had a keen sense of humor, and his conversation, as well as the occasional 

 products of his pen, were full of it. It was to be regretted that he could 

 not be induced to write oftener for publication. A pleasant, graceful 

 article, entitled, " A Cruise Among the Windward Islands — The Log of tlie 

 Vega," which appeared in LippincoW s Magazine, in 1883, is a fair sample 

 of his literary taste and capacity. 



Dr. Wister's robust frame and temperate habits gave every indication 

 that he would live to an advanced age ; unfortunately, however, while 

 alighting from a street car at the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, at Thirtieth 

 and Market streets, a runaway horse dashed against him and threw him 

 with great violence against an iron post. The blow was so severe as to 



