()74 OLIVER FAIRFIELD WADSWORTH. 



word of the then president of Harvard College, in a letter bearing 

 date June 8, 1860. 



" I have great pleasure in stating that Mr. Oliver F. Wadsworth, 

 a member of the present senior class, is much esteemed by the 

 faculty of the college as a gentleman of high and honorable 

 character, and worthy of the confidence and respect of any 

 community in which he may establish himself. He has been 

 faithful to his duties, agreeable in his manners and amiable in 

 temper. I have much satisfaction in commending him to the 

 associates he may be connected with in his new residence. I am 

 sure they will find him not only a w'ell-educated young man, but 

 what is better still, a gentleman of honor and integrity, and 

 deserving their high regard." 



(signed) C. C. Felton, 



President of Harvard College. 



Whatever else the adventure into the w^est may have accomplished, 

 it afforded a new consideration of the uses of life and an opportunity 

 for maturing reflection which led him, upon the basis of a predilection, 

 to turn to the study of medicine as a means for the expression of his 

 desire in life and he entered the Harvard Medical School in March, 

 1862. 



During the summer of that year he assisted in removing northward 

 sick and wounded prisoners of the Peninsular Campaign under the 

 auspices of the Sanitary Commission. In 1864 he was made a house 

 officer in the Massachusetts General Hospital and graduated from the 

 Harvard Medical School to be immediately commissioned Assistant 

 Surgeon of the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry. In July of the same 

 year he was detailed for special duty at headquarters Twenty-Fifth 

 Army Corps and remained in service until the mustering out of his 

 regiment at the close of the war, being breveted captain in recogni- 

 tion of his fidelity to duty and the care which he bestowed upon the 

 details of his work. 



Deciding to devote himself to ophthalmology he went abroad to 

 study in February 1869, returning in November 1870 to take up the 

 practice of his chosen specialty. Almost immediately upon his 

 return he was made Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Boston City Hospital 

 and in 1874 Ophthalmic Surgeon to out-patients of the Massachu- 

 setts General Hospital, in 1881 he was appointed clinical instructor 

 and in 1895 professor in the Harvard ^Medical School and, in the same 



