WOOD WRIGHT. 



789 



with the common law idea of marriage. The newer ' 

 States erected since that period have very generally 

 ma'Jo more liberal laws, equalizing the property rights 

 of the husband and wile in llie separate estate of the 

 other, making a statutory dower and curtesy which 

 shall be equal, or abolishing all dower and curtesy and 

 giving widow and widower equal rights under the in- 

 testate laws, both in their separate and joint estates ; 

 in short, recognizing the legal individuality of the 

 wife, ana giving a community of interests with equal 

 rights of control over the property secured by their 

 j.iint earnings after marriage. 



Some of the States, as Mississippi, Delaware, and 

 Indiana, have also abolished all dower i:ud curtesy, 

 and given instead statutory rights under the intestate 

 la-.v~. wliile Florida, West Virginia, and Louisiana 

 have created a statutory dower of a life-interest 

 in all of the estates of the husband and in their I 

 joint earnings. In general both the husband and 

 wife must join in the deed of conveyance of the joint 

 property, and of the property acquired by either before 

 marriage; hut in many of the States the husband may 

 yet mortgage his property and the property secured by 

 their joint earnings, such property standing in his 

 name, without the wife joining in the deed of convey- 

 ance. Massachusetts gives all the property to the 

 widow if there are no children, it the property does 

 not exceed in value $5000. Some oilier States make 

 the limited value which the childless widow may take 

 $20,1100, the surplus being divided among the relatives 

 of the husband ; but if there are no kindred of his 

 liviiiL', then the widow may take the entire estate. 

 Pennsylvania gives the widow and widower equal shares 

 in the separate estates of husband and wife ; if there 

 are no children, the husband and widower possesses 

 absolutely the joint pro|>erty secured and acquired by 

 their joint earnings after marriage, unless during the ' 

 lifetime of the wife she is recognized as a business' 

 partner, while the widow, if there are no children, has 

 one-half of the personalty absolutely, and but a life in- : 

 trrr.-t in one-third of the realty, the remaining portion 

 being given to the relatives of the husband; but in 

 case there are no kindred of the husband living, she 

 takes, under the intestate laws, the entire property. :is 

 does the widower, without regard to her kindnd, 

 if there are no children. 



In New Jersey, Maryland, and South Carolina the 

 common law rights of the husband and widower still 

 prevail as to the property acquired after marriage and 

 the separate property of the wife, while the widow takes 

 but the common law portion in the husband's estate. 



A very general provision is made tor the exemption 

 of ei-rtain property from execution for the benefit of 

 the family, ranging from the sum of $300 U a home- 

 stead of 100 acres of land ; or if located within a town 

 or city, a homestead of the value of $5000, which 

 homestead can neither be mortgaged nor sold unless the I 

 wile joins in the deed of conveyance and a separate 

 acknowledgment is taken from her. These homestead 

 laws are for the benefit of the wife and children. To j 

 understand the laws governing the rights of property 

 of married women accurately it is necessary to become 

 familiar with the statutes of each State, but in general 

 it may be stated that the. wife has the absolute control 

 and management of her separate estate, and is entitled ( 

 Ivc. therefrom the rents and profits, and appro- 

 priate the same to her own use. and may make valid; 

 contracts for the benefit of her own separate estate. 

 upon which she may sue and be sued; and while the j 

 tendency is uniform and steady throughout the United 

 States to equalize the property rights of married 

 men and women, and while married women may very 

 'lly have the rights of ownership over their own 

 s-|i -irate earnings alter marriage .-ccured to them, the 

 hu-liand has generally the superior right of control 

 and ownership of the property acquired by their joint 

 efforts after marriage-^a vestige of the common law 

 merger of the legal individuality of the wife in that of i 



the husband destined soon to be relegated like its other 

 provisions to the past. (See DIVORCE, HUSBAND 

 AND WIFE, INTERNATIONAL LAW, etc.) (c. B. K.) 



WOOD, GEORGE B. (1797-1879), physician and 

 medical author, was born in Greenwich, Cumber- 

 land CO., N. J., March 13, 1797. He began his 

 education in New York but afterwards entered the 

 University of Pennsylvania where lie graduated 

 in 1815, and received his degree of M. D. in 

 1818. In 1820 he delivered a course of lectures on 

 chemistry, and in 1822 was appointed to the chair of 

 chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 

 and in 1831 to that of materia medica in the same 

 school. In 1835 he was appointed professor of chemis- 

 try and pharmacy in the University of Pennsylvania, 

 which position he filled for 15 years, with eminent dis- 

 tinction. In 1850 he was transferred to the chair of the 

 theory and practice of medicine, which he continued to 

 fill till 1800, when he resigned and was appointed pro- 

 fessor emeritus. Dr. Wood had devoted himself ear- 

 nestly to the advancement of his students and had 

 promoted live interests and enhanced the reputation of 

 the University of Pennsylvania. He procured at 

 great expense living specimens of exotic plants for ex- 

 hibition to his students. In I8G5 he endowed, in con- 

 nection with the university, an auxiliary faculty of 

 medicine consisting of five chairs : zoology and com- 

 parative anatomy, botany, geology and mineralogy, hy- 

 B'enc. medical jurisprudence and toxicology. In 1859 

 r. Wood was elected president of the American Phi- 

 losophical Society. He died March 30, 1879. Besides 

 preparing a Hlttory <>f the Uttioertity of Pennsylva- 

 nia, (1827), Dr. Wood was author of a number of works 

 which rank liigh in medical literature. Among these 

 were Trentisf mi, the Practice of Medicine (2 vols., 

 1847), which passed through several editions and was 

 adopted as a text- book by the University of Edinburgh ; 

 and A Treri/ise on Therapeutics mid I 1 karma eulogy 

 (2 vols., 1850). Pharmacopoeia (1850), prepared with 

 the aid of Dr. Bachc, was adopted by the national con- 

 vention of physicians, and became the basis of the 

 present f'/ii/n/ State* Pharmacopoeia, His Dispensa- 

 tory of the I' uited States (1st ed., 1833), a work thor- 

 oughly exhaustive in its description of many medical 

 agents peculiar to the American practice, has gone 

 through 10 editions, the later editions having been re- 

 vised by his son. Dr. Horatio C. Wood, and others. 



WOOL. See SHEEP. 



WOOLSEY, THEODORE DWIOIIT, president of 

 Yale College, was born in New York city, Oct. 31, 

 1*01. He graduated at Yale in 1820, studied law and 

 theology at Princeton, and was a tutor at Yale for two 

 years. He then spent three years in Germany, study- 

 ing Greek at Leipsic, Bonn, and Berlin. On his re- 

 turn in 1831 he WAS made professor of Greek at Yale 

 College. In 1843 he assisted in founding the New 

 Kni/lini'l.rr. and was one of its editors. In 1840 he was 

 chosen president of Yale College, and held this office 

 for 25 years, during which the institution was enlarged 

 and improved in many ways. Since 1871 he has retired 

 from public duties, but was president of the American 

 Company of revisers of the English New Testament 

 from 1871 to 1881, and has been engaged in a variety ^of 

 literary work. He edited as college text-books, Eu- 

 ripides' Alcestts ( 1 834) ; Sophocles' Antigone ( 1 835) and 

 ElfCtra (1837); j^schylus' Prometheus (1837) and 

 Plato's Gorgiiut (1843). He also published Introduc- 

 tion to tin' Study of International Law (1800; 5th ed., 

 1 879) ; Divorce and Divorce, Legislation (1 809 ; 2.1 ed. , 

 1882); Religion of tlte, Present an d the Future (\&~\)\ 

 1'iliticril Science (2 vols., 1877); Communism and 

 Socialism (1880). He has also contributed to the 

 leading reviews. 



W( )RM. See EARTH-WORM. 



WRIGHT, SILAS (1795-1847), statesman, was born 

 at Amherst, Mass., May 24, 1795 ; removed in infancy 

 to Addison co. , Vt. His father was a farmer in mod- 

 erate circumstances ; his ancestor had been one of the 



