1880.] i^d [Hartshorne. 



life ; and which, during the forty-two years of his con- 

 tinuous labors as a medical professor and clinical 

 teacher, were spread broadcast throughout this coun- 

 try. No one man has ever done so much as he, to 

 form and influence medical opinion in America upon 

 both practical and ethical questions. Well has it been 

 for the profession, that his teaching was dictated by 

 good judgment, careful study, and, above all, the high- 

 est principles of rectitude and honor. 



Dr. Wood's first course of lectures was one upon 

 chemistry, delivered to a non-professional audience, 

 chiefly composed of ladies, in Dr. Joseph Parrish's 

 private office. Here, in a lay course, as Dr. Littell 

 observes, in a Memoir* to which I am much indebted 

 for information, " before a class entranced by his care- 

 fully prepared experiments and not likely to be hyper- 

 critical in its judgments, he gained confidence and 

 dexterity, and was thereby better fitted to perform his 

 part in a more formal and important sphere." There 

 was a tradition amongst medical students and others, 

 that Dr. Wood was not, at the beginning of his work 

 as a teacher, an easy, fluent or graceful speaker. It 

 is entirely accordant with what we know of his whole 

 life, to suppose that this may have been true ; and that 

 his having become, in maturity, one of the most admi- 

 rable and successful lecturers of his time was due far 

 less to any natural gift of eloquence than to assiduous 

 and long continued exercise and cultivation of his 

 powers. 



*Read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, October i, 1S79. 



