Page:Memoir of George B. Wood, M. D., LL.D.djvu/26

 when carried on with the patience, carefulness and candor which attended those which have been thus briefly recorded.

Dr. Wood's professional eminence and personal qualifications led, naturally and suitably, to his being called to high official positions. In 1848, he was elected President of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; an office which remained with him thereafter until his death. In 1855, he was made President of the American Medical Association; and in 1859, President of the American Philosophical Society. In this last position, he followed, after an interval of some years, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman. Both of these appointments may be regarded as not only altogether appropriate on account of the high individual merits of those who received them, but, also, as evincing a recognition of the relation of the medical profession to the general advancement of science, to which medical men here, as elsewhere, have rendered such large and numerous contributions; besides exemplifying, in their own vocation, the principle that science lives and works most fitly, not for its own intellectual aims alone, but also for the common benefit of humanity.

In 1870, Dr. Wood was disposed to retire from all official duties, on account of his advancing age and infirmity. On the occasion of his tendering his resignation of the Presidency of the American Philosophical Society, its Secretaries were authorized, as a committee, to request its withdrawal. In the communication