Page:Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (ser 03 vol 05).djvu/42

xxxii being anatomy, he re-informed his mind, in minute detail, with every foramen, process, nerve, muscle, artery, and vein, which entered into the instruction; and it was plain to all that he had just risen from its diligent review.

The first course of chemical lectures ever given by Dr. Wood was delivered a little before the time of which I have been speaking, in a small rear building used by Dr. Parrish as a private office; and was addressed to a non-professional audience, composed chiefly of ladies belonging to his immediate family and acquaintance. Chemistry, which has since made such giant strides, was then in its infancy; and much general interest was felt in the newly discovered gases, the properties of light, heat, and electricity, and a thousand other topics, familiar enough in our own day, hut then novel and surprising. The little room did not afford accommodation for more than twelve or fifteen persons; and here, before a class entranced by his carefully prepared experiments and not likely to be hypercritical in its judgment, Dr. Wood made his first appearance as a lecturer. The benefits which accrued to him from this preliminary lay course, are obvious; he gained confidence and dexterity, and was thereby better fitted to perform his part in a more formal and important sphere.

The private office of Dr. Parrish being too small for the purpose, the lectures to the students were delivered in a room on the second story of a rear building, approached by a narrow passage running westwardly from Second Street along the northern wall of Christ Church yard, and reached by a flight of outside stairs. "Imagination fondly stoops to trace" the rude accommodations of that primitive hall; but, unlike the convivial resort where "nut-brown draughts in-spired," there was nothing for "ornament," and not much