Page:Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (ser 03 vol 05).djvu/45

Rh had reached its "meridian tower," he had nobly resolved to win success by deserving it. The posts which he attained and the influence he wielded, were the free, and, if I may so speak, the almost compulsory rewards of patient and unremitting labor, lofty aspirations, and exemplary conduct. In the present instance, the triumph was enhanced by the very great worth and signal qualifications of the rival candidate, Dr. Samuel Jackson.

It is a striking proof of the general appreciation of the cultivated mind and administrative talents of Dr. Wood that, the year before his election, he was offered the provost-ship of the University, vacant by the resignation of the Rev. Dr. De Lancey; a thorough scholar and very able divine, afterwards the Bishop of Western New York.

His assumption of the chair of Materia Medica was the immediate inauguration of a new and happier attitude of things. No expense was spared in demonstration by natural objects. Living specimens of medicinal plants were cultivated for the purpose in his own conservatories; others were sought for and brought from all parts of the country; and those of foreign habitat, which could not be raised in this climate, were imported, when practicable, from abroad. When these were unattainable, pictorial representations on a large scale were used instead. Everything was done to give to the class all possible experimental knowledge of the subject. If he had not excelled in everything else, it might have been supposed that this was his most congenial field. His mode of treatment was a great improvement on all previous instruction, and shone the more brightly, from the contrast. It imparted life and interest to every object, and