Page:Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (ser 03 vol 05).djvu/57

Rh always ready to aid young men in their pursuits, and to resolve for them any difficulties they might meet with. A gentleman now occupying very creditably one of the chairs once tilled by him in the College of Pharmacy, had, when just entering upon his honorable career, occasion to consult him on some point pertaining to his studies. The answer of Dr. Wood was a long letter, giving in full detail the information desired, and almost overwhelming the recipient with the sense of his kindness and condescension.

Dr. Wood retained the professorship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine for the space of ten years, from 1850 to 1860; when he abdicated the chair; and thenceforward, though the willing slave of his own exacting temperament, was free in a great measure from the trammels and exigencies of official station. There were no reasons for his resignation, other than his own desire and the limitation which he had imposed upon himself. He was in the full tide of an unprecedented popularity, his mental faculties preserved all their vigor, and he retained unimpaired his fondness and capacity for application and research. He had reached the summit of his professional ambition, distinguishing himself in every stage of his progress; and there was nothing of satisfaction to himself, or peculiar benefit to the public, to be gained by the longer occupancy of the chair. The University honored itself, and showed its estimation of his invaluable services, by conferring on him the title of Emeritus Professor, and by electing him to be one of its trustees—the College of New Jersey having given him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws several years before—while his medical brethren, gathering around him in a public dinner which they tendered to him on the eve of his departure for Europe a few months