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ON THE
OCCASION OF THE PRESENTATION
POKTRAIT OF GEORGE  B. WOOD,  M.D.,
     PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND CLINICAL MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY
                 OF PENNSYLVANIA.
WISTAR AND HORNER MUSEUM,

                ON HIS

     RETIREMENT FROM HIS CHAIR,

            March 15, 1860.


                 BY
         J. CAMPBELL SHORB, M. D.,
     ON THE PART OF THE CLASS OP 1859-60,
                 AND
            R. LA ROCHE, M. D.,
  IN REPLY ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OP TRUSTEES.
          PHILADELPHIA:
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET.
                1860. 
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IMATICiV-.l. T.BR&HY OF  MLJ.vJ.wt
     BETHtoOA 14, MD. 
ADDRESS OF J. CAMPBELL SHORB, M.D.
  The Trustees, Medical  Faculty, and Class of Gra-
duates and Students of 1859-60, met in the Anatomical
Lecture-Room of the University  of  Pennsylvania, on
Thursday, March 15, 1860, at 10 o'clock A. M., to par-
ticipate in the presentation of the  portrait of  Prof.
George B. Wood by the class to the Wistar and Horner
Museum,  when Dr. J. Campbell  Shorb, of Maryland,
having been introduced, made the following



                   ADDRESS.

  Gentlemen:  At  an early  period  of the  course of
lectures just  finished, the  rumor was received by the
class that Dr. Wood intended  resigning his Professor-
ship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the
conclusion of the session.  At  first, many deemed such
an  event  improbable,  while others  openly  expressed
their disbelief that such a loss would  visit  the  Uni-
versity ;  but day by day,  the  rumor gained strength; 
4
even the most incredulous  began to be uneasy;  state-
ments from reliable sources reached us, and at last  the
sad truth came clearly out, that we were  listening to
the last lectures that Dr. Wood would ever deliver in
his professorial capacity.
  It is said that blessings—no  matter how dearly che-
rished—brighten when  they take their flight; and this
truth was never better exemplified than by the feelings
of the  class when the unwelcome  tidings came to us,
that in a few short months our cherished and distin-
guished professor would leave us—perhaps forever. We
then began to realize his high position  among the mas-
ter-spirits of medicine, the  lustre he had shed on his
profession, his  popularity at home and abroad, and the
fame his talents had brought to  this, the greatest  medi-
cal school in our country.
  We  began to recognize, in a  stronger light, his won-
derful powers as a  lecturer; his perfect qualities as  a
teacher; the wisdom of his system of instruction;  the
clearness and  completeness  of his definition; his vivid
exposition of disease, in all its varied shapes and forms;
the simple elegance of his style, often eloquence, in de-
scription; the  happy faculty of clearly communicating
his ideas to his hearers, and making every subject easy,
simple, and intelligible to all.   We felt what a calamity
his departure would be to the University, and the diffi-
culty of finding a successor, who by his  talents, labor,
and success, could worthily fill  the chair of the  Theory
and Practice of Medicine, rendered so illustrious by his
great predecessor.   Coupled with our sympathies for the
school of our adoption, in the great loss she was about 
5
to sustain, came the feelings of gratitude to Dr. Wood
for the  numberless benefits he  had conferred upon us
all.
   It was under the promptings of this feeling, that a
meeting was called in the University, on the evening of
29th of Nov.  A preamble was read, expressive of the
deep regret of the  class at the departure of Dr. Wood,
of our lasting gratitude to him, and of our desire that,
as " a  parting legacy," he would allow us  to have  his
portrait painted, and placed in  the Wistar and Horner
Museum.  Resolutions were read and adopted, appoint-
ing a committee to convey to Dr. Wood the wishes of
the class.  In a kind and grateful letter, he granted our
request; the painting was immediately commenced, and
finished some four  or five weeks since.
   The  picture now stands  before you.  Of its artistic
merits, of its truthfulness in delineating those loved and
familiar features, we shall, of course, say nothing.   It
suffices that it meets with the  approbation of its great
original, and with  this are we content.  Our gratitude
has not offered this tribute in the fear that time or ob-
livion would erase from the recollection of the medical
world the name or mighty services of Dr. Wood.  His
name—his genius—is immortalized in his  works, monu-
ments "more lasting than brass," more  durable than
the  lights  and shades on yonder canvas.  We have
offered it, because it is most richly  deserved, by every
claim that moral worth, intellectual splendor, and high-
est professorial distinction, that unremitting zeal for our
happiness  and  success, can have upon our  veneration
and gratitude. 
6
  And now, in behalf of the medical class of 1860, I
present to you the portrait of Dr. George B. Wood, and
request that it be  placed in  the  Wistar  and Horner
Museum, in remembrance of him whose name posterity
will not willingly let die; whose genius the University
will ever love to recollect; whose career has been but a
long series of brilliant successes; whose life is a model;
whose  example is,  in every respect,  most instructive;
and, lastly, as  a token of our deep and life-long grati-
tude. 
REPLY  OF  R. LA  ROCHE,  M.D.
   Gentlemen: As the representative of the Board  of
Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, I rise  to
accept with many thanks  the present you have offered
them, and  to  assure you  that it  shall be deposited  in
the place for which it was designed, and there occupy  as
prominent  and honorable  a position as can be selected.
The hearty approval of ingenuous youth  is an offering
of which the most ambitious may well be proud.  It is
fresh and sincere, and cannot fail  to be received in the
same genial spirit in which it is given.
   Nothing could be more gratifying  to the governing
body of this institution, as also to the faculty and friends
of its medical department, than this testimonial on your
part of warm attachment to, and respect, gratitude, and
admiration for, the individual whose intelligent features
are so vividly reflected from the canvas before us.  They
can never forget that, if henceforth, and for years after
we have all disappeared from the stage of life, the visit-
or to the Wistar and  Horner Museum, while gazing  at
this happy  specimen of artistic  skill, will be enabled  to
call to mind the  long career of usefulness and honor  of
that individual, this benefit is due to the promptings  of 
8
your hearts, and to a correct appreciation, on your part,
of the value of his teachings.
  Nothing could be more acceptable, in every respect,
than the delicate and courteous manner in which the act
of donation has been made and the sentiments expressed
by the member of your body you have so happily dele-
gated as your organ on the occasion.   Especially grati-
fying is it to myself to have been selected by the Board
to acknowledge the pointed mark of distinction  you
are pleased, by your action  in this  matter, to confer
on a  member  of  the  institution  under their charge,
for  it  has reference to one with whom I have  been
bound by the ties of a warm personal  friendship, which,
amid  the excitement of professional life and academic
discussion, has  not experienced the slightest check dur-
ing the long period of forty years or  more, and whose
reputation as a man of  the strictest honor, as a teacher
of medicine, as  a practitioner, and an author, is and has
ever been to me an object of the deepest interest.
  Taking this  into consideration, and bearing  at  the
same time in mind an event which, as  you all know, is
about  to occur in this  school,  you will  readily under-
stand  that the  proceedings in which we are at this
moment engaged present to  myself and colleagues an
admixture of opposing elements—agreeable and grati-
fying feelings, and poignant regrets.   The former derive
their  origin from the fact that, in the presentation of
this portrait of  your respected and admired teacher, in
order  that it may be placed among those of the illus-
trious  men who have so greatly  adorned the medical
faculty, you have paid a high and flattering compliment 
9
to, and conferred a well-merited honor on, one for whom
we  entertain sentiments of the sincerest  and deepest
regard.   The  counterbalancing effect grows out of the
reflection, called up in our minds by the object of this
meeting, that the presentation would probably not have
suggested itself to  the gentlemen composing the class
of the closing session,  were not the medical department
of this  school on the eve of being deprived  of the fur-
ther services of the distinguished professor whose claims
to your and  our  lasting remembrance  have been so
glowingly and feelingly portrayed in your address.
   To you, gentlemen, who have  had the fullest oppor-
tunities, during your long attendance on his lectures, to
appreciate the unusual merits of Dr. Wood as a teacher,
I need scarcely say that by the Board of Trustees, as
indeed by every individual connected with or simply
taking an interest in this institution, his retirement is
and must be viewed as entailing on the medical depart-
ment one of the severest losses it could  sustain.   So far,
indeed, as my individual  opinion is concerned—and  I
know that many others, fully qualified to decide on mat-
ters of the kind, take the same view of the subject—
I have no hesitation in stating that I regard that loss as
 almost irreparable under existing circumstances.
   From the outset of his professorial life, some twenty-
five years ago, Dr. Wood has, and I say it in all sincerity
 and uninfluenced by the desire to play the part of a flat-
 terer, approved himself one of the  brightest ornaments
 this school has ever had cause to boast of from the days
 of its foundation to the present hour. This is not trifling
 praise; for, as regards the special departments he has 
10
 had under his charge—those of the materia medica and
 of the theory and practice of medicine—we can hold up
 to the world with feelings of pride the names of a Rush,
 a Chapman,  a Barton, a Dorsey.  To have been the
 successor of such men, and  to be admitted by universal
 consent not to have suffered in the comparison, is cer-
 tainly indicative of the possession of  powers calculated
 to justify the opinion I have expressed.
  Indeed, I am in no fear of contradiction when I say
 that Dr.  Wood would have  attained a  preeminent posi-
 tion, equal to the one he holds among  us, in  any school
 with which he might have  been connected, whether in
 this country—where he has but few equals—or abroad.
 Men of the same stamp, combining, as he does, all the
 qualifications necessary to a successful discharge of the
 difficult and responsible duties of the chair he occupied,
 are not readily to be found; and it will, I fear, be no
 easy matter to  discover an  individual in every  respect
 worthy of being  his  successor, and likely to fill with
 such entire success the vacancy created  in the  faculty
 by his resignation.
  The task which devolves on the trustees of making
 selection of suitable individuals to fill vacancies occurring
 in the medical faculty is one in the performance of which,
 as will be admitted by all who have some knowledge of
 matters connected with the  government of medical col-
leges, no inconsiderable degree of difficulty is invariably
 encountered.
  In the present instance that difficulty cannot fail, from
the circumstance of the unusual merits of the professor
we are about to lose—the importance of the chair to be 
11
filled and the consciousness that danger might accrue to
the school were Dr. Wood's successor to prove inferior
to his new position—to be in a great measure enhanced.
Postulants for  the. post will, as a matter of course, pre-
sent themselves.  Each will, with no less certainty, think
himself eminently qualified, on every score, to perform
in the most unquestionable  manner the duties  of the
vacated  chair.   Friends in,  and especially out,  of the
ranks of the profession will be found disposed to  urge
the  superior claims to preferment  of their respective
nominees, and  ready to bring all manner  of influences to
bear on  the minds of the trustees in order to effect the
object they have in view.
   I cannot allow myself for a moment  to doubt  that,
from among the number of individuals whose names will
be enrolled on the list of candidates, a fair selection can
be made. So far from this, I feel convinced, that the said
list will clearly indicate that the place in the  gift of
the trustees is sought after by more than one individual
entitled to the favorable opinion of those best able to
pronounce  in  regard  to their intellectual endowments
and scientific  acquirements.   All I wish to impress on
your minds is  that, owing to the reasons mentioned, the
task of  sifting the claims of the various aspirants to an
 office  from which a  professor like  the  original  of that
 fine portrait is about to retire—of steering safely amid
 all  the  external influences from which  none having a
 voice in the decision can hope to escape, and at last of
 selecting from among all the competitors the individual
 least likely to suffer to such a degree by a comparison 
12
with his predecessor  as  to lower the reputation of the
school will be one replete with difficulties.
   Under the influence of  this conviction,  and  fully
alive to the fear that  the hope of finding a person  com-
ing up fully to the standard  set up before us  all by Dr.
Wood may not be easily realized, the Board of Trustees
feel that a heavy responsibility rests upon them—a re-
sponsibility rendered the more serious, from the know-
ledge of the circumstance that, living, as we do, in times
of active competition, it now perhaps  more than  ever
behooves medical colleges — and  ours not  less  than
others—to  seek  every  opportunity of  strengthening
themselves by the selection of men most distinguished
for extensive professional learning, practical experience,
and decided abilities  in the  art of teaching, to say no-
thing of sound sense, courteous and affable manners, and
proper tact and discretion in their intercourse with their
pupils.
   Arduous  and  difficult,  however, as  the  task  may
prove, the Board of Trustees will not be remiss in the
performance of their  duty; and will, as far as in their
power lies, make a selection satisfactory to the students,
who seek instruction among us, and to the profession at
large, and the result of which will be, if not to enhance,
at least to secure, untarnished, the high character the
medical department of this Institution has so  long en-
joyed.
   Most certainly would  the  members of the  Board of
Trustees, in their corporate or private capacity, have en-
deavored to dissuade  Dr. Wood from accomplishing so
early, his intention of retiring from the school. But, influ- 
13
enced by a feeling of delicacy, and fully aware that their
efforts would be  fruitless, they forbore.  He had, as he
thought, ample reasons to conclude that his personal com-
fort and happiness,  and those of objects dear  to him,
could be  more securely attained by relinquishing the
arduous and binding duties he had so conscientiously
and satisfactorily performed in the school during a long
succession of years.  He had  announced, long since,
his intention of retiring before he  should be incapaci-
tated—through the  infirmities of age, or the encroach-
ments  of ill-health—from enjoying  a lengthened visit
to foreign climes. And now the sad hour of separation
is fast  approaching.  With a mind  as clear and grasp-
ing as in the  days of his early manhood; with a body
as yet  but little impaired by the influence of advancing
years;  and with  the consciousness of having reaped all
the honors in the gift of the profession, he calmly closes
his professorial career.   He goes from among us, but not
without carrying  along  with him the best and most sin-
cere wishes of the entire Board of Trustees for the full
realization of  all his earthly aspirations, together with
the parting expression  of their full  appreciation of his
moral worth, of his  high-toned  professional conduct,  of
his exemplary social and domestic virtues, of his gen-
tlemanly and dignified  deportment,  and  of  his elevated
position as an author  of refined taste,  and deep and
accurate knowledge; as, also, of the zeal and intense-
ness of purpose he has always brought into  exercise for
the instruction of his class, of his  unremitting efforts to
raise and maintain, by precept and  example, the status
of the medical profession in  this city and country, and 
14
to uphold the honor and reputation of the school with
which he had so long been connected, and on which he
has  so largely  contributed  to shed  an  imperishable
lustre.
   In closing this brief, and, I  fear, imperfect reply, to
the considerate and feeling address with which we have
been favored, I must be permitted to congratulate  you
all, gentlemen, for the high character of the class during
the past  session.  In like manner must I  congratulate
those among you who are this day to receive the honors
of the doctorate, for the distinguished manner in which
they have passed the ordeal  of their examinations.   I
but repeat what has been reported to me by your pre-
ceptors, when I say, with the view that the fact may be
widely spread, that seldom has  this school had occasion
to boast of so intelligent and attentive a class, and of a
set of graduates so well  calculated to do full credit to
their Alma Mater. 
REMARKS OF  GEORGE B. WOOD, M.D.
  Dr. Wood made in substance the following remarks:
  " I have prepared no written address on this occasion,
and should be pleased could I be allowed to be  a silent
spectator; but,  under the circumstances, I feel called
upon to  say a  few words,  such as the occasion may
prompt, to thank you for this proof of your kind feel-
ings towards me.
  "When the  heart is  full,  it is  not  always  easy to
command either our thoughts or the expression of them;
and I am at a loss for words to say how much I am af-
fected by your estimation of my character and services.
I do not, however, wish it to be supposed that I consider
myself entitled  to the commendation  which has been
bestowed upon me.  I  am well aware of how much
allowance must be made, in reference to the sentiments
of the class so  glowingly expressed by their eloquent
representative, for the warm  and generous feelings of
youth, and  in  reference to the approving remarks of
the gentleman  who  spoke last, for the natural exag-
gerations of a  friendship so  long  and so  intimate as
that which has existed between him and myself.  Yet,
I will not deny that I have done much hard work in the 
16
course of my life, and  that, in  doing it, I have  endea-
voured to be guided by a sense of duty, and to  aim at
objects higher than those of a  purely selfish character.
Perhaps I may be allowed  to draw from my experience
a lesson, which may not be without its  value  to  the
younger among my hearers.  One of the highest grati-
fications  of my whole life, whether in  its progress,
or in a retrospect of the  past, has  been that  derived
from labour in the accomplishment of what I conceived
to be useful ends.   Let  me, therefore, impress  on you
the importance to  your own happiness,  even  in this
world, of engaging  energetically in useful labour, such
as may be in accordance with your convictions of duty.
Twenty years hence, should you follow this advice, you
will, I confidently assure you, rejoice in having preferred
a life of hard work directed towards noble objects, to
one of idleness or self-indulgence.
  " But I cannot leave this subject, after listening to
the flattering compliments lavished on me, without con-
fessing to you that I am conscious of many and great
deficiencies; that I have let many opportunities of being
useful escape, of which I ought to have  availed myself;
that I have  left undone many things which I ought to
have done, and, I fear, have done not a few things which
would have been better left undone ; that, in fine, in my
course of life there has been much occasion for forgive-
ness from that Being, from whom alone forgiveness can
come.
  " To turn to the portrait which is the  occasion of the
present meeting, I cannot but feel very highly gratified
by knowing that it is  to be placed by the side  of the 
17
 portraits of those great men who founded and have sup-
 ported this school, that, whenever you or your succes-
 sors may walk through the  splendid museum in which
 it is to be deposited, my remembrance will be called up
 in the  mind in  association with that of my illustrious
 predecessors.   But, my friends, in a comparatively short
 period of time, the  colours of these  pictures will fade;
 in a few centuries  the canvas itself will probably fall
 into dust, and perhaps the very names of these eminent
 persons may exist no longer in the memory of man.
 One recollection, however, will remain.  The impression
 made upon  my heart by your kindness will continue, I
 assure you,  unimpaired throughout what may be spared
 to me of life;  and, when life is passed, I sincerely hope
 that I may be permitted to bear it with me into eternity.
   " Allow me once  more most heartily to thank you,
 and to offer my sincere wish that you may enjoy long
and prosperous lives, that  all your just hopes may be
realized, and all your noble aspirations gratified.  Fare-
well."