The year following his graduation Dr. Wistar returned to Philadelphia, a candidate for public confidence. In 1789, he became a trustee of the College of Philadelphia, which had just been resuscitated by the Legislature, and very soon accepted the chair of Chemistry, as is stated by his biographer, Judge Tilghman, in “order to preserve an influence, to be exerted at the proper season, in effecting that arrangement which concentrated the talents of the city upon a single object, and gave just eclat to the labors of the distinguished men who constituted the Medical Faculty of the University.”
From the time that Dr. Wistar assumed the duties of Adjunct Professor of Anatomy, in 1792, he devoted his whole energy and the resources of his well-instructed mind to maintain that important branch—the foundation of all medical knowledge—on the highest level of efficiency; and not only did he sustain himself without detriment to his reputation in contrast with the fair fame of Shippen, but from year to year surpassed himself. To quote the language of a biographer, “as his class increased in numbers, as was annually the case, and he perceived that he was operating on a wider scale, Dr. Wistar felt the responsibilities of his station augmented. He did not, as many are known to do, hold himself privileged to relax into indolence and the enjoyment of comparative ease, because his fame was established and his fortune made. He recognized in that fame, which drew yearly around him a greater crowd of pupils, nothing but an obligation to maintain and augment it by higher exertions and a more efficient discharge of duty.”
“To the elevation, as a teacher, he ultimately attained, his ascent was gradual, not rapid. It was the result of a lifetime of persevering labor, his achievements in the last surpassing those of the preceding year. Had he lived to complete the course of lectures, in the midst of which it was the pleasure of Heaven to terminate his career, it would have been decidedly the most excellent he ever delivered.”[1]
With respect to the mode of instruction adopted by Dr.
- ↑ Eulogium on Caspar Wistar, M. D., Professor of Anatomy, by Charles Caldwell, M. D., before the Philadelphia Medical Society, 1818.
