be lost, he published it in 1872, in a volume of Historical and Biographical Memoirs.
In 1847 he published his Treatise on the Practice of Medicine, 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 1848. The sixth edition, pp. 1984, was published in 1867. The aggregate of copies sold up to this time is estimated at 30,000.
In May, 1850, he was elected professor of the theory and practice of medicine and of clinical medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, in place of Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, resigned. During the summer, accompanied by Dr. Joseph Leidy, he visited England, France, Germany, and the northern part of Italy. The fruits of this journey were a large number of drawings of pathological lesions, casts, and models of disease, a quantity of apparatus, and an extensive range of pathological specimens, through the means of which he made his lectures on the practice of medicine eminently demonstrative.[1]
June 10, 1851, at the centennial celebration of its foundation he read his "History of the Pennsylvania Hospital."
In the company of Dr. Franklin Bache he passed the summer of 1853 in Europe.
May 6, 1856, at Detroit, he delivered an address to the American Medical Association of which he had been elected president at the preceding meeting. He was a member of the association from its formation, 1847, and always manifested zealous interest in its great objects, improvement of medical education, increase of the qualification of the members of the profession, and the advancement of medical science.
Oct. 1, 1856, he read his "Historical Sketch of the department of Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane," at the laying of the corner stone of the new building.
In 1856 he published his Treatise on Therapeutics and Pharmacology, two volumes, pp. 1741, 8vo. The third edition, pp. 1848, was issued in 1868. The number of copies sold up to this time is estimated at 10,000.
December, 1859, he published "Introductory Lectures and Addresses on Medical Subjects delivered chiefly before the Medical Classes of the University of Pennsylvania." 8vo. pp. 460.
Having completed the sixty-third year of his life, Dr. Wood determined to relinquish his practice of medicine, which was never very large, and retire. In 1860 he resigned his professorship, and was elected Emeritus Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, a position for which a retired pay should be provided for life instead of being merely complimentary. He had been a professor in the University twenty-five years.
May 6, 1860, a complimentary dinner was given to Dr. George B. Wood, at the Academy of Music, "by a large number of his professional friends, in testimony of their respect and esteem for him personally, and of their estimate of the value of his labours to elevate the character of the profession and to extend the bounds of our science. Certainly, no one in this country has better earned this compliment from his professional brethren."[2]
Dr. Wood went to Europe in the summer of 1860 and returned in 1862. In 1863 he was chosen a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.
At the instigation of Dr. Wood the board of trustees created, April 4, 1865, in connection with the Medical Department of the University, the Auxiliary Faculty of Medicine. The professors receive a salary. It consists of professors of: 1, zoology and comparative anatomy; 2, botany; 3, mineralogy; 4, hygiene; 5, medical jurisprudence and toxicology. Each course consists of at least thirty-
