Background

Edward Stickney Wood was born on April 28, 1846, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. He was a son of Alfred Wood, a grocer, and Laura (Stickney) Wood. Both the Wood and the Stickney families were among the first settlers of Essex County, Massachusetts, in the early seventeenth century.

Education

Wood prepared for college in the Cambridge schools and graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1867. During the course, he decided on medicine as a profession and showed a particular preference for chemistry.

After serving as a house pupil at both the United States Marine Hospital in Chelsea and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School in 1871.

Career

Wood's appointment to fill a vacancy in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard Medical School, created by the resignation of James Clarke White, turned him toward Biological Chemistry. He first spent six months studying in Berlin and Vienna. Upon his return, Wood began to lecture to the students of the Harvard Medical School, being one of the first in the United States to offer a systematic course in Medical Chemistry. Appointed to a full professorship in 1876, Edward continued as such until his death in 1905. Besides, from 1873 till the end of his life, he also acted as a chemist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Besides his teaching and hospital work, Wood was active in many allied branches of his subject. He served on sanitary commissions for both the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts, reporting on the local water supply and the facilities for gas lighting in Boston. For a number of years, he was a member of the commission, which revised the 1880 issue of the United States Pharmacopoeia.

Moreover, Wood served as a medical expert. In almost all the important murder cases of New England, he was an expert witness, and many were the verdicts, which were rendered on the basis of his honesty and skill.

Wood penned several writings, including "Report on the Sanitary Qualities of the Sudbury, Mystic, Shawsheen and Charles River Waters" (1874), "Arsenic As A Domestic Poison" (1885), and others. Edward also wrote articles on arsenical poisoning and blood stains. Besides, he revised K. T. L. Neubauer and Julius Vogel's "A Guide to the Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Urine" and contributed a number of articles to Francis Wharton and C. J. Stille's "Medical Jurisprudence" (4 vols., 1882-1884) and to R. A. Witthaus and T. C. Becker's "Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology" (4 vols., 1894 - 1896).

Achievements

• As a legal expert in Chemistry, Edward Stickney Wood was considered without peer in the United States, and it was in the capacity of an expert witness in murder trials, that he became best known to the public of his time. His most notable case was the Higgins-Marston murder trial in Denver, Colorado, in 1878. Besides, Wood was a prominent teacher.
  
  It's worth mentioning, that Wood also authored a number writings, the most notable of which include "Report on the Sanitary Qualities of the Sudbury, Mystic, Shawsheen and Charles River Waters" (1874), "Arsenic As A Domestic Poison" (1885), among others.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Guide to the Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Urine: Designed For Physicians, Chemists And Pharmacists

    (This work, originally published by Julius Vogel and Carl ...)

    1863
  • Report on the Sanitary Qualities of the Sudbury, Mystic, Shawsheen and Charles River Waters 1874
  • Arsenic As A Domestic Poison 1885

Religion

Wood was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American Pharmaceutical Association (present-day American Pharmacists Association), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and other scientific bodies.

Personality

An expert witness in murder trials, Wood was just and fair, unshaken by the art or skill of cross-examination. He was described as "calm, unruffled, unconcerned as to the effect his testimony might have upon the jury". A man of the highest character, he was often willing to help the opposing counsel, so confident was he of the finality of his results.

Concerning Dr. Wood as a man, he was a charming personality. He was essentially a democrat in the best sense of the word.

Physical Characteristics: Wood suffered from cancer of the cecum.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Wood had the rare faculty of making a subject, dry by comparison with others, such as surgery, which is capable of more brilliant demonstration, attractive by his method of teaching, resembling in this respect his warm personal friend, the late Oliver Wendell Holmes. He won not only the respect of his students, but also their affection, and none will regret his death more, than those, who have had the rare privilege of having received his instruction. He was most just to all his pupils, and, while he insisted on every man's having a sufficient knowledge of the subject before he could receive his degree, he at the same time exercised a wise and beneficent judgment on the work of each individual man, and he must have been a dull person indeed, who, after listening to Professor Wood's instruction, was unable to meet the requirement of the examination paper. His success as a teacher, as well as an expert, was in large measure due to a characteristic manifest even in his earliest years as a student himself. It would probably be extravagant to say, that Dr. Wood was a genius, but he had that, which counts for more than genius in the long run, a tremendous capacity for work and infinite power of application, an unremitting insistence on taking pains. He never attacked a subject, which he did not master thoroughly. What he knew, he knew. This same thing he endeavored to instill into the minds of his pupils, and there are many now, who have achieved success in their profession because of having followed his example. As a member of the faculty, he was invaluable, and the president of the university held him in the highest regard and relied largely on his advice. He always had the warmest interest in the welfare of the school and was a valuable friend and advisor to its dean. Enthusiastic, but still conservative, his counsel will be sadly missed in the future." - an anonymous writer of the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal"

Connections

Wood was married twice. His first wife was Irene Eldridge (Hills) Wood, whom he married on December 26, 1872. Irene died in 1881, leaving a daughter - Grace. Later, on December 24, 1883, Edward married his second wife - Elizabeth A. (Richardson) Wood. They had no children.

Father:

Alfred Wood

Mother:

Laura (Stickney) Wood

child:

Grace Wood

late wife:

Irene Eldridge (Hills) Wood

Wife:

Elizabeth A. (Richardson) Wood