Background

George Bacon Wood was born on March 13, 1797, in Greenwich, New Jersey, United States. He was a son of Richard Wood and Elizabeth (Bacon) Wood. George's father was a prosperous Quaker farmer, a descendant of Richard Wood, who emigrated from England to Philadelphia in 1682.

Education

Wood graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1815. Shortly thereafter, he began to "read medicine" with Dr. Joseph Parrish and then entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1818.

Career

In his early years, Wood Almost at once entered upon a remarkable career as a practitioner, educator, and author, in which he became a leader of the medical profession not only in the city of Philadelphia, where he made his home but throughout America. In 1821, he was hired as Chair of Materia Medica at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (present-day the University of the Sciences). The following year, in 1822, George was made a professor of Chemistry at the same educational establishment, where, in 1831, he was appointed a professor of Materia Medica. Resigning from the College of Pharmacy in 1835, George became a professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and, in 1850, became a professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. He retired in 1860 as a professor emeritus.

From 1835 to 1859, Wood served as an attending physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1848, he was elected president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and continued working in that position until his death in 1879, making his administration the longest in the history of the organization.

In addition, from 1850 to 1860, Wood was chairman of the national committee for the revision of the United States Pharmacopeia. Beginning in 1863 until his death, Wood was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and from 1874, he acted as the first and only president of the board of managers of the university hospital.

Moreover, during his career, Wood was a voluminous writer, frequently working until four o'clock in the morning. Together with his intimate friend, Dr. Franklin Bache, he compiled a monumental work, "The Dispensatory of the United States" (1833), which went through many editions, greatly supplemented and enlarged. His other works included "The History Of The University Of Pennsylvania: From Its Origin To The Year 1827" (1834), "Treatise on the Practice of Medicine" (1847), which ran through a number of editions as well, "A Biographical Memoir of Samuel George Morton" (1853), "Treatise on Therapeutics and Pharmacology or Materia Medica" (1856), "Biographical Memoir of the Late Franklin Bache, M.D." (1865), among others.

It's worth mentioning, that, upon his death, in addition to his collections of specimens, charts and models (on which he had spent some $20,000) and all his medicinal plants, with $5,000 for the establishment of a botanical garden and conservatory, Wood left to the University of Pennsylvania $50,000 to maintain a department auxiliary to medicine, which he had founded and himself maintained at a personal expenditure of $2,500 annually from 1865 to 1879. To the university hospital, he left $75,000 to establish the Peter Hahn ward. From 1866 until his death, George also made an annual contribution of $500 to the College of Physicians on the condition, that the library should be open daily. His bequest of $10,000 was designed to constitute a permanent fund for this purpose. At the time of his death, Wood also canceled a mortgage of $5,000, which he held on the building of the College of Physicians, and gave it all the medical books in his library, copies of which were not already in its possession.

Achievements

• George Bacon Wood was a renowned physician, writer, professor of Materia Medica and Chemistry, who held the post of the chair of Materia Medica at the present-day University of the Sciences and also taught at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Moreover, in 1865, he endowed chairs to create the Auxiliary Faculty of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  During his lifetime, Wood also won an enviable reputation as an author and lecturer. He authored a number of writings, the most notable of which include "The Dispensatory of the United States" (1833) and "A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine" (1847).
  
  Besides, Geoge gained prominence as president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the American Medical Association.

Works

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• book

  • The History Of The University Of Pennsylvania: From Its Origin To The Year 1827 1834
  • A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine 1847
  • A Treatise On Therapeutics and Pharmacology Or Materia Medica 1856
  • Biographical Memoir of the Late Franklin Bache, M.D. 1865
  • A Biographical Memoir of Samuel George Morton 1853

• Other Work

  • The Dispensatory of the United States of America 1833

Religion

Wood belonged to the Society of Friends until his marriage to Caroline (Hahn) Wood on April 2, 1823.

Membership

• 

  president

  American Philosophical Society , United States

  1859 - 1879

• president

  American Medical Association , United States

  1855 - 1856

Personality

Wood was a man of great personal charm and power. He was a vigorous, dominating and quick-tempered man. His aristocratic disposition may be judged from his remark to his nephew, Horatio Charles Wood: "Horatio, I would have thee know, that I never have and never will demean myself by riding in a street car. When I ride, I ride in my carriage."

In general, Wood was a man of many interests and accomplishments. He traveled extensively in the United States and made three trips to Europe, including one of two years duration from 1860 to 1862.

Connections

Wood married Caroline (Hahn) Wood, a wealthy woman from a Lutheran family, on April 2, 1823. As she was not a Quaker, Wood married "out of meeting", which resulted in separating him from the Society of Friends. Caroline died during the 1860's. The couple had no children.

Father:

Richard Wood

Mother:

Elizabeth (Bacon) Wood

late wife:

Caroline (Hahn) Wood

nephew:

Horatio C. Wood Jr.

mentor:

Joseph Parrish

Friend:

Franklin Bache