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$>     THE  MEMORY   OF  THE  LATE
&■?
CASPAR  WISTAB,  M.D.
j^Profrssor of Anatomy, *c. to the University of Pennsylvania, President of the

      rican Philosophical Society for tha Promotion of Useful Knowledge, &c
             BT HIS FRIEJTD,


       DAVI1> HOSACK, M. D.


Pnfemr, *c. in the University of tits State tfNem- York
'niUIVMBD JKTHB HALLOF TE* COLLIOS 0» rHYSlClAHS AND SUROXOIU, JAN. 26, I8I8.4
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TRIBUTE
TO
THE   MEMORY  OF  THE   LATE
            CASPAR WISTAR,  M.D.

Professor of Anatomy, &c.  in the University of Pennsylvania, President of the Ame-
     rican Philosophical Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, <tr.
              BY HIS FRIEND,

       DAVID HOSACK, M. D.

Professor, fyc. in the University of the State of New-York.

HELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, JAN. 26, 1818.
               NEW-YORK,:

Printed by C. S. Van Winkle, Printer to the University,
            No. 101 Greenwich-street,

                   1818.
 
<- 
At a meeting of the Students of the College of Physicians  and Sur-
  geons of the University of the State of New-York, held in the Col-
  lege-Hall, Saturday, 24th January,  1818, Mr. Owen, of Tenessee,
  Chairman, Mr.  Sheldon, Secretary:

  Resolved, That we have received with the deepest regret, the intel-
ligence of the death of that distinguished ornament of our profession,
Dr. Wistar, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania.

  Resolved, That Professor Hosack be requested to deliver an eulogy
on the occasion, and that Messrs. T.  Fortier, J.  Smith, andL. C. Beck,
be appointed a committee to wait upon him for that  purpose.

  Resolved, That the usual badge of mourning be worn for  30 days.

                                          R. Owen, Chairman.
    E. Sheldon,  Secretary.
 At a meeting of the Students of the College of Physicians  and Sur-
   geons of the University of the  State of New-York, held on  Monday,
   January 26th, 1818, Mr. Owen, Chairman, Mr. Sheldon, Secretary:

   Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to Profes-
sor Hosack for the eloquent address delivered by him, this day,  upon the
character, and public services of the late Dr. Wistar, Professor of Ana-
tomy in the  University of Pennsylvania, and that he  be respectfully
solicited to furnish a copy thereof, for publication.

  Resolved, That the standing committee wait on Professor  Hosack,
with a copy of this resolution. 
To Messrs.
          T. FORTIER, J. SMITH, AND L. C. BECK,

                          Committee

Gentlemen,
           I comply with the request which your kindness has dicta-
ted, trusting, that the short period of time that has been allotted me for
the performance of this duty, will furnish an apology for the errors and
defects that will, under existing circumstances, be inseparable from an
exercise of this nature.
                 I am, gentlemen,
                     with sentiments of regard,
                           your obedient servant,
                                         DAVID HOSACK.
  New-York, January 26,1818. 
TRIBUTE,  &c.
Gentlemen, Students of Medicine,

     Before I enter upon this day's discourse, allow
me, in compliance with your request, and in the indul-
gence of those feelings, which a long and uninterrupt-
ed friendship has produced, to call your attention for
a few moments to the painful subject that suspended
our exercises on the day of our  last meeting.*  By
the death of the celebrated professor, whose loss we
lament, not only the city of Philadelphia, the scene
  * Professor Wistar died in Philadelphia on  the morning of the
22d of January, 1818; the afflicting  intelligence  of his decease
reached New-York on Saturday morning, the 24th. 
                         6
of his labours and usefulness, not only the university
of Pennsylvania, of which he was a distinguished mem-
ber, have reason to mourn;  but his loss is one of a
national  character,  in  which we  all participate, and
which will be lamented in every part of our land, to
which the benefits of medical education have been ex-
tended : for there are comparatively few of the phy-
sicians of our country, at  this time in the practice of
their profession, who have not been  indebted to him
for  their instruction  in  that department of medical
education, in which  he  so eminently excelled.

  Although we are not permitted to join in the solemn
assembly, that will this  day be convened to attend his
remains to the tomb, let us unite with his numerous
friends in the indulgence of those painful  feelings
which his premature and unexpected death has occa-
sioned, and call to our remembrance some of the most
important events of his life, some of the great features
of his character, that have given value to his name, and
reflected honour upon our country.  Such, and so nu-
merous were his virtues, so extensive were his litera- 
                        7
ry and professional attainments, and so distinguished
was his career of usefulness, that we are naturally led
to trace the progress of that  mind, that has been ca-
pable of effecting so much for  the benefit of his fellow
men.

   Dr. Caspar Wistar was a native of that city, which
he adorned by his learning, and enriched by his la-
bours : he was born in  the  year 1760:  his  parents
were of German extraction, and belonged to the soci-
ety of friends, of which they were highly respected
members.

   Dr. Wistar received his elementary education at the
celebrated grammar school  that had been originally
established in  the city of Philadelphia, by William
Penn.  At that seminary he received an excellent
English and classical education,  the institution  being
at that time under the direction of Mr. John Thomp-
son, an eminent scholar, and  very able teacher of the
Latin and Greek languages, and now a respectable
merchant in  the city of  Philadelphia.   With the pre-
paratory knowledge thus acquired, young Wistar re- 
                         8
 solved to study  medicine as  the  business of his fu-
 ture life: for this  purpose he entered as a private
 pupil of the late  Dr.  John Redman, then one  of the
 most eminent practitioners of physic in the city of Phi-
 ladelphia.  While he was thus acquiring the advan-
 tages of much practical information in the office of his
 preceptor, he also diligently availed himself of  every
 opportunity of instruction that his  native city then
 afforded, by attendance upon the medical lectures of
 Drs. Morgan,  Shippen, Rush,  and Kuhn.

  Stimulated  by the success  and distinction  which
those eminent teachers and practitioners of medicine
had derived from  a visit to Europe, and an attendance
upon the celebrated schools of Leyden, Edinburgh,
 and London; always  animated by the desire of  ex-
celling in whatever he undertook, and  of rendering:
himself most useful  in his profession, he proceeded to
Europe for the purpose of improving his acquisitions
in medicine,  and of extending  his researches in those
branches of science which are  most nearly connected
 with it, and in which he afterwards  excelled. 
                         9
   In the spring of 1784, shortly after  his departure
for Europe, the trustees of the medical  school of Phi-
ladelphia, as an evidence of his attainments in his pro-
fessional studies, conferred upon him  the degree of
Bachelor of Medicine.

   At the university of Edinburgh he was distinguished
for the same assiduity, correct moral deportment, and
retiring modest demeanour, that characterized  him in
every period of his life, and which, young gentlemen,
permit me to add, you will ever find to be the sure
and never failing passports to distinction and  useful-
ness.

   Such, too, was the impression made  at that early
period of  his life, upon his friends in the  universi-
ty of Edinburgh, that his name was ever afterwards
mentioned  in  terms of   the warmest  regard  and
respect.  The impression which was thus made upon
my mind, by the affectionate language in which he was
spoken of by the late celebrated divine, Dr.  Erskine,
the  present eminent  physician  of  that city,  Dr.
Charles Stuart, and  by the elder Professor  Duncan,
                       2 
                        10
in all of whose families he had been domesticated,
can never be erased.

   In 1786 he was graduated a doctor of medicine at
the university  of Edinburgh : upon that occasion he
published and defended a Thesis, " de animo demisso"
to which subject his attention was probably directed
by the feelings that constantly found a residence in his
own sensitive bosom.

   In February, 1787, after an absence of nearly four
years, Dr. Wistar returned to Philadelphia, instructed
in every branch of medicine, and the physical sciences
with which  jt is most intimately associated: he  was
accordingly  prepared to fill any  station, in  which his
services might be called for, either  as  a practitioner,
or as a teacher of medicine.

   The  first testimony borne to his merits by his fel-
low citizens  upon his return to his native country was,
his appointment as a  physician  to the Philadelphia
Dispensary, which  had been  established in the pre-
ceding year. 
                         Jl
    About that period, the medical school attached to
 the University of Pennsylvania, and an association de-
 nominated the  College of Philadelphia, were rival in-
 stitutions.

    The  physicians  of  that metropolis became early
 acquainted with the  professional merit and erudition
 of their new associate; he was accordingly invited
 to the professorship of Chemistry and  Physiology,
 in the " College of  Philadelphia."  This station he
 accepted,  and immediately entered upon the duties
 assigned him.

   As a teacher, he at once evinced those great qua-
 lifications, by which he was afterwards distinguished.
 The same fluency of  utterance,  the unaffected ease
 and simplicity of manner, the  perspicuity of expres-
 sion, the animation  and earnestness  arising from the
 conviction of the truths he  was delivering, as well as
 the desire  of impressing them upon the minds of his
 pupils, and the readiness  with which he summoned
and applied the numerous and varied resources  of his
mind, which many of  you, now in my hearing, have 
                        12
 had an opportunity of witnessing,  Dr. Wistar  dis-
 played in  a most  remarkable  manner, in the  first
 lessons he  delivered in the then college of Philadel-
 phia,

  Although his labours greatly contributed to the re-
 putation of the school with which he was connected,
 as soon as  a favourable moment for conciliation pre-
sented itself, with his characteristic amiable and be-
nevolent temper, he evinced the most ardent desire to
see the conflict terminated, and the two schools united.
Let me add, that chiefly by his instrumentality and dis-
 interested  exertions, that very important object  was
accomplished.

  Upon the consolidation of the two rival schools, Dr.
 Wistar was associated with  the late celebrated Dr.
William Shippen, as an adjunct professor of anatomy
 and surgery in the University of Pennsylvania.

  I need not say how much his exertions, united with
 those of his colleagues, have  contributed to elevate
 that medical school to its present high distinction. 
                        13
  The benefits derived from  the labours of Doctor
Wistar are too well known and appreciated to require
notice on this  occasion.   His transcendant merits as a
teacher have left an impression upon those who have
had  the  pleasure of hearing his  lectures,  that can
never be forgotten.  Such were his fascinating pow-
ers of description,  that even  upon  those subjects that
are usually considered as an uninviting part of a course
of anatomical lectures,  the attention of his hearers
was ever awakened, and  unremitting; even  in  the
demonstration of a muscle or a bone, his views were
those of the philosopher  as well as of the anatomist.

   But the  university of Pennsylvania was not the only
scene of his usefulness.   Shortly  after his return to
his native city, he became extensively engaged in the
practice of physic and surgery.   In the latter branch
he was  initiated under the immediate friendship and
patronage of the late Dr. John Jones, then the most
distinguished  surgeon of the city of Philadelphia, as
he had been of the  American army during the revolu-
tionary war. 
                         14
   Dr. Jones, knowing the  modest merit of young
 Wistar; knowing too that he had been well instructed
 in  the  principles  of surgery,  as well as  the  other
 branches of medicine, took an early opportunity of in-
 troducing him to the citizens of Philadelphia  as an
 operating surgeon.

   Dr. Jones having occasion to perform an important
 operation, invited Dr. Wistar to accompany him ;  when
 the patient  was prepared, Dr. Jones, addressing Dr.
 Wistar, as  having better sight  than himself, at  the
 same time presenting him  his knife, requested it as a
 favour that he would  perform the  operation.   Dr.
 Wistar  immediately  complied, and such was the skill
 and  success with which it was performed, that  it at
 once introduced him to the confidence of his fellow-
 citizens.   The delicate manner  in which  this un-
 expected  compliment was paid to the talents of Dr.
 Wistar, was not lost upon his  feeling and grateful
heart; he ever after acknowledged the patronage of
his benefactor by every act of kindness in his power,
and by the unceasing expressions of filial affection. 
                        15
  Dr. Wistar was also very early elected one of the
surgeons  of the Pennsylvania hospital, where he en-
joyed the opportunity of illustrating, at the bed side,
the principles of practice which he taught from the
desk of the university: and permit me here to remark,
that his views  were not confined to the  mechanical
or operative part of his profession; but, following the
example of a Kirkland, a Pott, a Cruikshank, a Hun-
ter, and an Abernethy, his survey of the disease ever
embraced a regard for  those general principles, upon
which alone that art can be successfully practised.

   Dr. Wistar was too much engaged in the practical
duties of his profession to enjoy leisure sufficient for
extensive literary undertakings.  The writings, how-
ever, which he has left, are of a nature and  character
which cause us  to regret they are not more numer-
ous.   Duting the  prevalence of the yellow fever in
Philadelphia, in  1793,  and  in subsequent  years, he
was an active  partaker in the scenes of calamity that
desolated that city; and in the Transactions of the
College of Physicians  of Philadelphia, you will find
 several  interesting notices by him,  on the peculiar 
                         16
 character  of that  fatal  epidemic.   The System of
 Anatomy, which he originally designed and published
 as a text-book for his class, is familiarly known to you
 all.   In every page of that  work, whether we view
 him as  an anatomist, or as the enlightened and pro-
 found physiologist, the author shows how competent
 he was for the important office he assumed.   He also
 enriched the Transactions of the American Philosophi-
 cal Society with  several interesting  memoirs, and in
 the volume  of this  learned  association  now in  the
 press, and about to appear, he has drawn up with
 great fidelity,  a circumstantial account of the life and
 labours of his  late colleague, Dr. William Shippen.

   As a  literary character,  few men held a more ele-
 vated rank, in the estimation of all to whom he was
 known,  than  Dr.  Wistar.   Beside those  branches of
 science  more  immediately  connected with the medi-
cal profession, as far as  his  duties as a  practitioner
permitted, he cultivated, with great industry and suc-
cess,  almost every  department  of  literature.   His
house was the weekly resort of the literati of the city
of Philadelphia, and at his hospitable board the learn- 
                        17
ed  stranger from every part of the world, of every
tongue and nation, received a cordial welcome.  His
urbanity, his pleasing and instructive conversation, his
peculiar talent in discerning and displaying the  cha-
racteristic merits or acquirements of those with whom
he  conversed, will be remembered  with pleasure by
all  who  have ever enjoyed his  society and conversa-
tion.

  In  1815 he was  elected  an  Honorary member of
the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York;
and, as an evidence of the high estimation in which he
was held, both for his learning and  his private worth,
I may add, that when the presidency of the American
Philosophical  Society for Promoting Useful Know-
ledge, was vacated in 1816, Dr. Wistar, by an unani-
mous  suffrage, was  elected  to  fill  that honourable
station :  honourable, having been  previously occu-
pied only by  his illustrious predecessors, a Franklin,
a Rittenhouse, and a Jefferson.
FINIS. 
 
Mti. Hist.
  116
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