Tilghman thus describes the chief characteristics of Wistar:
"The understanding of Wistar was rather strong than brilliant. Truth was its object. His mind was patient of labor, curious in research, clear, although not rapid in perception, and sure in judgment. What is gained with toil is not easily lost."
He died in Philadelphia, January 22, 1818.
Wistar's memory is splendidly perpetuated by the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, established in Philadelphia by Gen. Wistar, and in the corallorhiza Wistareana, the Wistaria frutescens, the well-known and beautiful vine Wistaria named after the doctor by his friend Nuttall, the botanist.
Withington, Charles Francis (1852–1917)
Charles Francis Withington, Boston physician, died in Boston, January 7, 1917. He was born in Brookline, August 21, 1852, the son of Otis and Lucy Jenckes Withington.
His ancestry was identified with the development of New England life, being to a considerable extent of the Puritan strain, with several marriages into the Pilgrim stock. At least four came on the Mayflower on her first voyage, one of whom, John Howland, is spoken of as the "lusty young man" who was rescued from drowning by his agility in grasping a rope when he fell overboard.
John, a son of Richard, commander of a company in Sir William Phipps' Expedition against Quebec in 1690, was the grandfather of Samuel, a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. Enos, the son of Samuel, built a house in Brookline, where Otis and his son, Dr. Charles F. Withington, were born.
After a boyhood spent in Brookline, Dr. Withington entered Harvard College in 1870, graduating four years later with the degree A. B. cum laude, ranking fourth in his class. His work secured a detur and second year honors in the classics, and he read a commencement part on graduating. While in college he was a member of the Pi Eta and Phi Beta Kappa societies. Whenever it was possible, the joint festivities of the societies and the commencement exercises always drew him to Cambridge.
After leaving college he taught for one year in the Brookline High School, and the two succeeding years in the Roxbury Latin School, becoming a trustee of the latter a few years later, and serving as secretary of this board for twenty-five years.
In 1877 he entered the Harvard Medical School and became a member of the Boylston Medical Society, acting as its secretary. He read a prize essay before this Society, under the title of "The Pupil as a Therapeutic Guide." He received the degree of M. D. in 1891, having served as medical interne in the Boston City Hospital, and the following year was assistant to the superintendent. He began independent practice in Roxbury immediately after leaving the hospital, continuing there until 1902, when he moved to 35 Bay State Road, where he worked until incapacitated.
Although deeply interested in, and loyal to his patients, Dr. Withington enjoyed the study of the deeper problems of his profession, and took keen interest in the critical review of medical literature.
Immediately after entering upon practice, he joined the editorial staff of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. His reviews, editorials and other contributions were not only logical and scientific, but permeated with an individuality which lent an added charm. His more notable contributions were entitled: "Consanguineous Marriages" (Transactions Massachusetts Medical Society, 1885), "The Relations of Hospitals to Medical Education" (Boylston Prize Essay), "An Inquiry into the Transmission of Contagious Diseases through the Medium of Rags" (Report Massachusetts Board of Health, 1887) and several articles in Wood's Handbook of the Medical Sciences (1886–8).
In 1891, desiring to study bacteriology, he went abroad, and later being joined by his family, the winter of 1892–3 was spent largely in Berlin, where he matriculated in the University. The following year he was made instructor in clinical medicine at the Harvard Medical School, retaining this office until he resigned in 1905. In 1912 he was appointed lecturer in the Graduate School of Medicine.
Early in his practice, he served as physician to the Out-Patient Department at the City Hospital, securing the appointment on the visiting staff in 1892, which he held until 1915, when he was appointed consulting physician.
An interesting fact may be noted in calling attention to the first use of diphtheria antitoxin in the Boston City Hospital, which was in his service, on December 12, 1894. (See Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, cxxxii, No. 11, pp. 249–260.)
