Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/631

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WOOD
WOOD

the authorities appointed him prefect of dis- cipline. After his ordination in 1844 he returned to Cincinnati, w/here he acted as assistant rector in the cathedral for ten years, arid in 1854 he was appointed to the pastorate of St. Patrick's. In 1857 he was con- secrated bishop of Gratianopolis in partibus,and after- ward he was trans- ferred to Philadel- phia, his native city, where he was to act as coadjutor to Bishop Neu- mann with the right of succes- sion. The Phila- delphia diocese at that time had hastily undertak- en more than it

seemed likely to

be able to accomplish, and financial difficulties were producing apathy. Many institutions for religion, education, and benevolence, a magnificent cathedral among the number, had been begun, but their expense, so far cheerfully borne, was beginning to be severely felt by the Roman Catholic population. As a con- sequence, many of the buildings had been stopped altogether, and the others were advancing in a slow and half-hearted way. But from the moment of Bishop Wood's arrival things began to improve. Instead of waiting for the completion of the cathe- dral to form its parish, he called a very strong one into instant existence by simply erecting a large but inexpensive cathedral chapel, thus securing immediate and permanent financial aid, which he then gradually augmented by general collections. Bishop Neumann dying in I860,' his successor could devote himself with still greater efficiency to the wants of the diocese. The cathedral was hardly finished in 1864 when the foundation was laid at Overbrook of the Seminary of St. Charles, the cost of which, $500,000, was fully justified by the de- mands for pastors that were made by new churches. Many other institutions — educational, charitable, or religious — were either auspiciously begun or brought to a successful issue during his administra- tion. He was taken away from his ordinary duties three times by orders to present himself at Rome — in 1862 to assist at the canonization of the Japanese martyrs, in 1867 to celebrate the 1800th anniver- sary of St. Peter and St. Paul, and in 1869 to take active part at the Vatican council. In 1871, the flourishing state of the diocese making a division necessary, several episcopal districts were formed, over which he was created archbishop in 1875. In 1880 he assisted at the Baltimore provincial coun- cil, and in 1882 the twenty-fifth anniversary of his elevation to the bishopric was celebrated en- thusiastically. His health was now feeble, yet he allowed himself little or no relaxation from his numerous duties. Among his favorite projects had been that of providing the cathedral with a grand altar, decorating the interior in befitting style, and then paying off the debt. Most of this he had successfully accomplished when death put a sudden end to his labors. He was noted for his knowledge of sanitary laws as applicable to the con- struction of new buildings, and no Roman Catholic institution was erected without this subject re- ceiving his careful consideration. He was espe- cially hostile to the introduction of political issues from other countries into the United States, and the stand he took on this question sometimes cre- ated discontent among his flock.


WOOD, James Rushmore, surgeon, b. in Ma- maroneck. Westchester co., N. Y., 14 Sept., 1816 ; d. in New York city, 4 May, 1882. He was the son of a Quaker merchant. After studying medicine in New York city, and at the Castleton, Vt., medical college, he was graduated at the latter institution in 1834,and appointed demonstrator of anatomy. Soon afterward he began the practice of medicine in his native city, and in 1847 he became a member of the medical board of Bellevue hospital, New York. At that time this institution was a receptacle for lunatics, paupers, criminals, and other victims of a depraved life. The most rudimentary hygienic laws were grossly violated in its management, and the nursing was inefficient and untrustworthy. With the assistance of Morris Franklin, president of the board of aldermen, Dr. Wood set about re- forming this state of things, and labored so suc- cessfully that he soon reduced the annual death- rate by 600. He also made all the post-mortem examinations, amounting to many hundreds yearly, established Saturday surgical clinics, and founded the Wood prize for the best anatomical dissection. In 1847 Dr. Wood began to collect material, with the intention of founding a museum, and this col- lection, together with the accumulated specimens of twenty years' practice, he presented in 1856 to the commissioners of public charities and correc- tions. This, with later additions, constitutes the " Wood museum," which Dr. Willard Parker has styled "the grandest monument ever erected to any surgeon in this country." In 1857 Dr. Wood was mainly instrumental in procuring the passage by the legislature of the dissecting bill, which provided that the bodies of all unclaimed vagrants should be given for dissection to the institutions in which medicine and surgery are taught. It took four years to secure the enactment of this law, and so great was the public prejudice against it that it finally passed by only one majority. In 1861 Dr. Wood, in association with many physicians and surgeons of the metropolis, and under the auspices of the almshouse commissioners, founded Bellevue hospital medical college. The same year he was called to occupy the chair of operative surgery and surgical pathology in that institution, which he held until his death, being made professor emeritus in 1868. Dr. Wood paid especial attention to the bones and their growth, and succeeded in establishing beyond dispute the fact of a second growth of bone by separating the periosteum from the necrosed bone and carefully enucleating it. In his anatomical and pathological museum he had on exhibition an entire jaw that he had removed for phosphor-necrosis, and also a second jaw that had attached itself to the skull of a patient who had been operated upon and had subsequently died of another disease. In fact, he had specimens to show the reproduction of almost every bone in the human body. Among his other successful operations were the tying of both carotids in the same patient for malignant disease of the antrum, placing the ligature on the subclavian on several occasions, and tying the external iliac artery. Dr. Wood was also surgeon to St. Vincent's hospital and to the New York ophthalmic dispensary. He was a member of many medical and other learned associations, and twice president of the New York pathological society. Besides papers on " Strangulated Hernia " (1845), "Spontaneous Dislocation of the Head of the Femur into the Ischiatic Notch" (1847), and «1 essay on " Medical Education "' (1848), he pub-