Page:Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (ser 03 vol 05).djvu/58

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xlviii
LITTELL,

wards, testified their respect and affection for their associate and friend, with a warmth and an unanimity which could not have failed to be highly gratifying. This, his third visit to Europe, involving an absence of two years and three months, and undertaken with primary reference to the health of his wife, was made in company with Mrs. Wood, Miss Duane, and his nephew, Dr. Lehman Wells. On a previous excursion, made in the spring of 1853, he was accompanied by his lifelong friend Dr. Bache; travelled extensively in Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Russia; and kept a journal of his observations and experiences, from which his future biographer will gather much to diversify and enliven his pages.

In 1823,[1] Dr. Wood married Caroline, the only child of Mr. Peter Hahn, a retired merchant of this city, with whom he lived very happily until her lamented death in 1865. She was a lady who had little regard for fashion or gayety, but, like all true women, found her duty and her pleasure in the more congenial sphere of privacy and love. The union was a most fortunate one. It gave to him a kind and sympathizing companion who, while she lightened his lonely labors by her approval and encouragement, shared his triumphs and made his life thenceforward comfortable and happy. The wealth she brought with her enabled him to devote, more lavishly than he could otherwise have done, his own small but steadily increasing resources to the procurement of books, apparatus, botanical gardens, conservatories, and whatever else he might desire, whether for study, or for the greater efficacy and development of his lectures. He is thought to have spent in their illustration, during several years, nearly all the

  1. Wednesday, April 2.