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in his later life may have debarred him from a close acquaintance with that pressure of facts in regard to the effects of intemperance in our own and other countries, which, with the evidence that the limitation which he urged cannot be anywhere extensively carried out, has brought many cautious minds in our time to conclude, that, to control what seems, next to war, the chief destroyer of modern nations, no prohibition, no personal or general sacrifice can be too great. It may be proper to say here, also, that, in his own way of life, Dr. Wood, while very fond of hospitality, and making his house a favorite social centre, especially for the members of his own profession, was a marked instance of the benefits of that temperance which he so ably defended and enjoined.
Historical composition always had a great attraction for Dr. Wood. In the two volumes of his Memoirs, Lectures and Addresses, published, the one in 1859, and the other in 1872, we find the following papers expressly of that character:
History of Materia Medica; History of Materia Medica in the United States; Sketch of the History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania; History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, delivered at the centennial celebration of its foundation, with a supplement to this, delivered at the laying, in 1856, of the corner-stone of the new Penna. Hospital for the Insane; and a History of Christianity in India.
The last named of these historical memoirs was part
