George Bacon Wood (March 13, 1797 – March 30, 1879) was an American physician, professor, and writer from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. A native of Greenwich, New Jersey, Wood was educated at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, from which he received his medical degree in 1818. Four years later he became professor of chemistry in the

Philadelphia College of Pharmacy Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1 ...

, and in 1821 took the chair of materia medica in the same institution, which he resigned in 1835 to accept the same branch in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1850, having been continuously connected with the latter institution in the position mentioned, he was elected professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the same school, and upon his resigning, in 1860, he was unanimously appointed emeritus professor of the theory and practice of medicine. In 1863 he was made a member of the board of trustees of the university, and in 1865 he instituted and endowed the summer school with an auxiliary faculty, authorized to confer the degree of doctor of philosophy. He was physician to the

Pennsylvania Hospital Pennsylvania Hospital is a private, non-profit, 515-bed teaching hospital located in Center City Philadelphia and is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Founded on May 11, 1751, by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond, Pennsyl ...

for twenty-four years (1835–59), and was a member of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania for about the same period. At the time of his death he was president of the

College of Physicians of Philadelphia The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is the oldest private medical society in the United States. Founded in 1787 by 24 Philadelphia physicians "to advance the Science of Medicine, and thereby lessen human misery, by investigating the disease ...

, and president of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(elected in 1829). He was a member of a number of other societies, and had been president of the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's sta ...

. During the last four years he had been an invalid and confined to his house, the last two years being unable to leave his couch. He is buried in the South segment (Section 10, Lot 14 to 17) of

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

, Philadelphia. Wood contributed frequently to medical literature, but his reputation as a writer is chiefly based upon his ''Treatise on Practice'', published in 1847, which ran through six editions, the last being in 1867. Previous to this work, however, he had, with the Dr.

Franklin Bache Franklin Bache ( – ) was an American physician, chemist, professor and writer from Pennsylvania. He taught chemistry at West Point Academy, the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Jefferson Medical College. He published s ...

, compiled the ''Dispensatory of the United States'', which first appeared in 1833. He also wrote a Treatise on Therapeutics and Pharmacology or Materia Medica (Philadelphia, 1856), and a number of addresses, including a short History of the Pennsylvania Hospital and one of the University of Pennsylvania. Wood's nephew

Horatio C Wood Horatio Curtis Wood Jr. (January 13, 1841 – January 3, 1920) was an American physician and biologist. Born into a wealthy Pennsylvania family, he attended the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and after serving as a surgeon ...

also became a noted physician.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, George B. 1797 births 1879 deaths Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Physicians from Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania faculty People from Greenwich Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey Presidents of the American Medical Association Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni