Caspar Wistar was an American physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and anatomist. He is sometimes referred to as Caspar Wistar the Younger, to distinguish him from his grandfather of the same name.

Biography

He was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, the son of Thomas Wistar and Mary Waln Wistar. He was the grandson of Caspar Wistar

Caspar Wistar (glassmaker)

Caspar Wistar was a German-born glassmaker and landowner in Pennsylvania. He was the grandfather of Caspar Wistar, the physician and anatomist after whom the genus Wisteria is named.-Biography:...

 (1696–1752), a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 immigrant, Quaker

Religious Society of Friends

The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...

 and glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

maker.

Education

He was educated at the Friends' school in his native city, where he received a thorough classical

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

 training. His interest in medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 began while he was aiding in the care of the wounded after the battle of Germantown

Battle of Germantown

The Battle of Germantown, a battle in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War, was fought on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania between the British army led by Sir William Howe and the American army under George Washington...

, and he made his first studies under the direction of Dr. John Redman. He studied medicine, first at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 (receiving his Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1782), and then at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 (receiving his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1786). While in Scotland he was, for two successive years, president of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh

Royal Medical Society

The Royal Medical Society is the oldest medical society in the United Kingdom . Known originally as 'the Medical Society' when it was established in 1737, it was granted a Royal Charter in 1778...

, and also president of a society for the further investigation of natural history.

Career

Upon his return to the U.S. in January 1787, he entered on the practice of his profession in Philadelphia, where he was at once appointed one of the physicians to the Philadelphia Dispensary. He was professor of chemistry and the institutes of medicine in the College of Philadelphia from 1789 till 1792, when the faculty of that institution united with the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, of which he was adjunct professor of anatomy, midwifery, and surgery until 1808. In that year, on the death of his associate, Dr. William Shippen, Jr., he was given the chair of anatomy, which he retained until his death.
For his teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, he developed a set of anatomical models — human remains preserved by injecting them with wax — to assist with the teaching of anatomy. He published A System of Anatomy in two volumes from 1811–1814. His fame attracted students to his lectures, and he was largely the means of establishing the reputation of the school. Meanwhile he was chosen physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he remained until 1810. His reputation as an anatomist was increased by his description of the posterior portion of the ethmoid bone

Ethmoid bone

The ethmoid bone is a bone in the skull that separates the nasal cavity from the brain. As such, it is located at the roof of the nose, between the two orbits. The cubical bone is lightweight due to a spongy construction. The ethmoid bone is one of the bones that makes up the orbit of the eye...

 with the triangular bones attached, which received universal recognition as an original treatment of the subject.

He was an early promoter of vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

. During the yellow fever

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

 epidemic

Epidemic

In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...

 of 1793, he suffered an attack of the disease contracted while caring for his patients.

It was his habit to throw open his house once every week in the winter, and at these gatherings students, citizens, scientists, and travelers met and discussed subjects of interest. These assemblies, celebrated in the annals of Philadelphia under the title of Wistar parties, were continued long after his death by other residents of that city.

The American College of Physicians

American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians is a national organization of doctors of internal medicine —physicians who specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illnesses in adults. With 130,000 members, ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in...

 elected him a fellow in 1787, and he was appointed one of its censors in 1794, which place he retained until his death. In 1787 he was elected to membership of the American Philosophical Society

American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...

, was chosen its vice-president in 1795, and on the resignation of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

, in 1815, served as president until his death. He also served as president of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, succeeding Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....

.

The botanist Thomas Nuttall

Thomas Nuttall

Thomas Nuttall was an English botanist and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841....

 named the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Wisteria

Wisteria

Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...

in his honour (some call it Wistaria but the misspelling is conserved under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature). The Wistar Institute

Wistar Institute

The Wistar Institute is a biomedical center, with a focus on cancer research and vaccine development. It is located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pa...

in Philadelphia is named for Caspar Wistar.

Family

In 1788 he married Isabella Marshall, who died in 1790. He married Elizabeth Mifflin in 1798. His brother Richard (20 July 1756 – 6 June 1821) was a Philadelphia merchant who built a large four-story store in 1790 where he conducted an iron and hardware business. With the profits, he purchased lands and houses in the vicinity of Philadelphia. During the Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, Richard advocated the defense of his property by arms, which resulted in his being disowned by the Society of Friends. Richard was an inspector of prisons, and was one of the early friends and supporters of the Library Company of Philadelphia

Library Company of Philadelphia

The Library Company of Philadelphia is a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded by Benjamin Franklin as a library, the Library Company of Philadelphia has accumulated one of the most significant collections of historically valuable manuscripts and printed material in...

 and the Pennsylvania Hospital.

Caspar was a cousin of Revolutionary diarist Sally Wister

Sally Wister

Sarah Wister was a girl living in Pennsylvania during the American Revolution. She is principally known as the author of Sally Wister's Journal, a first-hand account of life in the nearby countryside during the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777–78, when she was sixteen.-Family and early...

 and nephew of Samuel Morris

Samuel Morris (soldier)

Samuel Morris was an American soldier in the American Revolutionary War.The grandson of Anthony Morris , he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

.

External links

• Biography and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania
• Portrait attributed to Bass Otis at the Schwarz Gallery in Philadelphia
• Caspar Wistar paper at the American Philosophical Society
• History of Wistar Institute

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