Caspar wistar biography of donald

Caspar Wistar

1761 - 1818 

Caspar Wistar was a pioneering American physician and anatomist.

He was the grandson of a well-known Quaker glassmaker of the same name, a German immigrant who established the first successful glass-blowing business in North America, in Salem, New Jersey.

He was educated at the Friends Charter School in Philadelphia and was an active Quaker throughout his life.

Immigrant and Entrepreneur examines the life of German immigrant and successful businessman Caspar Wistar.

Immigrant and Entrepreneur examines the life of German immigrant and successful businessman Caspar Wistar.

Grandson Caspar Wistar—whose last words were “I wish well to all mankind”—lived his life as a testament to improving the lives of his fellow citizens.

Wistar was a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania.

A landowner and glassmaker during his life in America, Wistar arrived with only pennies to his name, but would become the foundation of a family.

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University · Biographical Reference File (ANSP) · Series 2: Biographical.

He became interested in studying medicine when, aged sixteen, he helped tend the wounded after the Battle of Germantown in 1777, during the American War of Independence. He took his Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Philadelphia in 1782 and received his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1796.  He so impressed his tutors there that, had university regulations permitted it, he would have been awarded his degree after just one year.

His doctoral thesis, entitled De Animo Demisso, on depression, was translated from Latin into English