198 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
the curatorship. During the season of 1840-41, he delivered 
twelve lectures on comparative anatomy and physiology, and 
with the means thus procured went to Europe, where he came 
in contact with many prominent men of science, such as De 
Blainville, St. Hilaire, and Valenciennes. His sojourn was 
shortened by the illness and death of his father. In 1843, after 
his return, he was made Professor of Anatomy and Physiology 
at Hampton Sidney College in Richmond, Virginia. In 1847 
he succeeded Dr. Warren to the Hersey chair of anatomy at 
Harvard College. 
While here he established and developed a museum of com- 
parative anatomy to which he devoted all of his spare time. 
On the many trips he made both North and South, he gathered 
great numbers of valuable specimens and added them to the 
collections in his museum, which was afterwards incorporated 
with that of the Boston Society of Natural History. 
He spent the winter of 1852 in Florida on account of bad 
health, but in spite of his malady he was able at intervals to 
make investigations of the Indian shell-heaps, the results of 
which were afterwards published. Later, he made many trips 
to the coast of Maine and Massachusetts, and examined shell- 
heaps in as many as twenty-five localities, securing several thou- 
sand specimens. In 1856 he made an expedition to Surinam, and 
the same year was elected President of the Boston Society of 
Natural History, which office he held for fourteen years. In 
1858-9, he went to the La Plata, and after ascending the Uruguay 
and Parana rivers crossed the continent to Santiago and Val- 
paraiso, with his friend G. A. Peabody, returning home by the 
Isthmus of Panama. 
In 1866 the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and 
Ethnology was founded by George Peabody, and Wyman was 
appointed one of the seven trustees. By vote of the board, he 
was named as curator of the museum. In the duties of this office 
there was great scope for Wyman’s ability and enthusiasm and 
though he worked at all times under the disadvantage of ill 
