1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 231 



II. 



« 



Dr. Ryder was a man of restless mental activity. Plan after plan 

 was discussed in his early letters. No defence was offered for this 

 eagerness of spirit. On the contrary, he says in one of his outbursts : 

 " I see more worlds ahead of me to conquer, so that I have little 

 time to attend to number one, that often restive and troublesome 

 person who is always reaching for toys he ought not to have, greatly 

 to the disadvantage of more serious matters." Circumstances an- 

 nulled most of his numerous enterprises, but the ideas were, without 

 exception, admirable, and some of them were afterward realized by 

 others. In 1879, he proposed to establish in Philadelphia, in con- 

 junction with Mr. W. C. Seal, a depot of material for biological 

 laboratories and class-room demonstrations. It was intended that 

 Mr. Seal would collect and preserve the specimens which Dr. Ryder 

 would undertake to identify and to furnish all other information. 

 It was <lesigned to embrace marine and fresh-water, as well as 

 terrestrial forms. In association with his friend, Mr. J. S. Kingsley, 

 he at one time thought of writing a book on the infusoria, a work 

 that yet rernains a desideratum. Dr. Ryder had a ready knowledge 

 of the group. In later years he constantly reverted to it for illustra- 

 tion in his studies of the movements of protoplasm. A third under- 

 taking on the embryology of fishes was proposed. It never went 

 further than the title-page. In 1887, he seriously contemplated a 

 text-book on general embryology. It was to be " copiously illus- 

 trated and to set forth the principles from new points of view." To 

 this task he intended devoting two or three years. In 1893, he 

 published, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, a 

 pamphlet entitled " The Synthetical Museum of Comparative x\nat- 

 omy as the Basis for a Comprehensive System of Research." 



It is a remarkable fact that Dr. Ryder, in his active and versa- 

 tile career, never wrote an extended memoir. Everything he pre- 

 pared for the press was the direct outcome of the practical tasks 

 upon which he was officially engaged. 



His work in zoology^ was not large. Reference to the bibli- 

 ography shows that twelve papers may be so classified. He once 



®Dr. Ryder made a few observations in physiological botany. Early in his 

 career, viz., 1877, he noted the disposition of the tendrils of Cocculus indicus 

 to twine- (Proc. A. N. S., 1877, 3). In 1879 he observed the honey-glands 

 of the leaves of Catalpa, and the habits of bees respecting them. (Proc A. N. 

 S., 1879, 6 ; Pastime, 1881, II, 8; Am. Nat., 1878, 4.) 



