NATIONAL ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 



He remained at Salem until 1870, when, on May 4, he was 

 elected custodian of the Boston Society of Xatnral History. By 

 yearly choice he remained the scientific head of the society until 

 his death, near the end of his thirty-second year of service. An 

 officer of the society who was associated with him for many years 

 speaks of his service to it in the following words : 



"For the head of a museum of natural history, Professor 

 Hyatt had many and marked qualifications; his knowledge of 

 zoology, of paleozoology, and of geology was extensive; he was 

 skillful in manipulation, suggestive in council, enthusiastic, and 

 approachable. 



"His plan, that a natural history museum should be arranged 

 so that a visitor on entering should pass from the simpler groups 

 to those more specialized, and that the specimens in each case 

 should be similarly classified, though opposed as impracticable, 

 is both sound and feasible. Somewhat disposed in late years to a 

 too great use of diagrams and models in place of the actual 

 material, his recognition of the value of these, of descriptive 

 labels, and of a personal guide was early, important, and helpful. 



"It is true that the full realization of much of his best muse 11 in 

 work and thought is left for appreciative successors, as Professor 

 Hyatt was too apt to be content with initiative, the results of 

 which he clearly apprehended, and did not always give attention 

 to the actual carrying out of details that in many cases require 

 continuous interest through successive years." 



In his first year of service at the Natural History Society he 

 was appointed Professor of Zoology and Paleontology at the 

 Institute of Technology a position which he filled for eighteen 

 years. In the same year he organized the Teachers' School of 

 Science, which during the thirty years that he continued to 

 direct the work gave practical instruction in science to more 

 (lian twelve hundred teachers, who dill'used and are still diffus- 

 ing among the young the inspiration of Hyatt's example and 

 that of Agassiz, his own teacher. In good time and after long 

 struggles against opposition and lack of means the school be- 

 came permanently established upon a sound educational basis, 

 with adequate financial support and \vitb an ellicient staff of 

 assistants and colleagues, who were able and willing to conduct 

 exercises iii 1 he laboratory and excursions in the field with big 



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