ALPHEU9 HYATT. 



i- 1 asses of critical teachers. While the inception of this under- 

 taking was a sign of the times and part of an educational reform 

 that was in progress in many lands, its influence for good and 

 its long career of usefulness should place the name of Hyatt 

 with those of Agassiz and Huxley as teachers of the aims and 

 methods of science and their importance in general elementary 

 education. In 1882 the school was opened to all teachers in the 

 State. As the general audience gradually decreased, it became 

 clear that it had accomplished its original purpose, and it was 

 reorganized into specific courses of study extending over four 

 years, with regular examinations and diplomas, thus giving to 

 busy teachers opportunities for a scientific education equal to 

 that which is afforded by the ordinary colleges and scientific 

 schools. Hyatt's spirit and example have pervaded the whole 

 history of the school, which has had a notable and wholesome 

 influence upon elementary education. 



Hyatt also organized, as an adjunct to the school, and took 

 personal charge of, the seaside laboratory at Annisquam, Massa- 

 chusetts, which was established under the auspices of the 

 Woman's Educational Association of Boston. When this ex- 

 ample led to the establishment of an educational laboratory at 

 Woods Holl, he was elected the first president of its board of 

 trustees. 



The year 1875, in which he was elected to the National 

 Academy of Sciences, he spent abroad for the purpose of studying 

 in the museums of Europe the collections of shells of Planorbis 

 from the quarries at Steinheim, near Stuttgart, as he wished to 

 learn how far these fresh-water mollusks, which are confined to a 

 limited area and restricted to a short period of time, confirm the 

 conclusions as to the origin of species which he had reached 

 through the study of the Jurassic ammonites, which cover an 

 immeasurable period of time. Not content with studying the 

 collections of these shells that he found in museums at home and 

 abroad, he visited Steinheim and spent five weeks in excavating 

 the quarries himself, making new and extensive collections of 

 the shells, which supplied the material for a memoir on the 

 subject, which he published in 1880. 



In 1877 he was made Professor of Biology in the College of 

 Liberal Arts in Boston University. He organized the courses of 



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