JEFFRIES WYMAN. 497 



accepted the positioa of Demonstrator of Anatomy under Dr, John C. 

 ^Varren, the Ilersey Professor. During this period, when his very 

 limited income made it necessary for him to secure in various ways the 

 means of living, he became a member of the Boston Fire Department, 

 under an appointment of Mayor Eliot, dated Sept. 1, 1838. 



Tlie foundation of the Lowell Institute, which was about this time 

 put in active operation, and has since done so much in enabliug scien- 

 tists to follow their chosen paths, probably caused JeiFries Wyman, 

 fortunately for science, to leave the ranks of the practising physicians, 

 and devote his clear mind, sharp eye, and steady hand to original 

 research. Accepting the position of Curator of the Institute, at the 

 request of ]\Ir. John A. Lowell, in the winter of 1840-41 he delivered 

 a course of twelve lectures on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology. 



In January, 1841, his first anatomical paper^"On the Cranium of a 

 Seal," was communicated to the Boston Society of Natiu*al History. 

 Of this society he became a member about the time he took his medical 

 degree, holding the office of Recording Secretary from 1839 to 1841, 

 when, with the money earned by his course of lectures at the Lowell 

 Institute, he started for Europe to continue his studies. He entered 

 the Medical School in Paris in May, 1841, and attended the lectures 

 at the Garden of Plants. When the lectures were completed, he made 

 several pedestrian tours, and finally visited London, where he was 

 engaged in studying the preparations in the Huuterian Collection at 

 the Royal College of Surgeons when he was called home by the ill- 

 ness and death of his father. Resuming his residence in Boston and 

 his active membership in the Boston Society of Natural History, he 

 was soon elected a Fellow of the Academy, and in the same year, 

 1843, he accepted the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in the Hamp- 

 den-Sidney College in Virginia, where he passed the following five 

 winters, returning to Boston each summer. His first communication 

 to the Academy was presented the same year of his election, and was 

 on the anatomy of the electrical organs of tlie torpedo. During this 

 year, which was one of the most fruitful of his life, he published about 

 a dozen papers, principally communicated to the Natural History 

 Society, besides delivering the annual address before that society. 

 Amon" these papers was the first of an important series which, from 

 time to time, appeared on the special anatomy of the apes, and also 

 the first of his resuUs upon minute anatomy, in which, with the assist- 

 ance of his microscope, he afterwards did so much delicate and im- 

 portant work. 



In 1847, he was appointed to succeed Dr. Warren as the Her ey 

 VOL. X. (n.s. n.) 32 



