71 G ALPHEUS HYATT. 



ing and expanding the educational and scientific resources of a young 

 people. 



Those who were pupils of that large-hearted, enthusiastic son of genius, 

 Louis Agassiz, well know the sacrifices he made in the country of his 

 adoption, in devoting the later years of his life to the foundation of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, to popularizing science, to illustrating 

 the dignity of scientific studies, and enforcing the value of research in 

 our colleges and young universities. 



The lines thus drawn were followed by Hyatt ; and it is safe to say 

 that the impress he has made on zoological and geological science is deep 

 and lasting. 



Born in Washington, D. C, April 5, 1838, of Maryland parentage, 

 Alpheus Hyatt was sent to the Maryland Military Academy, but after- 

 wards entered Yale College, completing the freshman year, class of 1860. 

 He then travelled a year in P^urope, and as he once told us, strong family 

 and clerical influence were brought to bear upon him while in Rome to 

 induce him to enter the Church, his family being of the Roman Catholic 

 faith. 



He entered the Lawrence Scientific School in 1858 ; our acquaintance 

 began in 1861. The pupils of Agassiz were then domiciled in Zoological 

 Hall, a small two-story wooden building which stood on the site of the 

 Peabody Museum of American Archaeolog}'. We were soon interested 

 and attracted by young Hyatt. Although he originally elected to make 

 engineering his profession, he, with for that period a rather large num- 

 ber of other young men, was attracted by the fame and charming per- 

 sonality of Agassiz, as well as by the zoological treasures of the already 

 rich and carefully selected museum. Hyatt's patience and his dogged 

 perseverance, his powers of concentration, his philosophical tendencies, 

 attracted our attention, while his open, frank, sunny disposition, his com- 

 panionable, jovial, unselfish, pure spirit and scholarly aims, at once 

 secured our love and respect. He was then and through life an all- 

 round man, though very early in his studies specializing on the fossil 

 Cephalopods. 



Tyndall's " Heat as a Mode of Motion " had just appeared, and debates 

 on the higher physics, in which he took a leading part, alternated with 

 communications on the position of the Tunicata, of the Polyzoa, Brach- 

 iopods, and other types at the meetings of our Zoological Club. Hyatt 

 was artistic in his tastes, drawing well on the blackboard, and handling 

 the pencil with ease and facility. He read good literature, was a regular 

 attendant on the lectures of Professor Lowell, and constantly present 



