Ixxiv PBOCEEDINGS OF THE 



elsewhere under higli auspices, but wbicli Dr. Wyman exposed 

 at sight, showing that it was made up of an indefinite number of 

 A'arious cetaceous vertebrae belonging to many individuals which 

 (as was afterwards ascertained) were collected from several 

 localities. 



But the memoir by wbicb Professor "Wyman assured his posi- 

 tion among the higlier comparative anatomists was that commu- 

 nicated to and published by the last-mentioned Society in the 

 summer of 1847, in which the Grorilla was first named and intro- 

 duced to the scientific world, and the distinctive structure and 

 affinities of the animal so thoroughly made out from the study 

 of the skeleton, that tbere was, as Professor Owen remarked, 

 "very little left to add, and nothing to correct." 



Amongst others of Dr. Wyman's more noticeable contribu- 

 tions to science may be mentioned his investigations of the ana- 

 tomy of the Blind Fish of the Mammoth Cave. The series 

 began in the year 1843 with a paper published in ' Silliman's 

 Journal,' and closed with an article in the same Journal in 1854. 

 Although Dr. Tellkamph had preceeded him in ascertaining 

 the existence of rudimentary eyes and the special development 

 of the fifth pair of nerves, yet for the whole details of the sub- 

 ject and the minute anatomy, we are indebted to Professor 

 Wyman. 



An elaborate memoir on the anatomy of the nervous system 

 of Bana pipiens, published in the ' Smithsonian Contributions ' 

 in 1852 should also be mentioned. And next to this in extent 

 and value may be ranked Professor Wyman's paper on the De- 

 velopment of the Common Skate, Raia Batis, communicated to 

 the American Academy in 1864 and published among its memoirs. 

 The most noteworthy of his shorter papers are his " Observa- 

 tions on the Development of the Surinam Toad," and the same 

 on "Analleps Gronovii;^' the paper "On some unusual Modes of 

 G-estation ;" his " Description of a Double Poetus," in the ' Bos- 

 ton Medical and Surgical Journal,' March 1866 ; a very import- 

 ant morphological paper " On Symmetry and Homology in Limbs," 

 published in June, 1867, and " Notes on the Cells of the Bee " in 

 the ' Proceedings of the American Academy ' for January, 1866. 



The spirit of two aphorisms attributed to Dr. Wyman, viz. " The 

 isolated study of anything in natural history is a fruitful source 

 of error," and "i\/b single experiment in pJiysiology is worth any- 

 thing,^' is well exemplified in his experimental researches upon 



