JEFFRIES WYMAN. 395 
bee, following with those of wasps and hornets, then with those 
of the Mexican bees (Melipona), and finally with those of the 
common hive-bee. In this way, while they would have found 
that there is a constant approach to the perfect form, they 
would at the same time have been prepared for the fact, that 
even in the cell of the hive-bee perfection is not reached. The 
isolated study of anything in natural history is a fruitful 
source of error.” 
Let me add to this important aphorism its fellow, which I 
have from him, but know not if he ever printed it. ‘“ Wo 
single experiment in physiology is worth anything.” 
The spirit of these aphorisms directed all his work. It is 
well exemplified in his experimental researches — the last 
which I can here refer to—upon “ The formation of Infu- 
soria in boiled solutions of organic matter, inclosed in hermet- 
ically sealed vessels and supplied with pure air,” and its sup- 
plement, “‘ Observations and Experiments on Living Organ- 
isms in Heated Water,” published in the “ American Journal 
of Science and Arts,” the first in the year 1862, the other in 
1867. Milne-Edwards could not have known the man, when 
he questioned the accuracy of the first series because they do 
not agree with those of Pasteur, and thought the difference 
in the results depended upon a defective mode of conducting 
the experiments. As Dr. Wyman remarks, in a note to the 
second series, “the recent experiments of Dr. Child of Ox- 
ford, and those reported in this communication, are sufficient 
answer to the criticisms of M. Edwards.” Then, as to his 
thoroughness, most persons would have rested on the results 
of his thirty-three well-devised experiments proving “ that the 
boiled solutions of organic matter made use of, exposed only to 
air which has passed through tubes heated to redness, became 
the seat of infusorial life ;”’ but all would not have concluded 
that, after all, they “throw but little light on the immediate 
source from which the organisms have been derived,” nor 
would many have closed an impartial summary of the oppos- 
ing views in this judicial way : — 
“Tf, on the one hand, it is urged that all organisms, in so 
far as the early history of them is known, are derived from 
