JEFFRIES WYMAN 185 



"Winter after winter, as he exchanged our bleak climate for 

 that of Florida, we could only hope that he would return. Spring 

 after spring he came back 'to us invigorated, thanks to the bland 

 air and the open life in boat and tent, which acted like a charm; 

 thanks, too, to the watchful care of his attached friend, Mr. Pea- 

 body, 1 his constant companion in Florida life. In 1874 it was late 

 in August when he left Cambridge for his usual visit to the White 

 Mountain region, by which he avoided the autumnal catarrh: 

 and there, at Bethlehem, New Hampshire, on the fourth of Sep- 

 tember, a severe hemorrhage from the lungs suddenly closed his 

 valuable life." 



Half a century ago science was far less extensive and specialism 

 was less imperative. It was possible for one individual to be a 

 naturalist in a very broad sense. Wyman was not only an educated 

 physician and for a time an actual practitioner; his two courses 

 of lectures embraced embryology, anatomy and physiology, mainly 

 of vertebrates, yet of invertebrates in no small degree. Most of 

 his publications deal with the comparative anatomy of vertebrates, 

 but there are papers upon the structure, habits and development 

 of insects, shell-fish and worms; upon infusoria; upon fossil re- 

 mains and prehistoric human bones and implements; upon- plants 

 and the marks made by ripples and raindrops; the remarkable 

 discussion of the irregular forms of the cells of the bee involved 

 mathematic computations. 



At a moderate estimate, Wyman's published communications, 

 nearly two hundred in number, would cover about one thousand 

 octavo pages, with many figures of his own making. A part, at 

 least, of his unpublished drawings and notes could be incorporated 

 with what he had already given to the world. Brought together 

 and properly edited, his works would be at once a benefit to science, 

 a memorial of their author, and an earnest of that which he was so 

 often urged to undertake, but which his successors should now 

 aim to accomplish ; namely, a comparative anatomy of vertebrates 

 based upon American forms. 



The year of Wyman's inauguration as professor at Harvard 

 was signalized by his recognition of the gorilla as a new species 



1 George Augustus Peabody, Esq., Burleigh Farm, Danvers, Mass. 



