JEFFRIES WYMAN 197 



goes. Neither was in a healthy condition; Webster's was some- 

 what atrophied and did not fill the skull, and Agassiz' had no doubt 

 diminished from its healthy weight." l 



About two years after Wyman's Harvard appointment there 

 devolved upon him the painful duty of aiding the conviction of a 

 colleague of the crime of murder. On the 23d of November, 1849, 

 Dr. George Parkman (in whose honor was founded the chair of 

 anatomy held by Dr. Holmes) was killed in the college building 

 by John W. Webster, professor of chemistry. The latter tried to 

 dispose of the corpse by various means, including fire, and the 

 fragments of bone were identified by Wyman with characteristic 

 skill and caution; his evidence related also to the manner of dis- 

 membering the body and to the determination of blood-stains. 2 



So predisposed was Wyman, by temperament and habit, to 

 recognize imperfections in brilliant and apparently perfect general- 

 izations, that, had he written a Latin grammar, he probably 

 would have set the rules in small type; the exceptions thereto in 

 type of medium size; and the exceptions to the exceptions in the 

 most conspicuous. In 1865, the commonly accepted assertion of 

 Lord Brougham that in the cell of the bee there is perfect agree- 

 ment between theory and observation, was tested by measure- 

 ments and by pictures ingeniously produced by the cells them- 

 selves. He concluded that "it may reasonably be doubted whether 

 a type cell is ever made." 



In 1833 tne sensational newpaper report as to a "shower of 

 flesh and blood" was disposed of by Wyman's recognizing frag- 

 ments as similar to what he had seen disgorged by turkey-buzzards 

 during his sojourn at Richmond. In 1845 were exhibited, under 

 the name, Hydrarchos, what were claimed to be the bones of an 



1 According to the above figures, reckoning the avoirdupois ounce as 

 equivalent to 28.35 grams, each of the brains weighed about 52.7 ounces. 

 This is not the place for an attempt to reconcile the figures with slightly 

 higher ones published elsewhere. 



2 The execution took place August 30, 1850. The descriptions in the news- 

 papers so impressed the present writer, then nine years old, that he hanged 

 himself in order to see how it felt; his fi^* scientific experiment nearly proved 

 his last. 



