198 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



enormous extinct reptile. Wyman demonstrated that they were 

 cetacean or whale-like, and did not belong even to one and the 

 same individual; in short that they were a factitious agglomeration. 

 Among Wyman's numerous other contributions to the knowl- 

 edge and the interpretation of Nature, the following possess 

 perhaps the more general interest: The recognition of a new 

 species of manatee (sea-cow) from West Africa, 1849; an account 

 of the brain, organ of hearing and rudimentary eyes of blind-fish 

 from the Mammoth Cave, 1843, ^53-56 ; tne J et fr m tne blow- 

 hole of whales, shown to consist chiefly of the condensed moisture 

 of the breath, 1848-51; the gestation of the Surinam toad, the 

 male of which "plants" the eggs upon the back of the female, 

 where they are carried until hatched, 1854-56; the mode of forma- 

 tion of the rattle of the rattlesnake, 1861; on the alleged " sea- 

 serpent," 1863; the occurrence, in Florida, of a true crocodile, a 

 genus distinct from the alligator and previously supposed to be 

 restricted in this hemisphere to the southern half, 1870; the change 

 in habit of cows, found grazing under water in Florida, 1874. The 

 same state, his winter refuge and work-place for so many years, 

 yielded a really astonishing discovery, communicated to the Natural 

 History Society on the 7th of October, 1868, under the title, "On 

 a Threadworm Infesting the Brain of the Snake-bird," printed 

 in the Proceedings, vol. 12, pp. 100-104, and partly reproduced in 

 the Monthly Microscopical Journal, vol. 2, 1869, pp. 215-216. 

 The snake-bird, Plotus anhinga (now Anhinga anhinga), is com- 

 monly called " water- turkey," but is more nearly related to the 

 Divers and Cormorants, differing from them in the form of the 

 bill and in the length of the snake-like neck. In seventeen out oj 

 the nineteen individuals examined, Wyman found, coiled up on 

 the brain a mass of "threadworms," measuring each from three 

 to six centimeters (about one and one-fourth to two and one-half 

 inches) in length; the number varied from two to eight; they were 

 always upon the cerebellum, just behind the cerebral hemispheres, 

 and in some cases produced a distinct depression. "They are 

 viviparous and immensely prolific. Their presence constitutes 

 what may be called the normal condition of the bird. Their ear- 



