JEFFRIES WYMAN 199 



Her stages are unknown, as likewise the manner in which the 

 transfer of the embryos is effected outwardly to some other animal, 

 or the water, and then back to another Anhinga." Surely almost 

 any other man than Wyman would have found in this surprising 

 combination a medium of greater scientific reputation, if not, in- 

 deed, newspaper notoriety. But that was not his way, and all 

 exploitation of his achievements has yet to be accomplished. 



Wyman described very few species, and never permitted one to 

 be named after him. Less and less, too, year by year, did he seek 

 to draw conclusions as to relationship from his studies of animal 

 forms. His interpretations were either teleologic or purely mor- 

 phologic; that is, they either illustrated function, or the relations 

 of single parts, without reference to the entire organism. 



This feature rendered Wyman's anatomic work absolutely 

 free from zoologic bias, and his statements were always received 

 as gospel by both parties to a controversy. He might not tell the 

 whole truth, for he might not see it at the time; but what he did 

 tell was " nothing but the truth," so far as it went. He is one of the 

 very few naturalists who " never told a lie," simply because he 

 never allowed his imagination to outstrip his observation. The 

 hottest partisan felt that a figure or description of Wyman's was, 

 so far as it went, as reliable as Nature herself. 



The peculiar value of Wyman's writings and of his collections 

 depends not so much upon their extent as upon their absolute 

 trustworthiness. He worked and thought and wrote by and for 

 himself. His facts and ideas were his own; and the smallest 

 specimens bear the impress of his personal manipulation. All 

 were carefully labeled by himself, and in the descriptive catalogue 

 are rich treasures of fact and thought as yet unrevealed. 1 



It was not strange that he carefully guarded the fruit of his life; 

 and the writer can never forget the solemn sense of responsibility 

 with which he first received the keys and the "freedom" of the 

 collection. 2 And although the demands upon Wyman's time and 



1 The collection and its catalogue are now in charge of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History. 



2 My diary of November 28, 1861, chronicles the permission (without 



