204 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



The universal regard in which he was held is, in the writer's 

 case, intensified by the sense of peculiar obligations which might 

 cloud the estimate of any ordinary individual. 1 But to no man 

 more fitly than to Wyman could be addressed the lines: 



"None knew thee but to love thee, 

 Nor named thee but to praise." 



Nor were any strictures ever made upon him, from any 

 quarter, other than as to his extraordinary lack of personal am- 

 bition, and his aversion to public notice or display. If there 

 exist already no such words as inegotism and inegotistic they 

 really need to be coined in order to designate a characteristic 

 of Jeffries Wyman so pronounced that it almost ceased to be a 

 virtue. 



His attitude toward criticism and critics is well exemplified in 

 the following extracts from letters of March i, 1863, and Octo- 

 ber 23, 1872, respectively: 



"I do not think it worth the while to trouble yourself about 



what Professor or anyone else chooses to say by way of 



criticism of my experiments [on 'spontaneous generation']. One 

 thing is certain; if they are good, they will stand, and in the long 

 run fight their own way. The verbal criticism of anyone cannot 

 affect them. 



"Have you seen the notice by of your paper, and mine 



too [how characteristic the order]? It is quite comic to see how 

 he charges us with ignoring, etc. At first I thought of correcting 

 some of his mistakes, but all such things pass out of mind so soon 

 that it seemed useless, and so I am satisfied that the best way is 

 to say nothing." 



Wyman rarely referred to what he had already done, and still 

 more rarely to what he intended to do. The only prognostication 



1 In most cases the reprints of Wyman's papers were repaged, without even 

 adding the original page numbers in brackets. Probably this was due to the 

 preference of the printer and was simply overlooked by the author. The de- 

 fect is specified partly because it is still tolerated by some writers, but mainly 

 for the sake of showing that my affection and admiration for my friend and 

 teacher have not rendered me absolutely incapable of criticism. 



