170 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



Dr. Gray said : 



When we think of the associate and friend whose death this Society now deplores, and 

 remember how modest and retiring he was, how averse to laudation and reticent of 

 words, we feel it becoming to speak of him, now that he has gone, with much of the 

 reserve which would be imposed upon us if he were living. Yet his own perfect truthful- 

 ness and nice sense of justice, and the benefit to be derived from the contemplation of 

 such a character by way of example, may be our warrant for reasonable freedom in the 

 expression of our judgments and our sentiments, taking care to avoid all exaggeration. 



Appropriate and sincere eulogies and expressions of loss, both official and personal, 

 have, however, already been pronounced or published ; and among them one from the 

 governors of that institution to which, together with our own Society, most of Professor 

 Wyman's official life and services were devoted, which appears to me to delineate in the 

 fewest words the truest outlines of his character. In it the President and Fellows of Har- 

 vard University " recall with affectionate respect and admiration the sagacity, patience 

 and rectitude which characterized all his scientific work, his clearness, accuracy and con- 

 ciseness as a writer and teacher, and the industry and zeal with which he labored upon the 

 two admirable collections which remain as monuments of his rare knowledge, method and 

 skill. They commend to the young men of the University this signal example of a char- 

 acter modest, tranquil, dignified and independent, and of a life simple, contented and hon- 

 ored." 



What more can be or need be said ? It is left for me, in compliance with your invita- 

 tion, Mr. President, to say something of what he was to us, and has done for us, and to 

 put upon record, for the use of those who come after us, some account of his uneventful 

 life, some notice, however imperfect, of his work and his writings. I could not do this 

 without the help of friends who knew him well in early life, and of some of you who are 

 much more conversant than I am with most of his researches. Such aid, promptly ren- 

 dered, has been thankfully accepted and freely used. 



Our associate's father, Dr. Rufus Wyman, born in Woburn, graduated at Harvard Col- 

 lege in 1799, and in the latter part of his life Physician to the McLean Asylum for the 

 Insane, was a man of marked ability and ingenuity. Called to the charge of this earli- 

 est institution of the kind in New England at its beginning, he organized the plan of 

 treatment and devised the excellent mechanical arrangements which have since been 

 developed, and introduced into other establishments of the kind. His mother was Ann 

 Morrill, daughter of James Morrill, a Boston merchant. This name is continued, and is 

 familiar to us, in that of our associate's elder brother. 



Jeffries Wyman, the third son, derived his baptismal name from the distinguished 

 Dr. John Jeffries, of Boston, under whom his father studied medicine. He was born on 

 the llth of August, 1814, at Chelmsford, a township of a few hundred inhabitants in 

 Middlesex Co., Mass., not far from the present city of Lowell. As his father took up his 

 residence at the McLean Asylum in 1818, when Jeffries was only four years old, he 

 received the rudiments of his education at Charlestown, in a private school ; but after- 

 wards went to the Academy at Chelmsford, and, in 1826, to Phillips Exeter Academy, 

 where, under the instruction of Dr. Abbot, he was prepared for college. He entered 



