358 



THE POPULAR SCIHM'H MOXTHLY. 



the usual order of Nature, as it is revealed to human minds, or, on the 

 other baud, that each species became such by progressive development 

 or transmutation; that, as in the individual, so in the aggregate of 

 races, the simple forms were not only the precursors, but the progeni- 

 tors of the complex ones, and that thus the order of Nature, as com- 

 monly manifest in her works, was maintained." 



No one can help seeing that he inclined toward belief in the gen- 

 eral doctrine, but he neither indorses " Darwinism " nor denounces 

 those who find themselves unable to accept " derivation " in any 

 sense. 



Regarding the appearance of organisms de novo, he never allowed 

 himself to express a final opinion. He published two papers embody- 

 ing the results of numerous and accurate experiments, and, we have 

 reason to know, was still continuing his observations at the time of 

 his death. 



The general question to which Prof. "Wyman gave most attention, 

 until called from it by the Archaeological Museum, was that of Organic 

 Symmetry, especially as manifested in the limbs. Accepting the usual 

 belief in an homology of the front and hind limbs, he associated there- 

 with the idea first put forth by Oken, that the two ends of the body 

 are symmetrical, or reversed repetitions of each other, as are the right 

 and left sides. The application of this doctrine to the limbs makes 

 the ulna the homologue of the tibia, the radius of the fibula, and the 

 thumb of the little-toe, instead of the great-toe, as ordinarily be- 

 lieved. 



So radically does this interpretation of " intermembral homologies " 

 differ from that of most anatomists, that it is not strange that its ac- 

 ceptance is, at present, confined to a very few (Foltz, in France, and, 

 in this country, Dana, Coues, Folsom, and the writer). But we are 

 encouraged by the reflection that our leader never gave even a quali- 

 fied assent to any doctrine which did not prove to be in the main 

 correct. 



Upon no other single problem did he bestow so much thought. 

 And, as may be inferred, it is in his treatment of this question that 

 his peculiar characteristics appear. In the adoption of new ideas he 

 manifested a wise caution, which, contrasted with the haste of others 

 less well informed, illustrates the maxim, " Fools rush in where angels 

 fear to tread." We recall his freedom in discussion with his students 

 and his kindness in aiding their advancement, even to his own appar- 

 ent detriment ; his modesty, occasioning a lack of reference to his 

 own papers or to unpublished investigations ; his critical acumen, 

 which was the more searching and useful from its entire freedom from 

 personality ; and, finally, here shine forth in their greatest brilliancy 

 those rare qualities which enabled him, when occasion required, to 

 overlook the delusive charms of teleology, though upheld by popular 

 interest and theological authority, and to regard her plainer but more 



