384 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Of his later days, of the slow yet all too rapid progress of 

 fatal pulmonary disease, it is needless to protract the story. 

 Winter after winter, as he exchanged our bleak climate for 

 that of Florida, we could only hope that he might return. 

 Spring after spring he came back to us invigorated, thanks to 

 the bland air and to open life in boat and tent, which acted 

 like a charm ; — thanks, too, to the watchful care of his at- 

 tached friend, Mr. Peabody, his constant companion in Florida 

 life. One winter was passed in Europe, partly in reference 

 to the Archaeological Museum, partly in hope of better health ; 

 but no benefit was received. The past winter in Florida pro- 

 duced the usual amelioration, and the amount of work which 

 Dr. Wyman undertook and accomplished last summer might 

 have tasked a robust man. There were important accessions 

 to the archaeological collections, upon which much labor, very 

 trying to ordinary patience, had to be expended. And in the 

 last interview I had with him, he told me that he had gone 

 through his own museum of comparative anatomy, which 

 had somewhat suffered in consequence of the alterations in 

 Boylston Hall, and had put the whole into perfect order. It 

 was late in August when he left Cambridge for his usual visit 

 to the White Mountain region, by which he avoided the au- 

 .tumnal catarrh ; and there, at Bethlehem, New Hampshire, 

 on the 4th of September, a severe hemorrhage from the lungs 

 suddenly closed his valuable life. 



Let us turn to his relations with this society. He entered 

 it in October, 1837, just thirty-seven years ago, and shortly 

 after he had taken his degree of Doctor in Medicine. He 

 was recording secretary from 1839 to 1841 ; curator of ich- 

 thyology and herpetology from 1841 to 1847 ; of herpetol- 

 ogy from 1847 to 1845 ; of comparative anatomy from 1855 

 to 1874. While in these later years his duties may have 

 been almost nominal, it should be remembered that in the 

 earlier days a curator not only took charge of his portion of 

 the museum, but in a great degree created it. Then for four- 

 teen years, from 1856 to 1870, he was the president of this 

 society, as assiduous in all its duties as he was wise in council ; 

 and he resigned the chair which he so long adorned and digni- 



