JEFFRIES WYMAN. 395 



bee, following with those of wasps and hornets, then with those 

 of the Mexican bees (Melipona), and finally with those of the 

 common hive-bee. In this way, while they would have found 

 that there is a constant approach to the perfect form, they 

 would at the same time have been prepared for the fact, that 

 even in the cell of the hive-bee perfection is not reached. The 

 isolated study of anything in natural history is a fruitful 

 source of error." 



Let me add to this important aphorism its fellow, which I 

 have from him, but know not if he ever printed it. " JVo 

 single experiment in physiology is worth anything." 



The spirit of these aphorisms directed all his work. It is 

 well exemplified in his experimental researches — the last 

 which I can here refer to — upon " The formation of Infu- 

 soria in boiled solutions of organic matter, inclosed in hermet- 

 ically sealed vessels and supplied with pure air," and its sup- 

 plement, " Observations and Experiments on Living Organ- 

 isms in Heated Water," published in the " American Journal 

 of Science and Arts," the first in the year 1862, the other in 

 1867. Milne-Edwards could not have known the man, when 

 he questioned the accuracy of the first series because they do 

 not agree with those of Pasteur, and thought the difference 

 in the results depended upon a defective mode of conducting 

 the experiments. As Dr. Wyman remarks, in a note to the 

 second series, "the recent experiments of Dr. Child of Ox- 

 ford, and those reported in this communication, are sufficient 

 answer to the criticisms of M. Edwards." Then, as to his 

 thoroughness, most persons would have rested on the results 

 of his thirty-three well-devised experiments proving " that the 

 boiled solutions of organic matter made use of, exposed only to 

 air which has passed through tubes heated to redness, became 

 the seat of infusorial life ; " but all would not have concluded 

 that, after all, they " throw but little light on the immediate 

 source from which the organisms have been derived," nor 

 would many have closed an impartial summary of the oppos- 

 ing views in this judicial way : — 



" If, on the one hand, it is urged that all organisms, in so 

 far as the early history of them is known, are derived from 



