674 
in the welfare of his fellowmen. ‘ Inevery 
charitable movement he was foremost with 
practical advice and generous aid.’”* 
‘(Rew men have filled more eminent 
positions in the walks of learning and 
science, and few pass away more cherished 
in scholarly remembrance than Alexis Cas- 
well.” + 
WYMAN. 
The twelfth meeting of our Association 
was held in Baltimore, and over that gather- 
ing Jeffries Wyman, of Boston, was chosen 
to preside, but when the time for the meet- 
ing came Wyman was unfortunately absent 
in South America. John E. Holbrook, of 
Charleston, South Carolina, the vice-presi- 
dent, was likewise unable to be present, 
and the duties of presiding again fell upon 
the competent shoulders of Caswell. 
Wyman{ was born in Chelmsford, Mass- 
achusetts, in 1814. He was the son of a 
physician, and after graduating from Har- 
vard in 1833, followed in the footsteps of his 
ancestors, and with his brother, who still 
lives, studied medicine, both taking their 
degrees in 1837. Boston became his home, 
and several minor appointments came to 
him, notably, a course of lectures on com- 
parative anatomy at the Lowell Institute, 
with the proceeds of which he visited 
Europe, where for two years he studied 
anatomy under the best masters both in 
Paris and London. 
In 1843 he returned to Boston and soon 
was appointed to the chair of anatomy and 
physiology in Hampden-Sidney College, in 
Richmond, Virginia. The duties of this 
appointment called him from Boston during 
*New York Tribune, Jan. 9, 1877. 
} Taunton Gazette, January 9, 1877. 
{ Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 
Sciences, Washington, 1886. Vol. II., p. 75. Jeffries 
Wyman, by A. S. Packard. See also Popular Science 
Monthly, Vol. VI., p. 355, where an engraved portrait 
on wood is given; also see Anniversary Memoirs of 
the Boston Society of Natural History, Boston, 1880, 
where a lithograph portrait is given. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 254. 
the winter and spring months only, and so 
offered a pleasant change from the rigors of 
the severer weather in Boston. Five years 
later he was called to succeed the celebrated 
John C. Warren in the Hersey chair of 
anatomy in Harvard Medical College, a con- 
genial post, which he filled with honor until 
his death. 
It would require more knowledge than I 
possess to properly present to you abstracts 
of the magnificent memoirs on comparative 
anatomy that came from the pen of this 
leader in science. That task, fortunately 
for the world, has been performed by one 
who studied with him, and to the memoir 
presented before the National Academy of 
Sciences* by Packard, I beg to refer you for 
that full and adequate treatment which 
Wyman’s work deserves. Two quotations 
may, however, be given to indicate their 
value. His study on the gorilla, according 
to Gray, ‘assured his position among the 
higher comparative anatomists.’} His 
paper on the bull frog was described as the 
‘clearest introduction to the most complex 
of animal structures.’ 
So great was his knowledge of anatomy 
that a single sentence from Oliver Wendell 
Holmes sums up fully his remarkable ability 
to develop a structure from a single bone. 
‘‘Tn a memorial trial [he says] his evi- 
dence relating to the bones which had been 
submitted to great heat is of singular excel- 
lence as testimony, and his restoration of 
fragments is a masterpiece of accuracy and 
skill.’’§ 
Wyman was a man of delicate constitu- 
tion, and as he advanced in years it became 
his settled custom to spend the winters in 
Florida. It was in that land of flowers 
that he began his archeological work by 
* Biographical Memoirs, Vol. II., p. 77. 
tIdem, p. 97. 
} Jeffries Wyman, Memorial Meeting of the Boston 
Society of Natural History, October 7, 1874, p. 24. 
2 Biographical Memoirs, p. 95. 
