Febeuaey 21, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



301 



eieties both in this country and abroad. In 

 1898 Brown University conferred upon him 

 the degree of Doctor of Laws. 



Professor Hyatt's pi-ivate life, though 

 uneventful, was attended with many bless- 

 ings; he had vigorous health, congenial 

 work and many friends. He enjoyed scien- 

 tific meetings and general society; his wel- 

 come to his own home, where he was the 

 most charming of hosts, can never be for- 

 gotten. His death, though premature, came 

 as he would have wished, in the fulness of 

 his power and without attendant suffering. 

 As a man of true science he was ready, yet 

 loath, to die. 



Professor Hyatt possessed traits of char- 

 acter the worth of which cannot be exag- 

 gerated; his kindness towards those work- 

 ing with him was very marked, as was also 

 the purity of his thought and speech; his 

 friendship was sincere and hearty, for while 

 he had, as every man has, his moments of 

 excitement, caused by misunderstandings 

 and differences, one could disagree -with 

 him on any or on every vital question with 

 full confidence that such clashes would not 

 weaken his regard. Such an entire absence 

 of all personal feeling must be regarded as 

 a very rare and remarkable trait. 



From the outline as given, the life work 

 of Alpheus Hyatt may be grouped in three 

 sections : First, as the head of a museum of 

 natural history; secondly, as a teacher of 

 science; and, thirdly, as an investigator. 

 A few salient features of these phases of 

 work may be noted. 



For the head of a museum of natural his- 

 tory. Professor Hyatt had many and 

 marked qualifications; his knowledge of 

 zoology, of paleozoology and of geology 

 was extensive ; he was skilful in manipula- 

 tion, suggestive in council, enthusiastic and 

 approachable. 



His plan that a natural history museum 

 should be arranged so that a visitor on en- 

 tering should pass from the simpler groups 



to those more specialized, and that the 

 specimens in each case should be similarly 

 classified, though opposed as impractical, is 

 both sound and feasible. Somewhat dis- 

 posed in late years to a too great use of 

 diagrams and models in place of actual 

 material, his recognition of the value of 

 these, of descriptive labels and of a per- 

 sonal guide was early, important, and help- 

 ful. His invention of the ' Hyatt bracket ' 

 gave an accessory at once simple, eft'ective, 

 and inexpensive, and applicable for great- 

 er use than that for which it was planned. 

 It is true that the full realization of much 

 of his best museum work and thought is 

 left for appreciative successors, as Pro- 

 fessor Hyatt was too apt to be content with 

 an initiative, the result of which he clearly 

 apprehended, and did not always give at- 

 tention to the actual carrying out of details, 

 details that in many cases required contin- 

 uous interest through successive years. 



Professor Hyatt's reputation as a teach- 

 er will rest largely on the work he did for 

 the Teachers' School of Science. His man- 

 agement of this school was very skilful, 

 and his lectures, of which he gave many 

 courses, were uniformly successful. It was 

 here that he enforced the value of direct 

 observation and comparison, and trans- 

 mitted the spirit instilled into him by 

 Agassiz to another generation of teachers, 

 many of whom to-day attribute a large 

 share of their success to his methods. His 

 direct influence upon the work of other 

 lecttirers in this school may also be men- 

 tioned. His early maintenance of a seaside 

 laboratory at Annisquam, Mass., the re- 

 sources of which were open to teachers so 

 far as space and means would allow, was 

 also an important edticational mode. 



In the pursuit of his investigations, Pro- 

 fessor Hyatt not only studied the accumu- 

 lations preserved in museums in this coun- 

 try and abroad, but he partook in active 

 field work ; he dredged off the east coast at 



