35 



man ever had an envious feeling. Certain it is that no one 

 "welcomed the new professor with truer cordiality, or proved 

 himself a more constant friend. 



In these days it is sure to be asked how an anatomist, 

 physiologist, and morphologist like Prof. Wyman regarded 

 the most remarkable scientific movement of his time, the 

 revival and apparent prevalence of doctrines of evolution. 

 As might be expected, he was neither an advocate nor an 

 opponent. He was not one of those persons who quickly 

 make up their minds, and announce their opinions, with a 

 confidence inversely proportionate to their knowledge. He 

 could consider long, and hold his judgment in suspense. 

 How well he could do this appears from an early, and so far 

 as I know, his only published presentation of the topic, in a 

 short review of Owen's "Monograph of the Aye-Aye" (in 

 Am. Journ. Science, Sept., 1863) — the paper in which Prof. 

 Owen's acceptance of evolution, but not of natural selec- 

 tion, was promulgated. Dr. Wyman compares Owen's view 

 with that of Darwin (to whom he had already communicated 

 interesting and novel illustrations of the play of natui*al 

 selection) ; and he adds some acute remarks upon a rather 

 earlier speculation by Mr. Agassiz, in which the latter sug- 

 gests that the species of animals might have been created as 

 eggs rather than as adults. He states the case between the 

 two general views with perfect impartiality, and the bent of 

 his own mind is barely discernible. In due time he satisfied 

 himself as to which of them was the more probable, or, in 

 any case, the more fertile hypothesis. As to this, I may ven- 

 ture to take the liberty to repeat the substance of a conversa- 

 tion which I had with him sometime after the death of the 



