Comparative anatomist, born in Chelmsford, MA, on the 11th of August 1814, his father, Dr. Rufus Wyman, being the first physician of the Maclean Insane Asylum, the earliest institution of its kind in New England. Young Wyman was prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Exeter, entered Harvard in 1829 and graduated in 1833. He studied medicine with his father and Dr. Dalton and took the degree of M.D. in 1837. His first appointment after graduation was as demonstrator to Dr. J. C. Warren, professor in Harvard University. Soon afterward he received the appointment of curator of the Lowell Institute, and in 1841 delivered a course of lectures before the Institute. He used the money earned by this for a voyage to Europe and attended the lectures of the most noted anatomists, physiologists, and natural historians in France and England. In 1843 he was appointed professor of anatomy and physiology in Hampden College, Richmond, VA, and in 1847, Hersey professor of anatomy in Harvard; and began the formation of the museum of comparative anatomy with which his name is associated. In its behalf he was wont to make long voyages in America, Europe, and Asia. In 1856 he was made president of the Boston Natural History Society, filling this position till 1870, and in 1857 was chosen president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On the foundation of the archæological museum by Mr. Peabody of London in 1866, he was appointed its curator, an office which, as well as the Hersey professorship, he held till his death. Prof. Wyman was one of the four members in addition to Prof. Agassiz who constituted the faculty of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, and entered with unflagging interest into all the large designs of his illustrious colleagues, who regarded him as ranking among the greatest comparative anatomists. A threatened attack of periodical catarrh compelled him in August 1874 to leave Cambridge for the White Mountains, but before doing so he put both his museums into the most perfect order. On September 4, 1874, he succumbed to a sudden hemorrhage which proved almost immediately fatal, the place of his death being Bethlehem, NH. Prof. Wyman was the author of numerous scientific papers on anatomical and physiological subjects, the titles of 64 of which appear in the Catalogue of Scientific Papers, published by the Royal Society of London.
