Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/598

 WYMAN

534

WYMAN

Dr. Wright was one of the founders of the Ohio State Medical Society in 1846, president of this society in 1S61, corre- sponding member of dvc- -i-±iierican Socie- ty of Physicians of Paris, an honorary member of the American Gynecological Society, president of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine in 1864, a member of the Cincinnati Obstetrical Society, and for thirty years held a position on the staff of the Commercial and Cincin- nati hospitals.

He was an early and persistent advo- cate of cephalic version in obstetrics, "American Practitioner," March, 1876, and of the estabhshment of asylums for the care and cure of inebriates. A fluent and logical writer he contributed numer- ous papers to the journals and societies of his day. Among the more impoi'tant of these were :

"Difficult Labors and Their Treat- ment." ("Transactions of the Ohio State Medical Society," 1854); the "Prize Essay of the Ohio State Medical Society," for the year 1854; "Drunken- ness, its Nature and Cause or Asylums for Inebriates." ("Transactions of the Ohio State Medical Society," 1859); " Report of the Committee on Obstet- rics to the Ohio State Medical Society." ("Transactions of Ohio State Medical Society," 1860).

He died in Cincinnati, August 15, 1879.

H. E. H.

Transactions of the American Medical

Association, vol. xxxi, (1880) (S. Loving).

Transactions of the Ohio State Medical

Society for 1880.

Am. Pract., Louisville, 1879, vol. xx (T. P.).

Obstet Gaz., Cincin., 1879-80, vol. ii (A. G.

Drury).

Tr. Am. Gyn. Soc. 1879, Boston, 1880, vol.

iv (port) (T. Parvin).

Wyman, Jeffries (1814-1874).

This doctor, who did so much to ad- vance the knowledge of natural sciences, was the third son of Dr. Rufus and Ann Morrill Jeffries, and born at Chelmsford, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1814. As a lad he went to the local academy; in

1826 to Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard in 1833, he was not remarkable as a student, al- though he showed a liking for chemistry and anatomy. Some of his class-mates remember the interest which was excited among them b)' a skeleton which he made of a mammoth bull-frog from Fresh Pond, probably one which is still preserved in his museum of comparative anatomy. His skill and taste in drawing, which he turned to such excellent account in his investigations and in the lecture room, as well as his habit of close observation of natural objects met with in his strolls, were manifested even in boyhood.

He began the study of medicine under Dr. John C. Dalton at Chelmsford and at Lowell, also studying under his father and taking the regular courses at Harvard Medical School. Elected house- student in the medical department at the Massachusetts General Hospital in his third year, the position offered him good opportunities for the study of dis- ease. He graduated in 1837. His grad- uation thesis, which was not published, was entitled " De Oculo." He started practising in Boston, and at the same time was made demonstrator of anat- omy in the Harvard Medical School under Dr. W^arren, a position bringing but scant}^ returns, but his life was abstemious. He was unwilling to ac- cept more from his father who out of his moderate income had pro\dded for the education of two sons, so he often went without things he really needed and to get a little ready money he joined the Boston Fire Department.

Fortunately in 1840 he was offered the curatorship of the Lowell Institute by Mr. John A. Lowell. He gave a course of twelve lectures upon comparative anatomy and physiology in the winter of 1840-41, and earned enough from this course of lectures to spend a short time in study in Europe. In Paris he studied human anatomj'- in the school of medi- cine, and comparative anatomy and natural liistory at the Jardin des Plantes, attending the lectures of Flourens,