the Ohio State Medical Society in 1846, president of this society in 1861, corresponding member of the American Society 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 Cincinnati hospitals.
He was an early and persistent advocate of combined cephalic version in obstetrics, "Difficult Labors and Their Treatment." ("Transactions of the Ohio State Medical Society," 1854); and of the establishment of asylums for the care and cure of inebriates. A fluent and logical writer he contributed numerous papers to the journals and societies of his day. Among the more important of these were:
"The Prize Essay of the Ohio State Medical Society," for the year 1854; "Drunkenness, its Nature and Cause or Asylums for Inebriates." ("Transactions of the Ohio State Medical Society," 1859); "Report of the Committee on Obstetrics to the Ohio State Medical Society." ("Transactions of Ohio State Medical Society," 1860).
He died in Cincinnati, August 15, 1879.
Wyman, Jeffries (1814–1874)
This physician, who did so much to advance the knowledge of natural sciences, was the third son of Dr. Rufus and Ann Morrill Jeffries, and a brother of Morrill Wyman (q.v.). He was born at Chelmsford, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1814. As a boy 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, although he showed a liking for chemistry and anatomy. Some of his class-mates remember the interest which was excited among them by 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 John C. Dalton (q.v.) 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 disease. He graduated in 1837. His graduation thesis, which was not published, was entitled "The Oculo." He started practising in Boston, and at the same time was made demonstrator of anatomy in the Harvard Medical School under Dr. Warren, a position bringing but scanty returns, but his life was abstemious. He was unwilling to accept more from his father, who out of his moderate income had provided 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. Rufus Wyman (1778–1842), the father, was the first superintendent of the McLean Insane Asylum, then at Charlestown, holding the position from 1818 to 1835.
Fortunately in 1840 Jeffries 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 anatomy in the school of medicine, and comparative anatomy and natural history at the Jardin des Plantes, attending the lectures of Flourens, Magendie, and Longet on physiology, and of de Blainville, Isidore St. Hilaire, Valenciennes, Dumeril, and Milne-Edwards on zoology and comparative anatomy. He took a walking trip along the Loire and another along the Rhine, whence he went through Belgium to London. In London he made a study of the Hunterian collections at the Royal College of Surgeons, but was called home by the illness of his father, who died before he reached America. On his return to Boston he spent most of his time in scientific work, but without adequate remuneration. In 1843 he was offered a professorship of anatomy and physiology in the medical department of the Hampden-Sidney College, established at Richmond, Virginia. The work in the medical college lasted merely during the winter and spring
