Hyatt

of Agassiz's students, left Cambridge and took
up work with the Essex Institute at Salem,
Mass., where, among other activities, he assisted
in establishing the Peabody Academy of Sci-
ences and in founding the American Naturalist,
the first American journal devoted to biological
sciences. He was one of its editors, 1867-71. In
this journal (April-June 1867) and in the Pro-
ceedings of the Essex Institute (vols. IV-V,
1866-68), he published his first important con-
tribution to zoology, a series of papers dealing
with "the moss-animals or fresh-water Polyzoa."
He also began his study on sponges, which cul-
minated years later in a monograph, "Revision
of the North American Poriferae" (Memoirs of
the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. II,
pt. IV, nos. 2 and 5, 1875-77).

In 1870 Hyatt left Salem to become custodian
of the Boston Society of Natural History. In
1881, he was made curator, and he remained
the scientific head of the Society until his death.
After 1873 he lived in Cambridge, in order to
be near the great collection of cephalopods at the
Museum of Comparative Zoology; a large pro-
portion of the research work of the last twenty-
five years of his career was devoted to this col-
lection. In 1880, however, he published a very
important monograph, "The Genesis of the Ter-
tiary Species of Planorbis at Steinheim" (Anni-
versary Memoirs of the Boston Society of Nat-
ural History, 1880). In 1889 appeared his great
memoir dealing with cephalopods, entitled "Gen-
esis of the Arietidae" (Smithsonian Contribu-
tions to Knowledge, vol. XXVI, 1889) ; his last
contribution to the study of the same group ap-
peared after his death, as a joint monograph
with J. P. Smith, Triassic Cephdopod Genera
of America (1905), being Professional Paper
No. 40 of the United States Geological Survey.
Hyatt's main interest in all his work was based
on his desire to discover the laws which gov-
erned the development of the individual and the
evolution of groups. He elaborated the idea of
stages in development, and of the laws associated
with such stages. While his terminology was
technical and sometimes made his writings hard
for a beginner to read, his ideas were stimulating
to a notable degree. The importance and value
of the principles which he elaborated have been
demonstrated by his leading students in their
investigations on various groups of animals
other than those with which Hyatt worked. In
1893, Hyatt made his chief contribution to the
discussion of stages and their controlling laws
in a paper called "Phylogeny of an Acquired
Characteristic" (Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society, vol. XXXII, 1894).

Hyatt

He loved to teach and accepted every oppor-
tunity to do so. He was professor of zoology
and palaeontology at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology for eighteen years (1870-88) and
he taught the same subjects at Boston Univer-
sity for twenty-five years (1877-1902). In ad-
dition he carried on at the Boston Society of
Natural History for over thirty years (1870-
1902) the Teachers School of Science, where
he gave courses of lectures on biology to the
public-school teachers of Boston. Recognizing
the great value of first-hand contact in the lab-
oratory with animal forms, he established a ma-
rine laboratory in 1879 at Annisquam, Mass.,
but as the location proved to be unsuitable, this
laboratory was abandoned and Hyatt joined with
others in the foundation at Woods Hole, Mass.,
of what is now the chief marine biological lab-
oratory in America. He was first president of
the board of trustees of this now famous insti-
tution.

On Jan. 7,1867, Hyatt married Ardella Beebe
of Kinderhook, N. Y., and the hospitality of their
home in Cambridge was notable. There were
three children, one son and two daughters. Both
of the daughters became sculptors—one, Anna
Hyatt Huntington, achieving a national reputa-
tion for work characterized by scientific accu-
racy as well as artistic merit. As a man Hyatt in-
spired the love and devotion of his students to
a marked degree. The fertility of his imagina-
tion was controlled by his high-minded scien-
tific integrity, while his enthusiasm was notably
contagious. He was always approachable and
kindly, unpretentious and open-minded. He was
constantly busy with either his researches or his
curatorial duties but always found time to help
teachers or students who needed aid. He was
keenly interested in the natural beauty of New
England and was one of the original members
of the Appalachian Mountain Club, of which he
later served as president (1887). Death came
to him suddenly from heart failure as he was on
his way to attend a meeting of the Boston So-
ciety of Natural History.

[W. K. Brooks, "Biographical Memoir of Alpheus
Hyatt, 1838-1902," Nat. Acad. Sci. Biog. Memoirs,
vol.4VT (1909); "Alpheus Hyatt, 1838-1902," by his
son-in-law, Alfred Goldsborough Mayor tg.v,], Pop.
Sci. Monthly, Feb. 1911; R. T. Jackson, "Alpheus
Hyatt and His Principles of Research," Am. Natural-
ist, Apr. 1913; Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist., vol.
XXX, no. 4 (June 1902) ; A. S. Packard, in Proc. Am.
Acad. Arts and 3d., vol. XXXVIII (1903); L. W.
Welsh, Ancestral Colonial Families: Geneal. of the
Welsh and Hyatt Families of Md. and Their Kin
(1928) ; Boston Transcript, Jan. 16, 1902.]

H.L.C.

HYATT, JOHN WESLEY (Nov. 28, 1837-
May 10, 1920), inventor, was born at Starkey,

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