Hyde

creased correspondingly because, besides his sal-
ary, he enjoyed, until 1875, an additional annual
compensation of two and a half per cent, of the
surplus (own testimony before the investigation
committee of 1877, post, no. 93, p. 36), Since,
under the Tontine, and, later, under the deferred
dividend policies, no accounting was required
of the funds accumulated to pay the deferred
dividend, the large surplus provided money for
a wasteful enlargement of the company and for
such other abuses as were common in the early
stages of corporation development in the United
States (brought out in the investigation conduct-
ed by Charles E. Hughes, see report of the com-
mittee in 1905-06, post, pp. 421-24, 102-08, 117,
122, 129, 140). Under competitive conditions
other companies adopted the system with some
modifications. In 1877 t*16 state of New York
undertook an investigation looking to the con-
trol of such practices, but it was not until the
eighties that the public began to realize the dis-
crepancy between estimated returns on maturing
Tontine policies and the sums actually paid, and
also the increasing dissatisfaction on the part
of lapsing policy holders (for figures estimated
and paid see Ibid., p. 148).

Gradually Hyde had acquired a majority of
the shares of the Equitable and controlled abso-
lutely the company, of which he had become pres-
ident in 1874 for a salary of $37,500 with cer-
tain additional sums not clearly specified. In
1886 it was agreed that after his death the com-
pany should pay an annuity of $25,000 to his
wife, Annie (Fitch) Hyde, whom he had mar-
ried in 1864 (report of committee of 1905-06,
post, p. 101). Four years before his death he
sought to provide for the continued family con-
trol of his majority interest by creating a trust
of 502 shares in favor of his son, who, however,
lost control in the course of the struggle that
brought about the New York investigation of
1905 by the Armstrong committee.

[Henry Baldwin Hyde, prepared tinder supervision
of J. W. Alexander, J. H. Hyde, and Wm. Alexander
(1901) ; The Proc. at the Convention to Commemorate
the Fortieth Anniversary of the Equitable Life Assur-
ance Soc. (1899 ?) ; The First Fifty Years of the Equi-
table Life Assurance Soc. (1909) ; Mark Sullivan, Our
Times, III (1930) ; investigations of 1877 in Docs, of
the Assembly of the State of N. Y., 187? (1877), nps.
93, 103; report of the committee in 1905-06, IUd.,
1006 (1906), no. 41, pp. 90-150; Testimony Taken
Before the Joint Committee of the Senate and Assem-
bly of the State of N. Y. to Investigate . . . Life Insur-
ance Companies (10 vols. and index, 1905-06); R. H.
Walworth, Hyde Geneal (1864), vol. I; N. Y. Times,
May 3, 1899; World (N. Y.), May 3, 1899.]

CE.P.

HYDE, JAMES KEVINS (June 21, 1840-
Sept. 6, 1910), physician, was born in Norwich,
Conn,, the son of Edward Goodrich and Hannah

Hyde

Huntington (Thomas) Hyde. He was a descend-
ant of William Hyde who emigrated from Eng-
land to Massachusetts probably in 1633 atl^
joined the company of Thomas Hooker which
founded Hartford, Conn. James prepared for
college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.,
afterward entering Yale College, from which he
received the degree of A.B. in 1861. That same
year he began the study of medicine in the Col-
lege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York,
but in the following summer he joined the Army
of the Potomac, then engaged in the Peninsular
campaign. He assisted in caring for the wound-
ed from the battles of Malvern Hill and Fair
Oaks, and accompanied a convoy of wounded
to Washington hospitals, where he remained on
duty for nearly a year. In July 1863, he was
appointed an acting assistant surgeon in the
navy and ordered to the North Atlantic block-
ading squadron. Later, he was placed in charge
of the naval hospital at New Bern, N. C. In Oc-
tober 1863 he was commissioned as assistant
surgeon in the regular naval service and assigned
to the San Jacinto in the Gulf of Mexico. Fol-
lowing hospital duty at Key West, he joined the
Ticonderoga of Admiral Farragufs squadron,
then making a round of European ports. He re-
signed from the navy on Feb. 27,1869, and after
a course of lectures at the University of Penn-
sylvania he received the degree of M.D. in 1869.
After his graduation, he went to Chicago and
took up the practice of dermatology. He held the
position of lecturer on dermatology in Rush
Medical College from 1873 to ^76, when he
was made professor of the same at Northwestern
University. In 1879 ^e was appointed professor
of skin, genito-urinary, and venereal diseases at
Rush Medical College, and this position he held
for the remainder of his life. For many years
he was also secretary of the faculty. From 1902
to 1910 he was professorial lecturer at the Uni-
versity of Chicago.

He made dermatology his specialty when that
science was in a chaotic condition, and did pio-
neer work in his field. He was one of the found-
ers of the American Dermatological Associa-
tion in 1876, and was twice its president. He at-
tended its meetings regularly, served on com-
mittees, and invariably contributed a paper at
its gatherings and took part in the discussions.
His special articles number over a hundred, all
prepared with patience and care, but marred by
an exuberant style and involved construction.
His Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Skin,
a notable work, was first published in 1883, and
ran through eight editions. He was also the au-
thor of Early Medical Chicago (1879). He held

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