11 Facts About Morrill Wyman

Morrill Wyman was an American physician and social reformer.

Morrill Wyman established a medical practice in Cambridge which he continued for over fifty years.

Early in his career Morrill Wyman became interested in ventilation and became an expert on the ventilation of sickrooms and public buildings.

Morrill Wyman devised a method and device for removing excess fluid from the chest cavity.

In 1850, Morrill Wyman performed the first recorded thoracentesis, later described by Henry Ingersoll Bowditch after performing the procedure on one of Bowditch's patients the same year.

Morrill Wyman lectured on medical subjects for many years, both at a private medical school that he and his brother Jeffries conducted in Boston and at Harvard, where he served as interim professor of anatomy from 1853 to 1856.

Morrill Wyman took a special interest in the Harvard Medical School during his terms as a Harvard overseer.

Morrill Wyman was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Morrill Wyman served as president of Cambridge Hospital during the construction of its first building; a building at the hospital now bears his name.

Morrill Wyman testified at a hearing in 1868 on a bill to abolish all corporal punishment in public schools in Massachusetts - a bill which passed the lower house of the General Court but failed in the Senate.

Morrill Wyman married Elizabeth Aspinwall Pulsifer, the orphan daughter of a ship's captain.