Horace Fort Jayne was an American zoölogist, biologist and educator.
Background
Jayne was born on March 17, 1859, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of David and Hannah (Fort) Jayne. His father, son of a Baptist minister, was brought up in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, at a time when educational facilities there were decidedly limited. It is indicative of his ability that he prepared himself to enter the University of Pennsylvania and completed the medical course there about 1825. For some years Jayne practiced medicine in New Jersey. In 1831 he introduced the first of the proprietary remedies which bear his name and which made his fortune. Returning to Philadelphia, he established a wholesale drug company for the manufacture and sale of his family medicines and became one of the richest men in that city.
Education
Horace, the younger of his two sons, shared many of his father's capabilities. He was a brilliant and enthusiastic student and at the age of twenty received the degree of bachelor of arts from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1882 he was graduated with highest honors from the medical school of that institution, receiving the Henry C. Lea prize for the best thesis ("The Variations in the Arteries of the Arm") and the Anomaly Prize. For the next two years he studied at Leipzig and at Jena where his association with Dr. Ernst Haeckel stimulated his interest in the study of biology. Returning to the United States, he studied for one year (1883-1884) at Johns Hopkins University and was at the same time an instructor in biology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Career
In 1884 Jayne became professor of vertebrate morphology there. In addition to his teaching he served as dean of the college faculty (1889-1894), dean of the faculty of philosophy (1890-1894), and as secretary of the faculty of the school of biology (1884-1889). During all the years of his connection with the university he gave liberally of his time and personal means toward furthering its interests. All the money he received in payment for his services he immediately returned. He took an active part in the founding of the biology school and gave $50, 000 for a building to house it. In 1894 he became director of The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia, a research institution organized by the university and Gen. Isaac J. Wistar. He remained there for more than ten years, continuing his investigations in comparative mammalian morphology, and serving as professor of zoology, 1896-1904. Although well grounded in all branches of biology, Jayne's main interest lay in comparative anatomy. His best-known book is Mammalian Anatomy - A Preparation for Human and Comparative Anatomy (1898). Other publications are "Descriptions of Some Monstrosities Observed in North American Coleoptera" in Transactions of the American Entomological Society (vol. VIII, 1880), and "Revision of the Dermestidae of the United States" in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (vol. XX, 1883). In these two papers the author's name appears as Horace F. Jayne, but he dropped the "F" in later years. His wife's death in 1909 was a shock from which he never recovered. Jayne could not regain either his health or his enthusiasm for life, and he died suddenly from heart failure in his fifty-fifth year, on July 8, 1913.
Achievements
Connections
Jayne's private life was unusually happy. He was married on October 10, 1894, to Caroline Augusta Furness, a talented daughter of Henry Howard Furness, the Shakesperian scholar. Their home, "Lindenshade, " at Wallingford, near Philadelphia, and their theatrical studio, "The Green Room, " in Philadelphia, were the scenes of many original social events to which invitations were eagerly sought.