508 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1897. 



library : a distinguished ornithologist has recently been heard to 

 lament that in Cassin's time he could take away any book he wanted. 

 The by-law governing the case then, as now, forbade the removal 

 of books from the building, and, although this gentleman doubtless 

 returned all he borrowed, the same, it is to be feared, could not be 

 said of others who violated the law. Although then without a cent 

 of endowment, this department of the Academy was kept well up 

 with the times by exchange of publications and the munificence of 

 Dr. Thomas B. Wilson. 



The meetings were interesting and well attended, and the annual 

 volume of the Proceeding*, thanks to the absence of competition, 

 had attained dimensions not since reached. 



The most hopeful feature, however, of that epoch, was the galaxy 

 of young men who were then appearing on the scene, some of whom 

 turned out to be brilliantly successful, while others were far from 

 reaching the goal of their ambition. 



Cope had been elected a member in July, 1861, although prior to 

 that he had been an active worker in the Academy. The Curators 

 had reported in 1859 : " The care of the herpetological cabinet, 

 which for some time had lost the valuable services of Dr. Hallowell 

 in consequence of illness, has now been undertaken by E. D. Cope, 

 a young man who gives promise of much future usefulness both to 

 the Academy and to Natural History." He contributed three 

 papers to the Proceedings that year, and seven in 1860. All his 

 time was at this period devoted to herpetology, his work being done 

 in a small room on the first gallery floor. It was filled to overflow- 

 ing with books, bottles, the remains of luncheons, old clothes and 

 other impedimenta. His personal peculiarities were quite as pro- 

 nounced then as a later period of his career, and he already gave 

 promise of becoming what he was afterward justly said to be : the 

 greatest naturalist born on American soil. 



Directly beneath Cope's quarters, in the northeast corner of the 

 museum floor, was the mammalogical room where John Hamilton 

 Slack, a man of great versatility, laid ambitious plans for a mono- 

 graph of the quadrumana. As first proposed, it was to take the 

 form of a dignified quarto or even folio, to be richly illustrated at 

 the expense of the author, but it eventually appeared as a modest 

 paper of sixteen pages in the Proceedings for 1862. His ability as 

 a musician and amateur conjuror interfered with his scientific work. 

 Versatility has its disadvantages. 



