CHAPTER XI 



Naturalists in Dispute 



G, 



"ENERALLY speaking, the naturalists of today are a 

 friendly clan not given to bickering and to reviling one 

 another. Two generations ago they were quite different. 

 The turmoil which followed the appearance of Darwin's 

 Origin of Species Is familiar to many, but the scientific 

 feud which accompanied the opening up of our Western 

 country is less well known. When the fossil fields in the 

 badlands of the West were accessible to exploration and 

 the Army had the Indians more or less under control, the 

 rush to collect and describe the treasures which were un- 

 covered by each succeeding rain as It washed down the 

 banks of ravines makes a story almost unbehevable today. 

 The principal competitors were Professor Othneil 

 Charles Marsh of Yale and Professor Edward Drinker 

 Cope of the University of Pennsylvania. Marsh had wealth 

 at his command, was an honorary member of forty-one 

 scientific academies in twelve different countries. For many 

 years he was President of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences and used the power of this office to keep Professor 

 Cope from being elected. Not until after Marsh's death 

 was Cope admitted to the Academy, and this despite the 

 fact that he belonged to one of the most distinguished 

 Quaker famihes in Philadelphia, was a great naturalist and 

 a kinsman of all the various and sundry Drinkers whom 

 we admire today. 



