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OBITUARY. 



EDWARD DRINKER COPE. 



Born July 28, 1840. Died April 12, 1897. 



AMERICA has lost one of its most eminent biologists in the person 

 of Professor Cope, of Philadelphia. For some time the friends 

 most intimately associated with him had noted with concern a 

 rapid failing in his health and sad aberrations in his once great 

 intellect. Born in Philadelphia, where he spent the greater part of 

 his life, Cope received his earliest scientific training in the University 

 of Pennsylvania. He completed his studies in Europe, and obtained 

 the degree of Ph.D. at Heidelberg in 1864. In the same year he was 

 appointed Professor of Natural Science in Haverford College in his 

 native city. He resigned this position three years later, partly from 

 ill-health, and between the years 1871 and 1873 took part in many 

 geological exploring expeditions in Kansas, Wyoming, and Colorado. 

 From 1873 to 1878 he was engaged in field-work with the Wheeler 

 Survey, established by the United States Government. He was also 

 Vertebrate Palaeontologist to the Hayden Survey. At this time his 

 private fortune was ample, and he was able to pursue his general 

 biological and palaeontological researches quite independently of State 

 appropriations ; but during the next decade misfortune overtook his 

 investments, and in 1889 he gladly accepted from the Pennsylvanian 

 University the Professorship of Geology and Mineralogy, which he 

 held until two years ago, when he was transferred to the Professorship 

 of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. In 1895 ^^ became President 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 



Cope's first paper, on the primary divisions of the Salamandridas, 

 was published in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy so long ago 

 as 1859, and subsequently to that date he made about 400 contribu- 

 tions to various scientific serials, in addition to his numerous important 

 official publications issued by the United States Government. He 

 not only treated of the facts of zoology, derived both from living and 

 extinct groups, arriving at many fundamentally new and important 

 results in classification ; but since 1869 he also wrote much on the 

 philosophy of the subject, particularly the problems of evolution. 

 His latest book, " The Primary Factors of Organic Evolution," 

 summarising much of his work, was reviewed in our January number. 

 Cope, however, has left so enduring a mark on the progress of 

 zoology that no brief obituary can do adequate justice to his genius. 

 We propose to publish a more extensive appreciation of his work, by 

 Mr. A. S. Woodward, next month. 



There are also announced the deaths of : — Dr. Kenngott, Professor of 

 Mineralogy in Zurich University, and author of " Handvvorterbuch der Mineralogie," 

 at Lugano ; L. N. Johnson, formerly botanical instructor at Michigan University, 

 on February 27, at Boulder, Colorado, aged 34 ; on February 23, in Paris, Georges 

 ViLLE, Professor of Plant-physiology at the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, aged 73 ; 

 Jaroslav KosTAL, assistaut in zoology at the Technical High School, Prague; on 

 March 14, aged 79, Dr. Pobert Hogg, author of the " Fruit Manual," and formerly 

 editor of the Cottage Gardener, subsequently the Journal 0/ Horticulture. 



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