278 STUDY OP BRAINS OF SIX KMINENT SCIENTISTS AND SCHOLARS. 



EDWARD DRINKER COPE. 



Born in Philadelphia, July 28, 1840, of distinguished American ancestry. In 

 boyhood he showed great independence in character and action, incessant activity in 

 mind and body, and quick and ingenious thought. At the age of nineteen he went 

 to Washington to study and work in the Smithsonian Institution under Spencer F. 

 Baird. In April, 1859, he contributed his first paper to the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences, "on the primary divisions of the Salamandridse, with a description of two new 

 species." He followed this by a full description, in the same year, of reptiles brought 

 from West Africa by Du Chaillu, naming several new forms ; also by a catalogue of 

 the venomous snakes in the museum. In the succeeding three years he made twenty- 

 four communications upon the Reptilia and established himself, at the age of twenty- 

 two, as one of the leading herpetologists of the country. He exhibited a wide range 

 of self-acquired knowdedge and keen powers of systematic diagnosis and generalization. 

 He was professor of natural science in Haverford College (1864-1867) and professor of 

 geology and paleontology in the University of Pennsylvania (1886-1897). H. F. 

 Osborn speaks of Cope as the " last and the most distinguished of the old school of 

 comparative anatomists." While connected with the U. S. Geological Survey, under 

 Dr. Hayden, he made explorations in Wyoming and Colorado (1872-73), which 

 resulted in the discovery of many new types of fishes, mosasaurs, chelonians, dinosaurs 

 and other reptiles. He spent his summers in the Bad Lands, rapidly accumulating 

 an enormous collection of fossils and publishing exhaustive memoirs. At his death, 

 in 1897, he left twenty octavo and three great quarto volumes of collected researches. 

 Cope is not to be thought of merely as a specialist in paleontology, but rather as a 

 philosophic anatomist, who, while less logical and less accurate than Huxley, was more 

 creative and constructive and never let an opportunity slip by of at least throwing out 

 an hypothesis as to the phyletic relations of every great type he studied, and many of 

 these random guesses have been confirmed. 



Cope worked deliberately, and gave his whole mind to one subject at a time, if he 

 considered it of special importance, this power being aided by his remarkable memory 

 of species and of objects long laid aside for future reference. His field exploration was 

 characterized by great enthusiasm and indefatigable energy. Many friends in this 

 country and abroad have spoken of the invigorating nature of his companionship. In 

 times of relaxation he displayed a large fund of amusing anecdotes of the experiences, 

 mishaps and frailties of scientists, his own as often as those of others. Some of his 

 countrymen have allowed certain of his characteristics to obscure his stronger side, and 

 during his life he received few of the honors such as foreigners are wont to bestow 

 u|)()n tlieir countrymen of note ; yet few men have done as much as Co2:»e to push the 



