DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY — GILMORE 307 



stitution, whence they were transferred to Professor Leidy in Phila- 

 delphia for study. Dr. Evans died in Washington in 1861 while 

 engaged in the preparation of a report on the Badlands fossils that, 

 he and others had collected. 



The vicissitudes attending the custody of vertebrate fossils by the 

 Government in these early days are well illustrated by an account 

 published in one of the early reports of the National Museum. Some- 

 time between 1850 and 1860 an "enlightened"' Commissioner of 

 Patents, who was annoyed by the presence of a collection of fossil 

 bones in one of the rooms of the Patent Office, without consulting^ 

 anyone sent them to a mill at Georgetown, where they were trans- 

 formed into commercial fertilizer. A contemporary connnented, 

 "Once for thought they there became food for the farmer's plants."' 



Among the early collections of fossil vertebrates received was a 

 small one made under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution 

 by Thaddeus A. Culbei-tson on an expedition to the Mauvaises Tenses 

 (Badlands) and the Upper Missouri in 1850. He was allotted $200 

 by the Smithsonian Institution to cover the transportation costs of 

 collections made. 



Culbertson was a graduate of Princeton Univei-sity, and he visited 

 this region for his health. He was accompanied by his brother 

 Alexander, who had long been connected with the American Fur 

 Co. and so was familiar witli the whole countrj^, and had indeed sent 

 valuable specimens of fossil manmials to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. Thaddeus A. Culbertson made collec- 

 tions of the recent fauna and flora of the regions visited, and, though 

 he was constantly searching for fossils, he met with no success ex- 

 cept in the Badlands at the locality where his brother had previously 

 found the remains of the fossils sent to the Philadelphia iVcademy. 

 According to his journal, published in the Annual Report of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for 1851 (pp. 93-95), he spent only a few 

 days collecting in the Badlands. The fossil portions of the collec- 

 tion were sent to Dr. Joseph Leidy for study, the results of whose 

 investigations were published in volume 6 of the Smithsonian Con- 

 tributions to Knowledge, 1854. Thaddeus A. Culbertson returned 

 to his home from this expedition in August 1850 with renewed health, 

 but soon afterward he succumbed to a prevalent disease after a few 

 weeks' illness. 



Secretary Henry pointed out in the Fifth Annual Report of the 

 Smithsonian Institution that Dr. Joseph Leidy, in a study of the 

 Oligocene collections made by Thaddeus A. Culbertson, was able to 

 characterize the following animals : Rhinoceros nehrascensis, Rhino- 

 ceros occidentalism Palaeotherium hairdii {^Mesohippus hairdi), and 

 Agriochaerus antiquus. The type specimens of the second and third 



