4 io OBITUARIES [mat 



After the latter date Professor Marsh himself began the remarkable series 

 of explorations in the West to which we have referred ; and henceforth he 

 announced a constant succession of remarkable discoveries of extinct vertebrata, 

 making known not merely new genera and families, but also several entirely 

 new orders. He first discovered the Cretaceous toothed birds (Odontornithes), 

 of which he published several preliminary notices and eventually (in 1880) a 

 great monograph for the United States Geological Survey. Another series of pre- 

 liminary notices of a race of early Tertiary mammals, of elephantine proportions, 

 with paired horns on the head, culminated in a similar memoir on the Dinocerata 

 in 1884. A constant succession of preliminary notices in the American Journal 

 of Science relating to other remarkable extinct vertebrates were intended to be 

 followed by further monographs published by the government, and a large 

 number of plates were prepared for the purpose ; but unfortunately circum- 

 stances prevented the completion of these works, and they must now be issued 

 posthumously. Among other strange animals thus treated, may be mentioned 

 the huge toothless flying reptiles (Pteixinodon) of the Cretaceous period ; the 

 land reptiles (Dinosauria) of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, of which 

 Professor Marsh discovered most of the known types and proposed the first 

 scientific classification ; the Cretaceous swimming reptiles, or Mosasauria ; the 

 Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals ; the early ancestors of the horses ; and 

 several remarkable early groups of mammals, among which were the huge 

 quadrupeds which he termed Brontotheria. To the last he displayed his 

 usual activity, and his final j^aper on some Dinosaurian footprints appeared 

 only in the number of the American Journal of Science current at the time of 

 his death. 



The main feature of Professor Marsh's work, judged from a scientific stand- 

 point, consists in its concise mode of expression and profuse allowance of 

 excellent illustration. Some of his critics, indeed, have said that the value of 

 his publications depends more upon the artist than upon the Professor's pen. 

 They contain very little generalisation and are never tainted by preconceived 

 ideas such as sometimes distort more philosophical minds. They thus afford 

 a mine of accurately-recorded facts which will ever be of permanent value, 

 even when the present phase of biological thought and speculation has 

 passed away. 



Professor Marsh was well known in Europe as a frequent visitor, and had 

 many interests in addition to those centred in palaeontology. He was an 

 enthusiast in Japanese art, in many other kinds of art, in the growth of 

 orchids, and in the care of his Alderney cows. His bachelor home in New 

 Haven, now bequeathed to Yale, was replete with art treasures and books ; and 

 his garden extended over four ordinary " squares." He was a Foreign Member 

 of the Geological Society of London, and received the first Bigsby Medal from 

 that Society in 1877. In 1882 he was appointed Director of Palaeontology to 

 the U.S. Geological Survey, and in 1883 he became Honorary Curator of 

 Vertebrate Palaeontology in the National Museum, Washington. From 1883 

 to 1896 he was President of the National Academy. He was honorary Ph.D. 

 of Heidelberg, and Correspondent of the Institute of France (Academy of 

 Sciences), from which he received the Cuvier Prize two years ago. His great 

 palaeontological collections were presented to Yale University by deed of gift on 

 January 1, 1898. His will bequeaths the whole of his other property to the 

 same university, of which he had been so long a conspicuous ornament. 



