Ixxii l^ill-- ANIMAL KINOnOM. 



ivi-oiitlv Enp;laiul, thvougli tlic labors of M.ill'our aiul his piiiiils, lias advanced to a posi- 

 tion far ahoad of tlio Unitod States. 



Of anlliroi>ologieaI authors, we have room only to s]ioak of Morton, Davis, E. 

 (i. Squior, rickering, L. 11. IMorgan, Agassi/., Nott and Gliddon, Wyniaii, J. 1). Whit- 

 ney, Foster, Jones, Abbott, Gatsehek, Dorsey, Bessels, Carr, Berendt, Leidy, Baird, Dall, 

 Towell, rutnani, C. A. White, Uau, Gilhnan, Meigs, Jaekson, Barber, C. Thomas, and 

 a niunberof eolleetors and students now in the Held, ehietly of aboriginal arehivology. 



The third, or evolutional epoeh, jirodneed an original and distinetively American 

 school of evolutionists. Hyatt's memoir On the I'arallelism between the Different 

 Stages of Life in the Individual, and those in the Entire Group of the Molluscous 

 Order Tetrabranehiata, was iniblished in 18t>7, and several jiapers, extending his 

 views to other groujis of Ammonites and molluscs, have njipeared since then. Cope's 

 Origin of ticnera was published in 18G8, and his paper (^n the Metliod of Creation 

 of Organic Types, in 1871. As Cope observes, tlie law of natural selection "has 

 been epitomized by Spencer as the 'survival of the fittest.' This neat expression, no 

 doubt, covers the case ; but it leaves the origin of the fittest entirely untouched," 

 and he accordingly seeks for the causes of its origin. Here also should be men- 

 tioned the writings of Baird, Allen, and IJidgway, on the laws of geographical 

 distribution and climatic variation in niaunnals and birds, which have revolutionized 

 our nomenclature in these classes, and bear directly on the evolution hypothesis. 

 Special attempts to ascertain the probable ancestry of American mammals have been 

 made by Cope, Marsh, and Gill; of eephalopod molluscs by Hyatt; of insects by 

 Packard ; and of brachiopods by ISIorse. Contributions to the doctrine of natural 

 selection have been made by Dr. AV. C. Wells, Eatinesquo, Haldeman, Walsh. Riley, 

 Morse, Brooks, and others. The jiapers by J. A. Ryder on mechanical evolution, and 

 by Hyatt on the influence of gravitation on the animal organism, deserve especial 

 mention, as do AVhitnian's on the theory of concreseeiu'c. 



In conclusion we may close this historical sketch with some pertinent n'inarks of 

 Galton in his work on Hereditary Genius: — 



"The fact of a person's name being associated with some one striking scientific 

 discovery helps enormously, but often unduly, to prolong his reputation to after-ages. 

 It is notorious that the same discovery is frequently made sinudtaneously and quite 

 independently by different jiersons. Tlius, to speak of only a few cases in late, yeai-s, 

 the discoveries of photogi-aphy, of electric telegraphy, and of the planet Neptune 

 through theoretical calculations, have all their rival claimants. It would seem that 

 discoveries are usually made when the time is ripe for them — that is to say. when the 

 ideas from which they naturally flow are fermenting in the minds of many men. 

 When ap)>les are ripe, a trifling event suffices to decide which of them shall first drop 

 off its stalk; so a small accident will often determine the scientific man who shall first 

 make and i>ul>lish a new discovery. There are many persons who have contributed 

 vast numbers of original memoii-s. all of them of some, many of great, but none of 

 extraordinary importance. These men have the capacity of making a striking dis- 

 covery, though they had not the luck to do so. Their work is valuable and remains, 

 but the worker is forgotten. Xay, some eniinently scientific men have shown their 

 original powers by little more than a continuous flow of helpful suggestions and 

 criticisms, which were individually of too little importance to be remembered in the 

 history of science, but which in their aggregate formed a notable aid toward its 

 progress." A. S. Packakd. 



