OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH 299 



logical series. In addition to the collection of fossil vertebrates, 

 he made important contributions to the geology and natural re- 

 sources of the regions explored. 



It was the understanding with Survey officials that the material 

 collected by Marsh should remain in his custody until thoroughly 

 investigated and the results published. After his death, therefore, 

 all specimens belonging to the Government were promptly trans- 

 ferred from New Haven to Washington. He suffered some adverse 

 criticism in his work of collecting for the Geological Survey, but 

 the aspersions cast on his methods had no foundation in truth and 

 were happily silenced by the correspondence which appeared in 

 Science, January 5, 1900. 



Marsh's contributions to scientific literature were chiefly the fruit 

 of three lines of investigation mammals, birds, and reptiles 

 and modern text-books of geology and paleontology show how 

 much he added to the prominence now accorded American forms. 

 Though not an easy writer, he took great pains to express himself 

 clearly and in correct English, and his papers exhibit none of the 

 carelessness of expression that often mars the literary work of 

 scientific men. The careful and methodical distribution of his 

 writings to scientific centers throughout the world gave him emi- 

 nence in practically every country. 



His work on the Tertiary formations, both East and West, was 

 productive of numerous papers on fishes, serpents, birds, croco- 

 diles, lizards, amphibians, ungulates, rodents, carnivores, insec- 

 tivores, and primates. Most of the species of fossil horses dis- 

 covered by him were described before 1876, yet the two editions of 

 Polydactyle Horses were published in 1879 and 1892, respectively, 

 and include the illustrations made for Huxley in 1876, to show the 

 progressive adaptation in the teeth and limbs of extinct equine 

 mammals. Recent examples of what Marsh considered atavism, 

 however, cited in these papers, are not so regarded by some noted 

 vertebrate paleontologists, who look upon them merely as deformi- 

 ties or duplications, like the sixth finger in the human hand. 



The unearthing of various Miocene ungulates which he called 

 Brontotherida formed the basis of many descriptions of genera and 



