OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH 307 



retirement as Vice-President, and on leaving the office of Presi- 

 dent he made a second address: History and Method of Paleonto- 

 logical Discovery. In the first of these he showed his great knowl- 

 edge of vertebrates by tracing in a masterly way the introduction 

 and succession of the various types then known from this country, 

 beginning with the lowest Devonian fishes and culminating in the 

 highest primate Man; while in the second he gave a comprehen- 

 sive account of the progress of the science of paleontology from 

 earliest times. 



In 1877, Marsh was awarded the first Bigsby medal by the 

 Council of the Geological Society of London. In transmitting 

 this medal to Marsh, the President of the Geological Society said 

 in part: 



"The Medal is given in recognition of the great services which 

 Prof. Marsh has rendered to the palaeontology of the Vertebrata. 

 He has distinguished himself by studying the fossil remains of 

 nearly every great group of the Vertebrata from the Palaeozoic, 

 Cretaceous, and Cainozoic strata of the New World. The field 

 of his research has been immense, but it has been very correct; 

 and his descriptive and classificatory palaeontological work indi- 

 cates his effective grasp of anatomical details, and his great power 

 as a comparative osteologist." 



Marsh's first paper before the National Academy of Sciences 

 was read by invitation at Northampton in 1869, an ^ treated of 

 his new western fossils. He was not elected to membership in 

 the Academy, however, until 1874. Four years later he became 

 Vice-President, and in May, 1878, on the death of the first Presi- 

 dent, Professor Henry, he served as Acting President. While 

 substituting in the later capacity, the first instance occurred in 

 which the advice of the Academy was asked by direct act of Con- 

 gress. This action related to a consideration on the part of the 

 Academy of "the methods and expenses of conducting all surveys 

 of a scientific character under the War or Interior Department, 

 and the surveys of the Land Office," with a request to report to 

 Congress "a plan for surveying and mapping the Territories of 

 the United States on such general system as will, in their judgment, 



