314 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



will remember that each of these surveys was accompanied by a 

 scientist whose duties were the collection of objects in natural 

 history. These railway surveys were succeeded by the four great 

 scientific surveys which flourished in the seventies of the nine- 

 teenth century and were consolidated into the United States 

 Geological Survey in 1879, and the practice of employing trained 

 scientists in connection with their work continued. Among those 

 who have gained high reputation in consequence of this develop- 

 ment no one occupies a higher place than Edward Drinker Cope 

 of whom also more than of his contemporaries, it may be said 

 that he "possessed those brilliant mental qualities which are the 

 natural endowment of genius." It is the pleasant mission of the 

 following pages to present his contributions to science. 



The Cope family is a distinguished one in the annals of Phila- 

 delphia, and in the charming romances that Dr. Weir Mitchell has 

 written so delightfully about the early days in the Quaker City, 

 the name Cope frequently occurs. He tells pleasantly in one of 

 his books how during an epidemic of yellow fever in 1793, Mr. 

 Cope heroically remained in Philadelphia when flight was con- 

 sidered the best policy and devoted his attention to the victims of 

 the plague. It was Mr. Cope also who four years later when the 

 smallpox raged accepted the task of ministering to the wants of 

 the destitute and carried food to the homes of the sufferers. 



According to the records of the family Oliver Cope came from 

 Wiltshire, England, about 1687, and settled at Naaman's Creek 

 in the extreme north of what is now the state of Delaware. The 

 original grant of land is dated September 8, 1681, and recites 

 that William Penn of Worminghurst in the county of Sussex, 

 Esquire, in consideration of five shillings, etc., conveys to Oliver 

 Cope of Awbry in the county Wilts tailor, two hundred and fifty 

 acres of land within the province of Pennsylvania. 



Oliver's grandson was Caleb Cope, who, in 1761, removed to 

 Lancaster and later settled in Philadelphia. While serving as 

 burgess of Lancaster in 1776, the unfortunate Major Andrd, who 

 had been captured at St. Johns, Upper Canada, by General Mont- 

 gomery and sent with other British prisoners to Lancaster, arrived 



