EDWARD DRINKER COPE 319 



The time at the Smithsonian passed quickly and was well spent 

 in hard work work that was to tell so splendidly in the years yet 

 to come. Partly as a rest from overwork and partly for study, he 

 went to Europe in 1863, and for a year he visited the great museums 

 of England, France, Holland, Austria, and Prussia, systematically 

 examining the collections of reptiles in the chief centers of science. 



The broadening influence of foreign travel soon manifested 

 itself, and although herpetology was his first love and continued 

 to be the favorite branch of science to his life's end, he began to 

 develop wider interests and to extend his studies to various other 

 subjects. 



The Civil War was in progress during his visit to Europe, and 

 of special interest, therefore, in this connection is the following 

 quotation from one of his letters. 



"I hear nothing but bad news from the United States. It is 

 plain that we cannot carry on those works, or achieve the results 

 which require the united systematic efforts of a whole people 

 without a strong government which shall absolutely rule; but it is 

 plain also that such arrangements, as far as I can see here, are 

 the moral ruin and intellectual degradation of a great many 

 people; hence the conclusion that the results to be obtained are 

 not worth the loss incurred in obtaining them; hence the request 

 of the Jews for a king instead of a judge, was a mistake. But as 

 things are, I suppose we shall have a strong government; what my 

 duty would be in case I were drafted, I am as much in the dark 

 about as ever. It seems wrong to withdraw myself from any 

 participation in government at all yet if one begins it is hard to 

 stop short of armies." 



Soon after his return to the United States he was called to the 

 professorship of Natural Science in Haverford College and for 

 three years, from 1864 to 1867, ne lectured in that institution. 

 It was while holding that chair that in 1865 he married Anne Pirn, 

 daughter of Richard Pirn of Chester County, a distant cousin. 



Meanwhile his papers, which were increasing in number and 

 which for the most part were published in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, more and more, according to Osborn, 

 "showed the impulse of philosophical spirit, complete familiarity 



