TIMOTHY ABBOT CONRAD. 



1803-1877. 



IN Philadelphia, early in the present century, there was a 

 strongly developed taste for natural history pursuits, and eager 

 collectors of the local fauna naturally became so acquainted 

 and thrown together that the formation of a club and then the 

 organization of the Academy of Natural Sciences were the 

 logical outcome. Previous to this, local zoology had not 

 been overlooked, as the quartos of the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society show, and Peale's Museum was also an incentive 

 to natural history studies ; but all was more or less chaotic 

 until the academy came into existence. Then fresh enthu- 

 siasm was roused and every member became a collector, and 

 every collector a describer of new species. To-day these old 

 naturalists would irreverently be called " species mongers " ; 

 but if possibly there was a little less " science " in their 

 labours, all credit is due them for excellent intentions, and 

 every evidence of careful, correct, and valuable work, which 

 has not had to be done over. Looking back to the time 

 when Say, Nuttall, Rafinesque, Lesueur, Vanuxem, Troost, 

 Harlan, Morton, and Conrad filled the pages of the acade- 

 my's journal, we get a glimpse of a remarkable company, who 

 collected eagerly and studied carefully their " finds " and 

 spicily defended their positions when the great question of 

 " priority of publication " came up. These men were not 

 given to theorizing ; evolution was not in their vocabularies, 

 although we see at times some evidence of looking beyond a 

 species to its real significance. De Maillet's strange book had 

 been translated and informally discussed, but, as a general 

 thing, no one troubled himself with Lamarck, or all accepted 

 Cuvier without question. In short, these Philadelphia natural- 

 ists gathered specimens all day, and when they had the 

 material sat up all night describing new species. And among 



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