522 
Cope and Brown—names inseparable from 
the history of herpetology in America. 
In the study of fishes at the academy the 
names of Bonaparte and Cope, already men- 
tioned in other connections, stand forth 
prominently and their collections are still 
carefully preserved. Charles Lesueur, one 
of our earliest members, also attained fame 
as an ichthyologist, while of late years sev- 
eral of those who studied at the academy 
have become famous in the service of the 
United States Fish Commission—notably 
John Adam Ryder. 
As regards mollusks, the academy has 
from its foundation taken a prominent 
part and has accumulated a collection prob- 
ably second to none. A series of investi- 
gators, eminent in their special field, have 
made the society one of the world centers 
in the study of mollusks. 
Almost a century ago Thomas Say blazed 
the trail for conchologists, while Dr. Isaac 
Lea and T. A. Conrad were his successors 
in the academy in this department. lLea’s 
work, largely published by the academy, is 
the basis of all later systematic study of 
fresh-water mussels, while to Conrad we 
owe the foundation of American tertiary 
geology and paleontology, his work in this 
line overshadowing that on the living mol- 
lusca. Gabb was another famous worker 
in the same field, while to Geo. W. Tryon 
we owe the conception of the ‘‘Manual of 
Conchology,’’ begun by him in 1878 and 
continued by the academy after his death 
in 1888. Very few works have led to so 
many reforms in classification or have such 
a broad influence as this. Dr. Joseph Leidy, 
who may be termed the Cuvier of America, 
should be mentioned in this connection be- 
cause of his work forming the first volume 
of Binney’s ‘‘Terrestrial Mollusks of the 
United States,’’ published in 1851. This 
was the first American work on the mor- 
phology of the soft parts of our mollusks. 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 901 
Thomas Say, already referred to as a 
pioneer conchologist, is also known as the 
father of American entomology. Owing to 
his energy, the academy’s collection in this 
department was begun—a collection which 
by steady growth has reached a total of a 
million specimens and has become of world- 
wide renown. The long list of entomolo- 
gists who have contributed to its develop- 
ment contains most of those whose activities 
constitute the earlier history of entomology 
in America. 
Titian R. Peale, Wilson, LeConte, Horn, 
McCook, Cresson, Martindale and others 
have made our entomological department 
one of the first importance. The Cresson 
collection of hymenoptera has made the 
academy the greatest in America in this 
particular branch. The Bassett collection 
of galls and gall insects is the most compre- 
hensive ever brought together. 
In paleontology the names of Leidy and 
Cope are preeminent. The ‘Extinct 
Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska,’’ pub- 
lished by Dr. Leidy in our Journal, is a 
classic. Students of paleontology still 
come to consult the types of his descrip- 
tions, most of which are preserved in our 
collection. 
Professor Cope’s part in the development 
of American paleontology is too well known 
to require detailed mention and was car- 
ried on side by side with his studies of 
reptiles and fishes, in which his reputation 
was equally great. On his death-bed he 
placed the finishing touches to his report 
on the pleistocene remains discovered at 
Port Kennedy, Pennsylvania, a paper 
which attracted the attention of the pale- 
ontological world and which appeared in 
the Journal of the academy soon after his 
death. 
In botanical research the academy has 
always held an important place and its 
herbarium, now numbering some 900,000 
