JANUARY 11, 1901.] 
then if our astronomers see a great institu- 
tion for promoting their science supported 
by Congress on a scale of unprecedented 
liberality, while, owing to defects of organ- 
ization, the results do not come out ona 
corresponding scale, what is their duty as 
patriots and citizens in the premises? 
The other and concluding question is this: 
What possible object can men enjoying the 
high and well-earned reputation which so 
justly accrues to the professional abilities 
of the officers of our Navy have in going 
outside the line of their profession to enter 
a field in which their best efforts can have 
no result but to lessen public confidence in 
their ability and good judgment? We can 
assure these officers that none of our citi- 
zens admire their professional skill and 
achievements more heartily than do the as- 
tronomers. We do not believe there is a 
director of an observatory in the land who 
would not welcome the advent of a naval 
officer to relieve him of the onerous duties 
of administration, were such a thing com- 
patible with efficiency. But the director 
knows well that no such result would be 
possible unless the officer would consent to 
be subordinate to him, just as he would be 
the subordinate of the officer, if he per- 
formed scientific duty on a naval vessel. 
THE RECENT PROGRESS OF VERTEBRATE 
PALEONTOLOGY IN AMERICA. * 
THE three sciences especially favored by 
nature in this country are astronomy, pale- 
ontology and geology. American progress 
in astronomy is largely due to our rela- 
* Introduction and conclusion of a popular lecture 
illustrated by field and museum photographs., deliv- 
ered at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., on the oc- 
casion of the opening of the Hall of Natural History. 
SCIENCE. 
45 
tively clear and dry atmosphere, as com- 
pared with that of northern Hurope, to our 
inventive genius in the matter of instru- 
ments and to the private and public liberal- 
ity which has founded great observatories 
and telescopes. Paleontology is also nota- 
bly an American science, not because of the 
superior ability of its American votaries, 
but because of the vast extent of the arid 
region of the West exposing thousands of 
miles of fossil-bearing strata which in a moist 
climate would be covered by vegetation. 
This branch has especially enjoyed the lib- 
erality of the national government, and two 
men of large wealth, Professors Marsh and 
Cope, have devoted their entire fortunes to 
it. Except by institutions west of the Mis- 
sissippi it cannot be pursued with limited 
means because of the great distances in- 
volved, the expense of fitting out explora- 
tions, and the equally great expense of pre- 
paring the fossils when they arrive in the 
East. 
The development of paleontology in this 
country has followed the forest clearing of 
the East and the winning of the West by 
stage coaches and railroads. Mastodons, 
great sloths, horses and cetaceans were the 
principal animals found in the East. Among 
other early observers of this Eastern fauna 
was President Jefferson. David Owen, as 
U.S. Geologist between 1847 and 1852, ex- 
plored the Mississippi Valley as far west as 
Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota. Joseph 
Leidy, the distinguished comparative anat- 
omist of the old school, astonished the world 
in the fifties by describing the ancient fauna 
of Dakota and Nebraska. In 1870 the 
line extended west into Wyoming; Leidy, 
Marsh and Cope were all exploring and de- 
scribing the types of this Hocene region 
with feverish haste, so that upon the aver- 
age each animal was baptized with at least 
threenames. Itisour hard lot at present to 
find order out of this chaosof species. ‘Aprés 
moi le déluge,’ apparently was the motto 
