May 7, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



707 



the request that thee will neither mention nor show 

 it, * for — however trifling — I would doubtless be 

 miserably annoyed by some if thee should. Nobody 

 in this country (or in Europe, of ours) knows any- 

 thing about Salamanders, but Professor Baird and thy 

 humble coz., that is in some respects. Eusooni, the 

 only man who has observed their method of repro- 

 duction, has written enough to excite greatly one's 

 curiosity and not fully satisfy it. With suitable ap- 

 pliances of aquariums, etc., I should like to make 

 some observations. The other Salamander I caught 

 was Plethodon ghdinosum — the young — remarkable 

 for the great number of teeth that lie together in 

 two patches on the ' basisphenoid ' bone ; about 300 

 or more." 



Another passage gives an insight into his 

 strong opinion, so often expressed after- 

 ward, as to what constitutes the real pleas- 

 ures of life : 



" Pleasant it is, too, to find one whose admiration 

 of nature and detail is heightened, not chilled, by 

 the necessary ' investigation ' — which in my humble 

 opinion is one of the most useful as well as pleasing 

 exercises of the intellect, in the circle of human study. 

 How many are there who are delighted with a ' fine 

 view, ' but who seldom care to think of the mighty 

 and mysterious agency that reared the hills, of the 

 wonderful structure and growth of the forests that 

 crown them, or of the complicated mechanism of the 

 myriads of higher organisms that abound everywhere ; 

 who would see but little interesting in a fungus, and 

 who would shrink with aSected horror from a de- 

 fenseless toad* * * Dr. Leidy is getting up a 

 great work on comparative anatomy which is to be 

 the modern standard. Such a work will be very use- 

 ful to those who want to go to the bottom of natural 

 history ; it is an interesting study, too, to notice the 

 modifications in form — the degradations, f substitu- 

 tions, etc., among the internal organs and bones. 

 The structure, forms and positions of teeth, too, are 

 interesting to notice — so invariably are they the index 

 of the economy and the position in nature of the ani- 

 mal." 



This is the reflection of a lad of nineteen, 

 an age at which some modern educators 

 would have us believe our young men are 

 just ready for the collegiate Freshman class. 



* This passage probably indicates that he was sen- 

 sitive to being teased about his interest in these 

 animals. 



fA word used by French writers of the time to ex- 

 press lines of descent. 



During the same year young Cope went to 

 Washington to study and work in the 

 Smithsonian Institution under Spencer F. 

 Baird, and it is amusing to observe him in 

 the above letter classing himself with 

 Baird as the only Americans who knew 

 anything of the Batrachia. Upon April 19, 

 1859, he contributed his first paper (alluded 

 to above) to the Academy ' on the primary 

 divisions of the Salamandridte, with a de- 

 scription of two new species.' He followed 

 this by a full description in the same year 

 of reptiles brought from West Africa by 

 Du Chaillu, naming several new forms; also 

 by a catalogue of the venomous snakes in 

 the museum. In the succeeding three 

 years he made twenty-four communications 

 upon the Eeptilia and established himself 

 at the age of twenty-two as one of the lead- 

 ing herpetologists of the country. 



It is obvious from other portions of the 

 letter that by this time young Cope's career 

 was fully determined in his own mind. 

 Here and in the papers he was now pre- 

 senting he shows keen observation and 

 powers of systematic diagnosis, a wide 

 range of self-acquired knowledge, and 

 familiarity with the characteristics of his 

 distinguished seniors, Agassiz and Leidy. 

 This period included a year's study 

 (1858-9) of anatomy and clinical instruc- 

 tion at the University of Pennsylvania. In 

 1863 he traveled abroad for several months, 

 visiting especially the museums of Ley den, 

 Vienna and Berlin and extending his hori- 

 zon as a comparative anatomist, for upon 

 his return he at once showed the impulse of 

 the philosophical spirit, complete familiarity 

 with the history of opinion and marked 

 power of generalization. Thus his papers, 

 which began to crowd the pages of the 

 ' Proceedings of the Academy,' chiefly in 

 recent herpetology and ichthyology, display 

 a new breadth and range as in his division 

 of the Anura into the Arcijera and Rani- 

 formes (Firmisternia) and his demonstra- 



