PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. xvii 



Almost a century ago Thomas Say blazed the trail for conchologists, 

 while Dr. Isaac Lea and Timothy Abbott Conrad were his successors. Lea's 

 work, largely published by the Academy, is the basis of all later syste- 

 matic study of fresh water mussels, while to Conrad we owe the founda- 

 tion of American tertiary geology and paleontology, his work in this line 

 overshadowing that on the living mollusca. Gabb was another famous 

 worker in this field, while to George W. Tryon, Jr., we owe the conception 

 of the Manual of Conchology, be^un 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 had such a broad influence as this. Dr. Joseph Leidy, who 

 may be termed the Cuvier of America, should be mentioned in this connection 

 because of his fine contribution to Binney's Terrestrial Air-breathing Mollusks 

 of the United States, publi bed in 1851. This was the first American work on 

 the morphology of the soft parts of the mollusks. 



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 col- 

 lection 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 entomologists who have contributed to its development, contains 

 the names of 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 most important in 

 America. 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 comprehensive ever brought together. 



In palaeontology the names of Leidy and Cope are preeminent. The 

 Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska, published by Dr. Leidy as 

 the seventh volume of the Journal, is a classic. Students of paleontology still 

 come to consult the types of his descriptions, 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 carried on side by side with his 

 studies of reptiles and fishes, in which his reputation was equally great. Even 

 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 paleontological 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 specimens, contains the types of 

 such pioneers as Nuttall, Pursh, Muhlenberg, and deSchweinitz, besides compre- 

 hensive collections from all parts of the globe. Among those whose researches 

 have been carried on at the Academy may be mentioned in addition to the above, 

 Durand, Charles E. Smith, Meehan, and Redfield. 



1* JOURN. ACAD. NAT. SCI PHILA., VOL. XV. 



