SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



iq 



NOTICES BY JOHN T. CARR1NGTON. 



Edward Drinker Cope. — By the death of 

 Professor Cope America has prematurely lost 

 one of her greatest leaders in science. He died, 

 aged nftv-seven, on the 12th of April last, at his 

 house in Pine Street, Philadelphia, surrounded by 

 his books and his fossils, which had served him 

 to such good purpose. He may be truly said to 

 have died in harness, for on the Tuesday preceding 

 his death he passed for press elaborate articles 

 upon his latest opinions on the classification of 

 the vertebrates. In character he may be shortly 

 described as typical of so many of those who have 

 contributed to the splendid advance of civilization 

 which will make this present century celebrated 

 on the western continent. Thoughtful, con- 

 sistent, original, and above all guided by a manly 

 independence. Cope will rank as one of America's 

 greatest science teachers. Enthusiasm, as dis- 

 played with his judgment, did more than anything 

 else to create a lasting interest in the subjects he 

 expounded. When only seven years old evidence 

 was forthcoming of the natural aptitude for a love 

 of natural history, which was carefully fostered 

 and developed by his father. It was in the 

 neighbourhood of his native city his work began, 

 and he lived to become the leading professor of 

 its University, and there end his days, as one of 

 the world's most learned men of science. In his 

 early days, that is in his later teens, young Cope 

 had many opportunities of studying nature at her 

 wildest in the more remote parts of his native 

 state. At that period his range of investigations 

 included botany as well as zoology. At the age of 

 about nineteen he went to work in the Smithsonian 

 Institution, under Professor Spencer F. Baird, 

 especially upon reptiles. In 1863 Cope travelled in 

 Europe, never losing a chance of enlarging his 

 knowledge in our chief continental museums. He 

 began there his especial studies in ichthyology, in 

 which he was later to become such a learned 

 authority, in connection with his vast palaeonto- 

 logical research, which commenced about the year 

 1865. This was during his professorship of 

 natural science at Haverford College. It was in 1868 

 that Pi pe first published his " Synopsis 



of Extinct Amphibia. " As a result he was attached 

 to the i'^rical Survey, which gavr him 



splendid opportunities for study of fossils, and so 

 largely h>lp<:d to found his vast knowled 



rate life iiorn in Philadelphia 

 on Jul; pe descended from 



imncli m[«it': ho bad 



early settled in Pennsylvania. lie marrii 



nnie I' m. another name well known 

 in the - I riends A list of the works and 



lexer papers by 1'roi would indeed be- 



long, and will doubtless appear when a proper 

 '•rtaken, and such will be certain, 

 for few men'i work has I - Important 



At a mcelir ■ my on April 1 jth the 



was passed "The Academy of 

 hiladclphia has received with 



Professor Edward Drinker Cope. It is fitting that 

 this meeting should place on record a minute 

 expressive of its sense of the loss sustained. The 

 Academy witnessed the beginning and the end of 

 his long labours. It was to its halls he came as a 

 student in 1859, and it was to them he paid his last 

 visit before his final illness. The lustre thrown 

 upon the Society by his researches is but a reflex 

 of the spirit of this remarkable man who exhibited, 

 in a way rarely equalled in the history of science, 

 the consecration of a powerful intellect to the 

 pursuit of the knowledge of nature. To an almost 

 unerring accuracy of observation he conjoined 

 admirable judgment. He was unexcelled as an 

 expert in the field of vertebrate zoology of both 

 present and extinct forms ; he discovered great 

 numbers of genera and species ; he announced 

 startling and epoch-making schemes of classifica- 

 tion ; he framed comprehensive systems of philo- 

 sophy based on biologic premises." 



Edward James Stone. — There died at Oxford, 

 from acute pneumonia, on Sunday, May 9th, 

 Edward James Stone, the Director of the Radcliffe 

 Observatory in that city. By a curious coincidence 

 his death took place on the anniversary of the 

 death of his predecessor, the Rev. R. Main, whom 

 he succeeded in 1879. Mr. Stone was born in 

 London in 1831. His more important astronomical 

 appointments were as Chief Assistant at Greenwich 

 in 1S60. He became Her Majesty's Astronomer at 

 Cape Town in 1S70, whence he went to Oxford as 

 above stated. Perhaps he is best known by his 

 catalogues of stars of the southern hemisphere, one 

 of which numbered 12,441 stars, published in 1881. 

 Mr. Stone received the Gold Medal of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society in 1868 ; Lalande Prize of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1881. He was 

 one of the Presidents of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society and a member of the Council of the Royal 

 Society. His work in organizing the observation 

 of the Transit of Venus in 1SS2 was most successful, 

 as he had previously observed a like phenomenon 

 whilst at the Cape, with a seven-inch equatorial. 

 His high reputation was attained by his accuracy 

 in meridian observations, which faculty was largely 

 developed at Greenwich under Sir George Airy. 

 Mr. Stone was a member of Sir George Baden- 

 Powell's expedition to Nova Zembla, in August of 

 last year, where he, for a second time, had the 

 opportunity of observing a total eclipse of the sun ; 

 the first having been in Namaqualand. 



John M. Denton. — Canadian entomologists 

 have lost two of their active workers. Mr. Denton 

 was born in Northampton, England, on September 

 19th, 1S29, and died March 24th last. Brought up 

 in England as a tailor and draper, he emigrated 

 about 1855 and settled in London, Ontario, where 

 he gradually built up a successful business as a 

 merchant tailor. During his leisure Mr. Denton 

 cultivated a knowledge of economic entomology 

 and fruit farming, and also microscopy. He was 

 an original member of the London Branch of the 

 Ontario Kntomological Society, and served as one 

 of its Vice-Presidents, and ilu-n President, in 1878, 

 and several years following ; he was also an active 

 member ol the Fruil Growers' Association. 



J. Gamki 1 1,1-oni . Captain Geddes wa il .< 

 an ardenl entomologist, and wrote frequent articles 

 In the " Canadian Entomologist." I lorn in Montreal 

 in 1850, his early death, on April 3rd last, has 

 caused much sympathy. He, in turn, served as 

 Treasurer. Secretary, vice Prei Idenl and President 



of the Ontario Entomol gical Hi wasa 



bank manager I Ii n. 



