38 
ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
as a dangerous antagonist, an energy to reach the truth, and an impetuosity 
to convince others of truth, that was prophetic, indeed, that was completely 
demonstrative of pent-up mental power which must have been most disturb¬ 
ing to those of his academy who had nestled down into positions of com¬ 
fortable intellectuality. 
We now enter upon five years of acute activity. 
On December 15, 1871, Cope attended a meeting of the American 
Philosophical Society, and presented his paper on “The Method of Creation 
of Organic Forms.” In a fortnight a reply was given, which began with a 
quotation from Job: “I am a brother to dragons and a companion to owls,” 
and continued for several pages in attempted explanation and demonstration 
of the falsity of Darwin’s theories, and ended with the author’s conviction 
that the only good that can come from these theories is the fact that they 
must bring about their own defeat. Cope replied immediately and was 
then replied to, and so on. But why follow the discussion ? 
The spell was being felt even farther south. Within two months of the 
date of its founding, the Philosophical Society of Washington listened to a 
paper by Professor Gill, in which it was stated that if the doctrine of evolu¬ 
tion was accepted at all, it must involve man. 
This was also the date of Dr. Allen’s paper on the “Geographical Varia¬ 
tion of North American Birds,” a philosophical as well as descriptive article, 
an important contribution to the then scant literature of distribution, a 
paper which established a distinct method of zoological research that has 
reflected the highest credit on its author and on the institutions with which 
he has been connected. 
It was also in this year that Morse published his paper on “Adaptive 
Coloration.” 
In January, 1872, the New York Academy made its first direct contribu¬ 
tion to the subject of evolution by publishing a brief paper on the “Carpus 
and Tarsus of Birds.” I hope that Professor Morse, now forty-five years a 
member of this academy, is present at this gathering, for the fifty years that 
have passed since the appearance of the “Origin of Species” exactly syn¬ 
chronize with the period of his devotion to the principles enunciated therein. 
If, among the volumes of this academy from 1859-1876, one binding 
shows more signs of use than the others, take down the book, and you will 
find that it opens to this article by Professor Morse; a contribution to zoology, 
to comparative anatomy, to embryology and to the theory of evolution. 
It is a refreshing spot, but somewhat out of place in an arid expanse of 
descriptions of new species and revised classifications. 
Another paper issued by the academy in 1872, and characteristic of the 
new thought of the time, was by Benj. M. Martin on the “Unity of the 
General Forces of Nature,” but this was physical rather than biological. 
