364 C. SCHUCHERT THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE OP PALEONTOLOGY 



standpoint of publishing scientific papers. With these limitations, we 

 may say that there are about 112 working paleontologists in North Amer- 

 ica, including the three who are not members of the Society. Of these, 

 8 are women — 1 Canadian and 7 Americans — all of whom are interested 

 in invertebrate fossils and 4 of whom are actively concerned in research 

 publication. Of the total 112, 7 are Canadians, all of them inverte- 

 bratists, and the remaining 105 are living in the United States. From 

 these figures it is apparent that Canada is backward in paleontology. 



Of the 112 more or less active American paleontologists, 74 are con- 

 cerned with invertebrate fossils and stratigraphy, 30 are vertebratists, 

 and 8 are paleobotanists. We should ask ourselves next how many of 

 these workers are actually and constantly forwarding our science by 

 original research, with results seeing the light of day through the print- 

 ing-press, thus eliminating the sporadic workers and also those whose 

 work is not of a constructive kind. The speaker fully realizes that into 

 such a verdict personal opinion enters largely, and with this understand- 

 ing he would say that, even though his viewpoint seems to him liberal, 

 there are but 37 invertebratists, 17 vertebratists, and 4 paleobotanists 

 who meet these qualifications. In other words, there are at best but 58 

 leading American paleontologists. 



After an analysis of the visible results of the three divisions, we must 

 accord the first place to the vertebratists as being in the healthiest con- 

 dition scientifically. This division, with its 17 active workers, well bal- 

 anced with young, middle-aged, and older men, has a coherence and an 

 esprit de corps that are contagious when one gets among them. If there 

 is a weakness anywhere, it is the fact that in all of Canada there is not 

 at present a vertebrate paleontologist. It is true that the science of 

 vertebrate paleontology can be successfully taught in but few places, be- 

 cause of the extraordinary expense involved in getting the necessary 

 material for demonstration and study; and yet it is more or less success- 

 fully taught today at Columbia, Yale, Princeton, California, Michigan, 

 and Chicago universities ; and let us hope that in the near future it may 

 be taught also at McGill and, as it surely will be, at Toronto. 



Let us next see where the vertebratists are located. Not a single one 

 is actually at work on either a national or State survey ; and this anomaly 

 clearly needs rectification. In our universities there are 17 vertebratists, 

 using the term now in its broadest sense; 15 are at work in museums, 

 and 12 of these are either in the American Museum of Natural History, 

 the Carnegie Museum, or the United States National Museum. As there 

 are but 7 invertebratists in all American museums, however, contrasted 

 with the 15 vertebratists, we see illustrated here, what is so well known, 



