70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BALTIMORE MEETING 



cheirus hilsensis, which give us some hint of his abiding interest in Kan- 

 sas fossil reptiles, an interest which was soon to bring great results. 



The turning point in his scientific career, from anatomy and medicine 

 to paleontology, came at the age of thirty-eight, when he returned to the 

 University of Kansas as Professor of Geology. Kansas was the scene of 

 his first inspiration in paleontology, and here his fossil studies and vigor- 

 ous health marked the happiest period of his life. He taught both verte- . 

 brate and invertebrate paleontology, anatomy, and medicine, and several 

 of his students have achieved distinction in these fields.^ With respect 

 to the breadth of his studies and of his influence at this time, his life was 

 comparable only to that of Joseph Leidy, who, it will be recalled, was at 

 once an anatomist, a physician, a paleontologist, and a microscopist of 

 distinction. He soon began to publish studies on the Cretaceous reptiles 

 of Kansas. Henceforth Kansas plesiosaurs and turtles, mosasaurs and 

 pterodactyls, were the subjects of a long list of papers, mostly in the 

 Kansas University Quarterly, from 1890 to 1899, with occasional articles 

 on Kansas fossil mammals {Platygonus, Aceratherium, Teleoceras fos- 

 siger). Meanwhile he made many explorations of the Cretaceous of 

 Kansas for fossil reptiles. 



At Kansas University Williston also kept up his two avocations of 

 anatomy and dipterology; he served as professor of anatomy and dean 

 of the medical school. He also continued to publish many papers on 

 recent Diptera. He accomplished a great work on this group and became 

 the leading dipterologist of the United States. His studies culminated 

 in the preparation of his Manual of North American Diptera — a book 

 which is indispensable to a beginner in dipterology and a very great con- 

 venience to advanced workers. His collection of Diptera from the United 

 States and Canada is now in the University of Kansas ; the remainder of 

 his collection, including much of the valuable material which he had 

 brought together while writing the volumes on Diptera in the Biologia 

 Centrali- Americana, is in the American Museum of Natural History. 



PALEONTOLOGIC WORK IN KANSAS * 



Williston's paleontologic contributions on the Cretaceous fauna of 

 Kansas began in 1879, with a short paper entitled ^^Are birds derived 

 from dinosaurs T' and included fifty-three communications, chiefiy to the 



3 Among these paleontologic students, who have since become known for their re- 

 searches, were : E. C. Case, C. E. McClung, Roy L. Moodie, Herman Douthitt, Alban 

 Stewart, Elmer S. Riggs, Barnum Brown, M. G. Mehl, E. B, Branson, and E. H. Sellards. 



* These notes on Williston's work on fossil reptiles and amphibians have been pre- 

 pared in collaboration with Prof. W^. K. Gregory of the American Museum of Natural 

 History. 



