MEMOIR OF O. C. MARSH 521 



The following memoirs of deceased Fellows were read : 



MEMOIR OF OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH* 

 BY CHARLES E. BEECHER 



Among the leading men of science in America, Professor Othniel 

 Charles Marsh was unquestionably one of the best known and had one 

 of the strongest personalities. The world-wide reputation he enjoyed, 

 however, is not altogether attributable to the particular department of 

 research in which he stood without a peer, for, added to his attainments 

 in vertebrate paleontology, he possessed an unusual number of mental 

 qualifications in other lines, as well as marked personal characteristics, 

 which made him known and felt where his science could never reach. 

 His fame will undoubtedly rest on his work among the fossil vertebrates. 

 Nevertheless, his energy and attainments in other directions were suffi- 

 cient to have made for him a permanent record. 



The nearness of the perspective at the present time renders it difficult 

 properly to individualize and accord the true rank to the many impor- 

 tant discoveries Marsh has made. He brought forth in such rapid suc- 

 cession so many astonishing things that the unexpected became the rule. 

 The science of vertebrate paleontology could not assimilate new material 

 so fast, and it will be years before the true significance and bearing of 

 much that he has done will be understood. The constant stream of 

 vertebrate riches which from 1868 to 1899 flowed into the Yale Univer- 

 sity Museum from the Rocky Mountain region had a similar bewildering 

 effect on Marsh, for it was impossible for him to do more than seize on 

 what appealed to him as the most salient. The work of the hour was 

 to him of prime importance, whether it was for the determination of a 

 new order of mammals or a new cusp on a tooth. Still, he seems to 

 have had a just conception of relative values, for it will be found that 

 he plucked the most luscious plums from the paleontological tree, and 

 left chiefly the smaller or unripe and imperfect fruit untouched. 



Another element in his success was seen in the improvement he made 

 in the methods of collecting, preserving, and developing vertebrate fos- 

 sils, so that even forms long known only from fragmentary remains were 

 represented in his collections by almost complete specimens, presenting 

 nearly the same degree of novelty shown in forms actually new. 



As a collector, Marsh was seen at his best, and the collections he 

 amassed during his forty-five years and more of activity in this direc- 



*Abridged, with alterations, from the account published in the American Journal of Science, 

 fourth series, vol. vii, June, 1899. This memoir was not presented at the meeting, but is inserted 

 here in its place. 



