ANHIVERSAUr ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 57 



head of the anatomists of America, and for skill, industry, and 

 success alike in investigation and in exposition there were probably 

 few that equalled him in Europe. 



His studies, however, had not been confined to human anatomy. 

 He had directed his enquiries far and wide through the various 

 grades of the animal kingdom, not only in the living world but 

 among the extinct organisms of bygone ages. He was thus led by 

 a natural transition to researches in palaeontology, and more parti- 

 cularly among the fossil vertebrates. On his achievements in other 

 departments of biology, so marvellous in amount and so valuable in 

 quality, I am not competent nor would it be appropriate here to 

 dwell. Eut in his palaeontological work he came in touch with 

 geology, and to this side of his labours I should like briefly to 

 refer. 



A few years before he attained his professorship some important 

 discoveries of mammalian bones had been made in the West. These 

 and other fossil remains found their way to Leidy, who worked out 

 their structure and affinities and brought to light a mass of facts of 

 the highest interest in their bearings upon the history of life upon 

 the American Continent. The results of his investigations were 

 published in 1853 in a memoir with the title of the 'Ancient 

 Fauna of Nebraska.' This research, which established his reputa- 

 tion as the ablest of American palaeontologists, proved to be only 

 the first of a series of brilliant investigations by which he por- 

 trayed the structure and zoological relations of the vertebrate fauna 

 of the North American Continent during a succession of geological 

 periods. To give an adequate account of this continuous mass of 

 laborious research and happy generalization would require far more 

 space than can be allowed here. Dr. Leidy was universally acknow- 

 ledged to be the Cuvier of American palaeontology. And the praise 

 lavished upon him by his own fellow-citizens was re-echoed in no 

 stinted measure in Europe. 



I cherish as one of the most memorable incidents of a visit which 

 I paid to Philadelphia in the year 1879 my meeting with this 

 distinguished naturalist and most lovable man. With what modesty 

 he spoke of his own work, with what generous appreciation he 

 referred to that of others, with what infinite patience and gentleness 

 he would unfold and explain his views to any questioner who 

 seemed to be interested in them ! I well remember the pathos of 

 his remarks as he told me how he had been led to abandon his 

 researches in vertebrate palaeDutology and return to his first love — 



