XXVlll LIFE AND WORKS OF COPE. 



will be fouad to correspoad with many other characters. Bocourt, 

 to whom is due the merit of having pointed out their systematic im- 

 portance, did not realize the very great progress made by means of 

 that character, the modifications of which he so ably illustrated, for 

 he still maintains the artificial group Scincoidiens, in spite of the 

 objections of Cope, whose views are evidently confirmed by the re- 

 searches of the French herpetologist." (" Synopsis of the families 

 of existing Lacertilia." Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 

 Vol. XIV, Fifth Ser., 1884.) 



Evolution of the Mammals. 



Cope's most numerous and voluminous vs^ritings were 

 devoted to Mammals, and to appreciate the importance of 

 his contributions to this group it is necessary to cast a brief 

 glance over the history of mammalian paleontology. 

 Cuvier, the founder of this branch of science, had repre- 

 sented the ecole des faits in opposition to Geoffroy St. 

 Hilaire, and founded a school wholly opposed to general- 

 ization as to the origin and succession of animal life, and 

 firmly adherent to the Special Creation hypothesis. As a 

 master of comparative anatomy, Cuvier exerted an immense 

 influence upon the succeeding French paleontologists, such 

 as Jourdan, Croizet, Cristol, De Blainville, Aymard, Lartet, 

 and Pomel. It is true that De Blainville and Gervais 

 showed a wide range of knowledge, but Gaudry was the 

 first of the French paleontologists to grasp the spirit of evo- 

 lution. In Germany, Jager and Blumenbach ranked as 

 more or less voluminous descriptive writers, while Kaup 

 showed superior powers of analysis. 



Cuvier's unnatural classification of the hoofed animals 

 into the Solipedes, or horses, and Pachyderms, or rhinoce- 

 roses and hippopotami, prevailed and was adopted even by 

 Leidy in this country. Richard Owen, by far the greatest 

 man after Cuvier, made a decided advance, and, as in the 

 classification of the fishes and reptiles, was the direct pre- 

 decessor of Cope. He defined the new mammalian orders, 



