LIFE AND WORKS OF COPE. XV 



in one great group or order (by Cope) was a most happy 

 one and even the diagnosis given was good. Nevertheless 

 it was long before the order was recognized by other icthy- 

 ologists. That it was not recognized earlier was partly due 

 to the inconsistencies in Cope's own presentation, but still 

 more to doubts arising from certain unfortunate complica- 

 tions. 



The main characters he assigned to the Pledospondyli 

 were the " anterior four vertebrae much modified, and with 

 ossicula auditus," also the presence of a prgecoracoid arch. 

 But from this group he differentiated two large orders,* 

 distinguished by simple anterior vertebrae, including the 

 form (Gymnotus, the electric eel) which had been pre- 

 viously placed in the same family with the Sternopygidse, 

 and which appeared to all other investigators to be at least 

 very nearly related. With many contradictions con- 

 fronting other workers, it is not strange that they did not 

 at once accept Cope's classification. But his intuition was 

 better than his logic or his application of diagnosis. Time 

 went on. It was ascertained that there was no distinction 

 between the electric eel and the Sternopygids, such as he 

 had alleged ; it was ascertained that the opinion (which he 

 shared with distinguished predecessors) that the curious 

 cat-fishes known as Hypophthalmids had "vertebrse unmodi- 

 fied " was the extreme reverse of the truth ; they were found, 

 in fact, to have the first four vertebrse not only co-ossified 

 but so modified and crowded that they were shoved into 

 the skull and could only be seen when the skull is bisected; 

 the anterior " unmodified vertebrse " of Cope and others be- 

 ing those which succeeded the modified ones. 



Thus the objections against Cope's classification were 



♦The electric eel was isolated as the representative of a peculiar order 

 ( Glanencheli) because It was supposed to have " no prsecoracoid." Again, the com- 

 bination of " four vertebras co-ossifled, and with ossicula auditus " was attributed 

 to another order {Nematognathi), but within the same order a group was admitted 

 with the attribute of " vertebrse unmodified," although it was remarked that the 

 fishes in question, "the Hypophthalmidw, are indeed scarcely to be referred to this 

 order." 



