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OBITUARY. 



Edward Drinker Cope. 



By the death of Prof. Cope, of Philadelphia, which took place 

 on April 12th, Biology in America has sustained its greatest loss 

 since the decease of Agassiz, and as zoologist, as well as both 

 geologist and palaeontologist, his life work demands recognition 

 wherever zoology is a cultivated science and pursuit. 



Prof. Cope was born in Philadelphia on July 28th, 1840, took his 

 degree of Ph.D. at Heidelberg in 1864, and during the remainder 

 of a busy life effected much for the ever-growing knowledge of both 

 living and extinct animal life in his own land. He became suc- 

 cessively Professor of Natural Science in Haverford College, a 

 member of many of the well-known United States Geological Ex- 

 peditions, Vertebrate Palaeontologist to the Hayden Survey, Pro- 

 fessor of Geology and Mineralogy at Pennsylvania University, and 

 subsequently Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. 

 He was also a chief editor of our esteemed contemporary the 

 4 American Naturalist,' and in 1895 President of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 



It is impossible here to fully refer to his zoological work, which 

 lay among the vertebrata, and which has formed the subject of very 

 many papers, and also the contents of several handsome volumes. 

 These are sometimes somewhat overlooked by referring only to 

 his philosophical opinions. It is not infrequent to see a popular 

 zoological generaliser considered as possessing the technical know- 

 ledge of a zoologist, while as often a specialist who indulges in the 

 philosophical discussion of his subject is looked upon chiefly as a 

 man of views and theories. Prof. Cope combined both qualities. 

 To a most exhaustive and accurate knowledge of his subject, both 

 living and fossil, was added a power of drawing conclusions and 

 advancing opinions which, while always displaying a great intel- 

 lect, were frequently considered heretical by the holders and 

 promulgators of different views and other theories on organic 



