Lull — Development of Vertebrate Paleontology. 221 



Influence of the American Journal of Science. 



The influence of the American Journal of Science as a 

 medium for the dissemination of the results of vertebrate 

 research has been in evidence throughout this discussion, 

 but it were well, perhaps, to emphasize that service more 

 fully. The Journal was, as we have seen, the chief outlet 

 for Professor Marsh's research, for there were published 

 in it during his lifetime no fewer than 175 papers descrip- 

 tive of the forms which he studied, as well as a great part 

 of the material in the published monographs. As Marsh 

 left very few manuscript notes, the importance of these 

 frequent publications in thus setting forth much that he 

 thought and learned concerning the material is very 

 great indeed. The combined titles of all other authors in 

 the Journal in this line of research for the century of its 

 life fall far short of the number produced by Marsh 

 alone, as they include 136 all told, but the range of sub- 

 jects is highly representative of the entire field of verte- 

 brate research. It should be borne in mind, moreover, 

 that Leidy, Cope, and Osborn each had another medium 

 of publication, which of course is true of other workers 

 in the great museums such as the American, National, 

 and Carnegie, all of which issue bulletins and quarto 

 publications for the purpose of disseminating the work 

 of their staff. Many of the earlier announcements of the 

 discovery of vertebrate relics appeared in the Journal, as 

 did practically all the literature of the science of fossil 

 footprints (ichnology), except of course the larger 

 quartos of Hitchcock and Deane. Of the footprint 

 papers by Hitchcock, Deane, and others, there were no 

 fewer than thirty- two, with a number of additional com- 

 munications on attendant phenomena bones and plants. 



Up to 1847, except for a few foreign announcements, 

 the Journal published almost exclusively on eastern Amer- 

 ican paleontology, the only exception being a notice of 

 bones from Oregon by Perkins in 1842. In 1847 came the 

 announcement of a western "Pakeothere" by Prout, 

 which marked the beginning of the researches of Leidy 

 and others in the Bad Lands of the great Nebraska 

 plains. The Journal thenceforth published paper after 

 paper on forms from all over North America, and on all 

 aspects of our science: discovery, systematic descrip- 

 tion, faunal relationships, evolutionary evidences — thus 

 showing that breadth and catholicity which has made it 

 so great a power in the advancement of science. 



