CHARLES EMERSON BEECHER. 



''To Beecher we owe the first natural classification of the 

 Brachiopoda and Trilobita based on the law of recapitulation 

 and on chronogenesis. He also gave a very philosophic account 

 as to the origin and significance of spines in plants, and animals. 

 On these works his reputation in days to come will chiefly rest."* 



In 1893 there was discovered in the ITtica formation near 

 Eome, Xew York, a band, not over one-fourth of an inch thick^ 

 in which occur the trilobites Triarthrus and Trinucleus, ex- 

 quisitely preserved as pseudomorphs in iron pyrite, retaining an- 

 tennae and legs and many of the more delicate parts. This dis- 

 covery, by W. S. Valiant, afforded a hitherto unparalleled oppor- 

 tunity for the study of these animals. Two specimens of Trilo- 

 bites with legs had been previously known; W. D. Mathew had 

 announced the presence of antenna3, and Walcott by laborious 

 serial sections had determined the number and approximate form 

 of the legs and gills in a number of species. ISTow, however, a 

 vastly better opportunity for precise observation of the details of 

 the structure of these animals was presented. Beecher took 

 out several tons of the shale and, aided by his remarkable manual 

 dexterity, mechanical skill, and untiring patience, worked out the 

 structure of antenna, legs, and other ventral appendages with a 

 minuteness which had previously been impossible. Since 1893 

 he published fifteen papers on the Trilobites, including in 1897 

 a classification based on these studies, in which the group was 

 divided into three orders, founded chiefly on the development 

 of the free cheeks. At the time of his death he was at work on 

 an extensive monograph of Trilobite structure. He regarded 

 these animals as forming a subclass equal in rank to the Ento- 

 mostraca and Malacostraca, stating that in nearly every partic- 

 ular "the Trilobite is very primitive and closely agrees with the 

 theoretical crustacean ancestor. Its affinities are with both the 

 other subclasses, especially their lower orders, but its position is 

 not intermediate." More than five hundred specimens of Tri- 

 nucleus and Triarthrus were prepared by him, and Schuchert ob- 

 serves that few can appreciate the remarkable talent displayed 

 in clearing the adhering black shale from these small specimens, 

 and that it will be a long time before his equal in this delicate 

 work is likely to appear. 



* Charles Schuchert, op. cit. 



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