DATES OF PROFESSOR COPE’S RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 805 
About a month after this, or November oth, 1872, five papers 
by Prof. Cope were received at New Haven, and, on the 11th of 
that month, five more, which were all forwarded to me at Chey- 
enne, Wy. A third lot reached New Haven, December 4th, 1872, 
and was given to me on my return a few days later. In these 
various papers, which were mostly uncorrected proofs, several 
genera and species, which I had described three months before, are 
re-named by Prof. Cope. The papers, moreover, bear dates from 
July 11th to October 12th, 1872, and thus might appear to antici- 
pate part of my descriptions, in some cases only by a single day. 
These papers purport to have been read before the American 
Philosophical Society, but the official reeords of that Society show 
that they were not even presented until long after the dates 
claimed for them. They have since appeared in the Proceedings 
of that Society, Number 89 * (published February 6th, 1873), 
more than three months after my last paper had appeared in the 
American Journal of Science. 
On learning of the distribution of these papers by Prof. Cope, 
I renewed my inquiries about their true dates of publication, and 
found that copies were first received, October 29th, 1872, by the 
Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, of which Prof. Cope 
is secretary, and that apparently none were distributed at an 
earlier date. Wishing, if possible, to avoid bringing this matter 
into public notice, I informed Prof. Cope, personally, that I could 
find no evidence of any copies of his papers being distributed 
before October 29th, 1872, and requested him, if he claimed an 
earlier publication, to inform me where any of these papers had 
been sent. He at first declined to do this, but finally mentioned 
five addresses in this country and Europe, to which the papers in 
question had been duly forwarded, during his absence, by the 
Person entrusted with their distribution. I have since learned 
from two of these places that nothing definite is known of these 
Papers, and from the other three I have a positive assurance that 
none of them were received. 
It thus becomes evident’ that these papers by Prof. Cope were 
‘hot published at the time claimed, and I protest against the dates 
‘they bear being accepted as authentic. Publication of scientific 
Tesults means making them known, especially to those interested, 
and cannot be claimed where these results are so carefully withheld 
thot be claimed wher 
* Vol. XII, pp. 460, 466, 469, 472, 478, 481, 483, 487, 542, 554 and 580. 
20 
_ AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VI. 
