
1890] Scientific News. 299 
39 
character,” well known in this country and in Europe, wanted to see 
the material of the Dinocerata shortly after the volume on this order 
had been published. When he arrived at New Haven he was told by 
Prof. Marsh that he was very sorry not to be able to show him the 
material, since it had been boxed up lately and was inaccessible. The 
fact is, that the whole material was spread on a large table in the room 
where the conversation took place. By the order of the professor the 
fossils had been covered up with cloth the day before. 
3. The next charge of Prof. Cope is, that the greater part of Prof. 
Marsh’s published work has been done by his assistants. This is denied 
by Prof. Marsh emphatically. As it is a very important question, I 
shall try to solve it as far as Iam able to do. I can not speak of the 
authorship of the work on the Odontornithes from personal knowledge, 
but from all that I have heard at New Haven it is true that this memoir 
is mainly the work of the late O. Harger. Mr. G. B. Grinnell, in a 
letter written to Prof. Marsh and published in the Herald, stated that 
Prof. Marsh dictated to him a part of the description and all the con- 
clusions of the work. This is all true, but the question remains, /rom 
whom did Prof. Marsh receive that which he dictated to Mr. Grinnell ? 
I think it is now the proper place to speak a little more fully as to the 
way of using his assistants adopted by Prof. Marsh. The fact is that a 
great part of the descriptive and general part of most of Prof. Marsh’s 
papers is the work of his assistants. Prof. Marsh asks them questions, 
the answers of which he either immediately puts down in black and 
white, or he makes out a list of questions to be worked out by his. as- 
sistants, for instance: ‘‘ What are the principal characters of the skull 
of the Sauropoda ?”’ or, ‘‘ What are the relations between the different 
groups of Dinosaurs?’ and so on. ‘The assistant, if not yet fully 
familiar with these questions, begins to work ; he goes over the whole 
literature, a thing rarely done by the Professor, and studies the speci- 
mens in the collection. After this is done, the Professor receives the 
notes of the assistant, or he asks questions, writing down the answers 
he receives. In this way he accumulates a great quantity of notes, 
written in his own handwriting, or in that of the assistant. By com- 
paring and using these notes it is easy for him to dictate a paper to 
any person who can write. This person, of course, when asked, can 
testify that the work was dictated by Prof. Marsh, without telling a 
falsehood. 
Since I have been named in connection with the work of the 
Dinocerata, I may state here fully the nature of the assistance I rendered 
in its preparation. On two Sundays I spent a number of hours at 
