1897.] A Chapter in the History of Science. 843: 
ternal characters * * * does not meet the requirements of 
modern science,” and that classifications are not made simply 
“for the convenience of beginners.’ 
At last, however, the principles of classification adopted by 
Cope have become generally accepted, and doubtless this was 
in no small degree hastened by their application to all the 
amphibians and reptiles by Boulenger. 
Cope’s attention to the extinct reptiles was excited by the 
examination and consideration of a Carboniferous lizard-like 
amphibian which he was requested in 1865 to report upon. 
It was a new species which he named Amphibamus grandiceps 
and considered to be the type of a new order to which the 
name Xenorachia was applied, but which he subsequently 
referred to the new comprehensive order Stegocephali. 
He sought for specimens of the extinct species with as much 
enthusiasm as he had for the recent. Extinct and living he 
considered together and light was mutually reflected from the 
two to guide him in the perfection of the entire system. In 
1869 he gave expression to the results of his studies in a well 
illustrated “Synopsis of the Extinct Batrachia, Reptilia and 
Aves of North America.” This was supplemented in 1874 by 
addenda and a “Catalogue of the air-breathing Vertebrata 
from the coal measures of Ohio.” 
A rich field was opened to him in 1877, when he received 
the first instalment of reptilian remains from Texas, which 
were at first considered to be of Triassic age, but subsequently 
determined to be Permian. Successive instalments of amphi- 
bian as well as reptilian skeletons enriched his collection, and 
his investigations revealed a new and wonderful fauna rich 
in species and often differing widely from any previously 
known. These were described in many articles. The results 
for the amphibians were summarized in 1884 in a memoir on 
the “ Batrachia of the Permian period of North America.” 
The Permian amphibians were found to vary much in the 
composition of their backbones. Instead of having single cen- 
tra arranged in a continuous row as in existing Vertebrates, 
they had distinct bones on which were devolved portions of 
the functions fulfilled by the centra of higher Vertebrates. 
