846 The American Naturalist. [October, 
special parts. It was not a classification based on the exami- 
nation of the entire structure, but rather an exposition of the 
development of a few particular characters, which more expe- 
rience subsequently convinced him were of less value than he 
had supposed. Nevertheless, in some respects the proposed 
classification was much in advance of those previously adopted, . 
and useful hints were given for the further improvement of 
the system. 
Later Cope followed up this attempt at the reformation of 
the ichthyological system with several others especially treat- 
ing of extinct types. One of them, “On the classification of 
the extinct fishes of the lower types,” was published in the 
Proceedings of the American Association for 1877. The 
results of his studies were summarized, in 1889, in “ A synop- 
sis of the families of Vertebrata,” and two years afterwards 
(1891) with modifications, in an article “ On the non-actinop- 
terygian Teleostomi.” These results were very valuable, and 
attention was for the first time directed to the importance and 
morphological significance of the skeletal fin structures of the 
ancient fishes long confounded under the name of Ganoids. 
Instead of this single order (or subclass) of the old systematists, 
he named four superorders of the Teleostomi or true fishes, 
and recognized seven orders, including the old ganoids after 
eliminating the Lepidosteids and Amiids, which were referred 
to the Actinopterygians. Only two of the seven orders are 
represented by existing forms—one (Cladistia) by the bichirs 
of Africa, and the other (Chondrostei) by the sturgeons. | 
His work on the extinct fishes was incomparably better than 
any that had been done before in the United States. He far 
surpassed all his predecessors, not only by his knowledge of 
morphological details manifest in the extinct as well as living 
forms, but by his keen philosophical instinct and taxonomic 
tact. But this philosophical instinct was sometimes at fault, 
and occasionally he indulged in the wildest speculations, for 
which he has, not unjustly, been taken to task. Yet even his 
blunders were the result of the facility of his mind in seizing 
and adapting the latest utterances of science. One notorious 
case may be given. The great Russian embryologist Kowal- 
