Edward Drinker Cope. — King. 5 
gether in the "Batrachia of the Permian Period of North 
America," (410). In 1889, appeared his elaborate monograph 
on ''The Batrachia of North America," (617), in which 31 
genera and 107 species are recognized, 7 of the former and 
27 of the later being described for the first time by Cope him- 
self. Professor Cope's last work in this field was a memoir 
on "The Reptilia of North America," completed but a short 
time before his death. 
( b. ) Ichthyology. 
As early as 1864, Cope became much interested in living 
fishes and he studied not only forms from various parts of 
America, but also many species from South America, Africa 
and the East Indies. 
His first paper on fishes was "On a Blind Silurid from 
Pennsylvania," published in 1864, (23). This was followed by 
"Partial Catalogue of the Cold-blooded Vertebrata of Michi- 
gan," (26, 32). While in Europe in 1863, professor Cope pur- 
chased a large collection of fish skeletons from all parts of the 
world, prepared by professor Joseph Hyrll of Vienna. From 
a study of this collection, Cope made an entirely new classi- 
fication of living fishes. In a notable paper read before the 
American Philosophical Society in 1870, he maintained that 
the primary divisions of the Teleostomi are indicated by their 
fin structure, and on this basis he proposed a division of the 
fishes into five groups. This classification is accepted- and 
employed at the present time. 
The extensive knowledge of living fishes which professor 
Cope had acquired peculiarly fitted him for a study of the fos- 
sil forms found in the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations of 
New Jersey. The outcome of these investigations appeared in 
two important works :"Synopsis of the Families of Vertebrata.''' 
published in 1889, (615), and "On the Non-Actinoptervgian 
Teleostomi," published in 189 1. (666). These paptrs first di- 
rected attention to the morphological significance of the skele- 
ton fin structure of the ancient fishes. 
In spite of errors of detail and somewhat hasty generaliza- 
tions, professor Cope's work in the classification of fishes and 
in the description of new forms has been of great value to the 
science of ichthyology. 
