DETERMINATION OF THE DATES OF PUBLICA¬ 
TION OF CONRAD’S “FOSSILS OF THE 
TERTIARY FORMATION” AND 
“ MEDIAL TERTIARY.” 
BY 
William Healey Dall. 
[Read before the Society, November 12,1892.] 
For many years the paleontologists of Europe and America 
who desired to work on the Tertiary fossils of this country 
have been hampered by uncertainties of nomenclature due 
to want of information in regard to the dates of publication 
of the works above alluded to, as well as the scarcity of the 
works themselves. Some time since the writer began to 
collect data for use in his own work, finding the references 
already printed by Lea and Conrad, and subsequently by 
0. Meyer, insufficiently full to serve the desired purpose. 
Having enjoyed the personal acquaintance of both Conrad 
and Lea, more especially the latter—and of Meek and others 
who were more or less conversant with the events connected 
with the claims of priority made by both Conrad and Lea— 
it has seemed well to put on record a statement of the cir¬ 
cumstances as the writer has been able to learn them, espe¬ 
cially since they tend to show that the controversies which 
arose were due to misunderstandings and the injudicious 
meddling of well-meaning friends, rather than any inten¬ 
tional unfairness on the part of either of the principals. 
In getting at the dates of publication of the different parts 
of Conrad’s papers the writer has examined thirteen copies 
or parts of copies of the “ Medial Tertiary,” and has found 
that three others certainly exist which have not been acces- 
30—Bull Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 12. 
(215) 
