20 
THE MUSEUM. 
For The Museum. 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PROF. EDWARD D. COPE. 
BY PROF. THOMAS G. GENTRY. 
Edward Drinker Cope, a distinguished American scientist and collector, was born 
in Philadelphia, July 28th, 1840. Descended from wealthy parents, belonging to the 
Society of Friends, no expense was spared in giving him as good an education as the 
best private schools and teachers of the day could afford. At an early period of life 
PROF. EDWARD D. COPE. 
(Portrait from the Germantown Independent.') 
he entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, but did not 
remain long enough to take his degree, as science, rather than medicine, was the 
rallying-point of his ambition. Nature-studies engrossed his principal attention, and, 
more than anything else, determined his subsequent career. With such wonderful 
powers of mind and body as he possessed, it is not at all surprising that his first im¬ 
portant scientific paper—a description of the bony structure of the mouth of venomous 
