Edward Drinker Cope, an American naturalist and comparative anatomist, born in Philadelphia in 1840. He became professor of natural science in Haverford college, Pa., in 1864, and resigned from ill health in 1867, and devoted himself to zoology and geology. Since 1859 he has contributed to scientific journals more than 100 papers, among which are contributions to the herpe-tology of tropical countries; monographs of the ichthyology of Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, etc.; "Primary Groups of Batrachia Anura"

(1865); "On the Arcif-erous Anura" (1866); reports on the reptilia of the several exploring expeditions (1862-'8); "History of the Ceta-cea of the Eastern North American Coast" (1866); "Synopsis of the Extinct Cetacea of the United States" (1867-8); "Systematic Arrangement of the Lacertilia and Ophidia" (1864), and "of the Class Reptilia" (1870); and " Origin of Genera "(1868). In 1868-'9 he investigated the greensand of the cretaceous formation of New Jersey, and discovered several new genera and species, which he described in "A Synopsis of the Extinct Batrachia, Reptilia, and Aves of North America" (4to, Philadelphia, 1869; published also in vol. xiv. of the "Transactions of the American Philosophical Society"). His paper on the "Systematic Relations of the Fishes," in the annual volume for 1871 of the American association for the advancement of science, is founded on the study of 1,000 skeletons, 800 of which were collected by the anatomist Prof. Joseph Hyrtl of Vienna, and are now in Prof. Cope's museum.

His paper "On the Hypothesis of Evolution, Physical and Metaphysical," appeared in "Lippincott's Magazine" for July, August, and September, 1870, and is No. 4 of the " University Series of Valuable Lectures and Essays" (New Haven, 1871). In August, 1871, he read a paper before the American association for the advancement of science "On the Method of Creation, or the Laws of Organic Development," which he expanded in a series of four articles in "The Penn Monthly Magazine" for 1872. Besides the above, and other scientific papers, he has written reports on the "Extinct Vertebrates of the Eocene of Wyoming and Nevada" (1872), and on "New Vertebrata from the Tertiary of Colorado" (1873).