COPE, EDWARD DRINKER ( 1840-97). An American naturalist, born in Philadelphia. lie received his earliest training in private schools. and then studied anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1864 to 1807 he was profes sor of the natural sciences at Haverford College, Pennsylvania. On the death of Leidy, in 1891, he was made professor of geology and paleon tology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he wag also professor of zoology and comparative anatomy; from 1878 until his death he was editor of the American Naturalist. Re was geologist and paleontologist of the survey of the region west of the 100th meridian under Capt. G. M. Wheeler, and also of the survey of the Territories under Dr. F, V. Hayden. He made an immense collection of fossils which he de t:cribed in his various reports, usually published by the Government. His most important con tributions were to the history of extinct verte brates. Scarcely less important were his in vestigations of the herpetology and ichthyology of North America. In these fields (and espe cially in the former) his work was epoch-making and laid the foundation for the modern classifica tion of North American reptiles, amphibians, and fishes. Cope's contributions to science num
ber about 400. The most important are: Sys tematic _I rrangement of Laecrtilia and Ophidia (1864) : Systematic Arrangement of Extinct Batrachia, and Ares of North America (1869-79) ; Systematic Relations of the Fishes (1871) : Cretaceous Vertebrates of the West (1877) ; Tertiary Vertebrates (1885) ; The Ba trachia of North America (18S9) ; The Croco dilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America (1898). Cope was deeply interested in the ques tions relating to the subject of evolution. Ile was the leader of the school of American evolu tionists, teaching Neo-Lamarckism (q.v.), which considers the changes and variations wrought in the organism by the immediate influence of environment and the inheritance of such varia tions by the offspring as the most important factors of organic evolution. His most impor tant works on evolution are: Origin of Genera (1868); Origin of the Fittest (1SS6); Primary Factors of Organic Evolution (1896).