The most successful investigators in this period on the different groups of animals include:—Louis Agassiz on the natural history and embryology of coelenterates and turtles; A. Agassiz, embryology of echinoderms and worms; H. J. Clark, embryology of turtles and systematic papers on sponges and coelenterates; E. Desor, echinoderms and embryology of worms; C. Girard, embryology, worms, and reptiles; J. Leidy, protozoa, coelenterates, worms, anatomy of mollusks; W. O. Ayres and T. Lyman, natural history of echinoderms; McCrady, development of acalephs; W. Stimpson, marine invertebrates; A. E. Verrill, coelenterates, echinoderms, worms; A. Hyatt, evolutionary theories, bryozoa and mollusks; Pourtales, deep sea fauna; C. B. Adams, A. and W. G. Binney, Brooks, Carpenter, Conrad, Dall, Jay, Lea, S. Smith, Tryon, mollusks; E. S. Morse, brachiopods, mollusks; J. D. Dana, coelenterates and Crustacea; Kirtland, Loew, Edwards, Hagen, Melsheimer, Packard, Riley, Scudder, Walsh, insects; Gill, Holbrook, Storer, fishes; Cope, evolutionary theories, fishes and amphibia; Baird, reptiles and birds; J. A. Allen, amphibia, reptiles and birds; Brewer, Cassin, Coues, Lawrence, birds; Audubon, Bachman, Baird, Cope, Wilder, mammals.
The progress of ornithology in the United States previous to 1876 is well described in a paper by J. A. Allen in the American Naturalist (10, 536, 1876). A sketch of the early history of conchology is given by A. W. Tryon in the Journal (33, 13, 1862).
Jeffries Wyman was the most prominent comparative anatomist of this period. His work includes classic papers on the anatomy and embryology of fishes, amphibia, and reptiles.
Zoology in the American Journal of Science, 1846–1870.
The fifty volumes of the second series of the Journal, including the years 1846 to 1870, cover approximately this period of morphology and embryology. During this period the Journal occupied a very important place in zoological circles, for J. D. Dana was for most of this period the editor-in-chief, while Louis Agassiz and Asa Gray were connected with it as associate editors. Moreover, in 1864 one of the most promising of Agassiz’s pupils, Addison E. Verrill, was called to Yale as professor of zoology and was made an associate editor in 1869.
In the Journal, therefore, may be found, in its original articles, together with its reports of meetings and addresses and its reviews of literature, a fairly complete account of the zoological activity of the period. The most important zoological researches, both in Europe and America, were reviewed in the bibliographic notices.
The most important series of zoological articles are by Dana himself. As his work on the zoophytes and crustacea of the U. S. Exploring Expedition continued, he published from time to time general summaries of his conclusions regarding the relationships of the various groups. Included among these papers are philosophical essays on general biological principles which must have had much influence on the biological studies of the time, and which form a basis for many of our present concepts.
The importance of these papers warrants the list being given in full. The titles are here in many cases abbreviated and the subjects consolidated.
General views on Classification, 1, 286, 1846.
Zoophytes, 2, 64, 187, 1846; 3, 1, 160, 337, 1847.