Page:A Short History of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1909).djvu/29

Rh collection of birds as to be somewhat jealous of his authority as Ornithological Curator. Daniel Giraud Elliot and others desiring access to the specimens for purposes of study found him ready with most generous assistance, but interference in the administration of the department, as was once attempted by Dr. Heerman, the cataloguer of the oölogical collection, was sternly and effectively resented. The western room of the library was filled with trays of mounted birds and scores of volumes which no one dared to touch. Books and specimens, although somewhat the worse for dust, were made good use of by the autocrat, especially on Sundays, for the exigencies of breadwinning left him but little time for his favorite studies during the week.

The genial old Frenchman, Elias Durand, had charge of the herbarium and was just then much perturbed by the blunders of S. B. Buckley in his papers on the plants of Texas. These were later unsparingly criticised by Gray.

Lea was reading at the meetings the prodromi of the papers to be afterwards printed in extenso in the Journal and, it must be confessed, not contributing greatly thereby to the interest of the sessions. The sound of the fierce battle between him and Conrad had died away and the latter, as efficiently as his dyspepsia would allow, was describing fossil shells and making autograph drawings on stone of his new species, his activity being greatly stimulated by the facilities for publication supplied by the newly started American Journal of Conchology.

George W. Tryon, Jr., the devoted editor and proprietor of the new journal, was an indefatigable worker and gave up his interest in a lucrative business to devote himself to science. Before doing so he devoted every spare moment to his conchological work and on meeting nights and holidays would be found at his preempted post in the library with trays of shells and piles of books preparing his lists and monographs. He started the American Journal of Conchology in 1865 and carried it successfully through seven volumes. In 1879 he published the first number of the Manual of Conchology, a work to which his future scientific labors were almost entirely confined. The series has been continued by the