VI 
EGAN. 
conversation in Latin, French, or German and that good books 
were the first of its household gods. It was in this wholesome 
and stimulating atmosphere that Paul Freer received the first 
inspiration for study and investigation that was the compelling 
influence of his whole career. He was taken to Germany as 
a child for his rudimentary training, and he was destined to go 
there again to complete his education and receive from the 
Germanic school his chief methods and ideals in science, in 
education, and in general thought. Returning to Chicago, he 
entered the high school and when his class was graduated he 
stood at its head, the first student of the school. He had already 
determined to follow in the footsteps of his father, and from high 
school he entered Rush Medical College and began the study of 
medicine and surgery. It was at Rush that chemistry with its 
wonders and unsolved mysteries made its great appeal to hih 
opening mind. He learned its rudiments at the feet of Professor 
Haines, well remembered as a sound scholar and instructor, and 
there resolved to specialize in it. He continued his medical work 
and graduated with the class of 1882, still a year under the age of 
21, Germany was then leading the world in science and it ap- 
pealed to the young student with all the forces of enthusiasm and 
instinct for he had the blood of the Fatherland in his veins. 
He determined to go to Munich and join the classes under the 
great von Baeyer, then the leading chemist of Europe. The 
choice proved a happy one for there grew a great and lasting 
friendship between the master and student that was deep in its 
influence upon the career and work of the younger man. I have 
recently seen a letter from Doctor Schieffelin, himself an eminent 
American physician, who went to Munich the year Paul Freer 
graduated and took his high honors, and in it he wrote: 
When I went to Munich in 1887 to study chemistry, I found that Profes- 
sor von Baeyer, probably the most eminent chemist Mving, and the labor- 
atory chiefs were all fuU of the praises of Paul Freer who had just taken 
the degree of doctor of philosophy, summa cum laude, which I believe was 
the first time a foreigner had achieved this distinction. And for twenty- 
five years I have watched with interest and pride his service to science and 
the government. He was an American gentleman of the highest type and 
of a charming personality. 
