BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 245 



Wislizenus studied medicine at the University of Jena in 1828, and 

 later at Gottingen and Wiirzbiirg. He was a member of the " Bursch- 

 enschaft/' but escaped arrest when that was broken up by the author- 

 ities. He followed his friend and teacher, the great clinician Schoenlein, 

 to Ziirich and there joined an expedition to aid Mazzini in his struggle 

 against Austrian rule ; but the Swiss troops disarmed them on the border 

 so he was forced to return to his studies. 



Wislizenus graduated in Zurich in 1834 and soon sailed for New 

 York, where he began to practise his profession in 1835. Here he re- 

 mained two years writing constantly for the German papers of the city. 

 He then went west in 1837 and joined some of his fellow-exiles who had 

 settled in St. Clair County, Illinois. In 1839 he came to St. Louis and 

 immediately seized an opportunity to accompany an expedition of the 

 St. Louis Fur Company for trading with the Indians. He thus went 

 far into the ISTorthwestern country towards the source of the Green 

 Elver in the Wind Eiver Mountains. When the expedition started to 

 return he joined a band of Flat-head and Nez Perce Indians. He thus 

 crossed the Eockv Mountains to Utah and went as far as Fort Hall, the 

 most southern post of the English trading company. Here he could 

 find no guide to take him to California, so he returned; crossing the 

 Green and the south fork of the Platte, he followed the Arkansas to 

 Missouri. During this trip he had no facilities for making scientific 

 observations and collections, so it was wholly without any such results. 



On his return to St. Louis in 1840 he resumed his practise of medi- 

 cine He was identified with early efforts towards the establishment of 

 an Academy of Science, and aided Dr. Engelmann in his efforts to found 

 a botanic garden, and was an earnest worker in the Western Academy 

 of Science. He soon gained a lucrative practice, but as soon as the op- 

 portunity offered he was again in the field. He joined a trading ex- 

 pedition to Mexico, well equipped this time with instruments and ap- 

 paratus for scientific work. In Santa Fe they first learned of the war 

 between Mexico and the United States, but Wislizenus obtained a pass 

 and proceeded to Chihuahua, where he with other Americans was seized 

 and imprisoned. He was sent to a small mountain town of the interior 

 and there had ample opportunity to carry on his collecting and observa- 

 tions in the neighborhood during the winter. Upon the arrival of Col. 

 Doniphan's troops in the spring he was released and accompanied them 

 in a professional capacity until their disbanding at New Orleans in 1847, 

 when he returned to St. Louis. 



Senator Thomas H. Benton became interested in him and his ex- 

 periences in Mexico, and finally was the cause of his being summoned 

 to Washington and being requested to prepare for publication the results 

 ot his investigations. His resulting " Memoir of a Tour to Northern 

 Mexico in 1846 and 1847 " was considered important enough so that the 

 senate ordered 5,000 copies printed for distribution. This publication 



