6 3 o 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



There were standing committees in the following subjects: Eth- 

 nology, comparative anatomy, mammalogy, ornithology, herpe- 

 tology and ichthyology, chemistry, geology and malacology, ento- 

 mology, botany, paleontology and geology, mineralogy, chemistry, 

 physics, embryology, and monstrosities. But the academy was in- 

 corporated to last, and it survived. 



There had been preliminary meetings, but the first regular 

 meeting was held March 10, 1856, in the hall of the Board of Public 

 Schools. George Engelmann was elected president and Benjamin 

 F. Shumard secretary. At the second meeting active work was be- 

 gun. At that meeting the well-known name of Dr. Koch first 

 appears. He then presented to the museum a plate of Koch's 

 Missourium. The Missourium (truly Mastodon giganteus) played 

 a lively part at one time in geological and archaeological discussions 

 in this country. Dr. Koch at this meeting offered to visit Mississippi 

 for the academy, and investigate certain finds recently made of the 

 remains of Z euglodon — a gigantic fossil whale. This was probably 

 the first investigation made at the expense of the new academy. Dr. 



Koch visited Missis- 

 sippi, made his inves- 

 tigations, and collect- 

 ed a lot of fossils from 

 Tertiary and Creta- 

 ceous formations. 



Among the origi- 

 nal members was Mr. 

 Charles P. Chouteau, 

 one of two out of that 

 list of incorporators 

 who still lives. Mr. 

 Chouteau, a man of 

 business and means, 

 never permitted his 

 intelligent interest in 

 the academy and its 

 work to flag. Con- 

 nected with the fur 

 trade, his business 

 took him or his representatives on frequent journeys into the far 

 West. Such expeditions were enormous enterprises in those days. 

 At that time even journeys to the East were no trifles. Mr. 

 Chouteau — after recently making the trip from St. Louis to New 

 York in twenty-four hours — narrates that on one occasion, when 

 a young man, he was sent to New York to see Mr. Astor on im- 



Ciiarles P. Chouteau. 



