ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 641 



Riley organized the entomological division of the department, and 

 became its head. At the same time he became curator in entomology 

 of the United States National Museum, to which he donated his 

 magnificent private collection of insects, containing more than fif- 

 teen thousand specimens. Dr. Riley at different times lectured 

 upon entomology at various institutions — Cornell University, Mis- 

 souri State University, Washington University, etc. He was a dili- 

 gent writer. A man of energy and decision, he was also of most 

 amiable character, and was much loved by his friends and colleagues. 

 The honorary degree of Ph. D. was granted to him in 1873 by 

 Washington University. The French Government, in 1873, and 

 the Edinburgh Forestry Exhibit, in 1884, conferred upon him gold 

 medals in recognition of his work. 



In 1835 there came to St. Clair County, Illinois, a talented 

 German, Theodore Erasmus Hilgard. A lawyer by training, he 

 there settled down to country life. He introduced the culture of 

 the vine into Illinois. The town of West Belleville was laid out 

 upon his property and under his direction. He delighted in himselt 

 conducting the education of his family, and his three sons, Julius 

 Erasmus, Theodore Charles, and Eugene Waldemar, all attained 

 prominence in American science. In 1851 he returned to his native 

 land by invitation of the Bavarian Government to aid in recasting 

 the national laws regarding mortgages. Although he again visited 

 this country, he did not remain here, but finally settled at Heidel- 

 berg, where he died in 1873. He was a poet and a man of letters. 

 His second son, Theodore Charles Hilgard, was prominent in the 

 academy's work for many years. He was born in Zweibriicken, 

 Germany, February 28, 1828. While a young man in his Illinois 

 home he collected botanical specimens for George Engelmann. 

 Later, he studied medicine in European schools — Heidelberg, Zu- 

 rich, Vienna, Berlin- — and settled down to practice in St. Louis. In 

 1854 he published his Experimental Observations on Taste and 

 Smell. At various times he presented papers on botany — especially 

 on Phyllotaxis and kindred subjects — before the academy. These 

 were printed in the Transactions. Obliged on account of failing 

 health to abandon medicine, his studies were turned to microscopic 

 forms of life and to terrestrial magnetism; in the latter subject he 

 assisted his brother Julius, to whom it was professional work. He 

 died in New York, March 5, 1875. 



For two years James Buchanan Eads was president of the acad- 

 emy, and was associated with it for a much longer period. No mem- 

 ber of the academy has had a more conspicuous career. It was " he 

 who devised and furnished our Government with its first and most 

 useful armored steamboats, who built the St. Louis Bridge; who 



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