TEE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 117 



THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 



A Biography. 



By Professor WILLIAM TRELEASE, 



MISSOUKI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



WHEN the Henry Shaw School of Botany was inaugurated as 

 a department of Washington University in 1885 the venerable 

 Dr. Eliot, then president of the board of directors and chancellor of 

 the university, said that more than forty years earlier, five or six 

 young men, of whom he was one, met together on Main Street, near 

 Chestnut, in the office of Judge Mary P. Leduc, their object being to 

 found an academy of science: "But," he said, "not one of our num- 

 ber knew enough of science to found a primary school, except Dr. 

 George Engelmann, who was an enthusiastic student, especially in 

 botanical research, and who inspired us all with something of his 

 zeal. We organized a society and proceeded to purchase five or six 

 acres of ground, far out of the city, I think near Eighth Street and 

 Chouteau Avenue. There Dr. Engelmann began a botanical garden 

 and arboretum on a small scale. It was kept up, after a fashion, for 

 some years, but the society faded out and the land was sold, and 

 apparently there was an end of the academy; but under the law of 

 the survival of the fittest. Dr. Engelmann 'survived' and became an 

 Academy of Science in himself." 



Engelmann, however, was not the kind of man to work indefinitely 

 without closer association with the few other St. Louis men interested 

 in science than was afforded by chance, and on March 10, 1856, after 

 several preliminary meetings, the existing Academy of Science of St. 

 Louis was organized. It is recorded that the men in attendance at the 

 meeting for organization were, in addition to Dr. Engelmann, who 

 acted as chairman, Charles P. Chouteau, James B. Eads, Nathaniel 

 Holmes, Moses L. Linton, William M. McPheeters, Moses M. Pallen, 

 Simon Pollak, Charles A. Pope, Hiram A. Prout, Benjamin F. 

 Shumard, Charles W. Stevens, William H. Tingley, John H. Watters 

 and Adolphus Wislizenus. 



A previously appointed committee, consisting of Tingley, Prout, 

 Shumard and Holmes, reported a constitution and by-laws, which were 

 adopted. The original constitution, which was amended somewhat 

 in the course of the first year, consists of six articles, referring re- 

 spectively to style, objects, members, ofiicers, meetings and amend- 

 ments. The second article is so important that it is here quoted' 

 in full: 



