126 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these men when the history of St. Louis comes to be written. Busy 

 physicians, they gave their services free of cost to the school they 

 established, letting its earnings go to form a permanent medical fund, 

 the ultimate wise use of which they did not question, though they 

 provided against its alienation. Step by step they raised the grade of 

 their school until it compared favorably with the best of the Eastern 

 medical schools, though in doing so they sacrificed financial success; 

 and at length, that it might enjoy the broadest affiliation, they merged 

 it with Washington University, in which St. Louis always has had 

 confidence and in the development of which it feels justifiable pride 

 to-day. And yet, though professional men, they did not go into the 

 academy for 'shop talk.' The meetings have never been closed to dis- 

 cussions of interest to the medical profession, but of their own volition 

 these men presented only subjects of scientific interest. Even while 

 they were the principal active members, geology, meteorology, botany 

 and ethnology were the chief subjects of discussion, and the papers 

 presented for publication show a keen discrimination between the art 

 of medicine and the sciences, on some of which it rests. 



Up to the time of its removal from Washington University, the 

 academy met in a rather informal manner. My own connection with 

 it dates from the autumn of 1885, when I came to the city to live. 

 The notices that I received were more commonly to the effect that the 

 next meeting would be held at a certain time and place than with any 

 indication of what would be done at the meeting. On a long table 

 were to be found the recent additions to the library. At the head of 

 the table sat the president and recording secretary. Around it were 

 half a dozen or a dozen members who looked over the papers between 

 attending to the items provided for on the order of business. When 

 'written communications' were called for, a paper for publication 

 might be handed in, sometimes accompanied by an oral abstract, some- 

 times not. The order 'oral communications' was pretty sure to lead 

 some member to produce a specimen, piece of apparatus, or recent pub- 

 lication, on which he spoke, usually in a way to interest everybody 

 present. Not infrequently nearly the entire body, like a German 

 scientific gathering, gravitated after adjournment to a summer garden 

 or winter 'Lokal,' where the discussion was apt to be continued over 

 a glass of beer until the younger men felt that it was time for them 

 to set their faces homeward. 



Ladies were occasionally interested in the rumor or announcement 

 that some particular paper was to be presented, but they appeared 

 awed by the informality of the seating about the board, and could 

 rarely be made to feel welcome after a tortuous wandering through the 

 long halls and museum at the top of the University had led them to it. 

 In the meantime the membership had greatly changed. Shumard, 

 Prout, Pope, Swallow, Eads, Holmes, Wislizenus and Engelmann had 



