cclii 



I shall not anticipate that discussion by giving you in advance my views 

 as to the best ways and means of obtaining one; but let me express the 

 hope that something feasible and practical will result from it. 



WHAT HAVE WE ACCOMPLISHED? 



Many of our citizens, and some who are good paying members of the 

 Academy, but who do not attend its meetings, occasionally ask, " What 

 have we done, or are doing?" The cry of cut bono? is always heard in 

 this practical age. Our Society, for reasons already stated, bounded into 

 prosperity soon after its organization. The war and the fire checked that 

 prosperity, and we lost a museum that was fairly representative of the 

 general Zoology and Botany of this region, and contained many valuable 

 specimens in Comparative Anatomy, Ethnology, Palaeontology, Geology, 

 and Mineralogy. Since the fire we have been creeping along slowly but 

 progressively, and, notwithstanding there is room for improvement, we 

 have 



JUST CAUSE FOR CONGRATULATION. 



When I go back in mind to my early connection with the Academy, and 

 remember the trials of 1869, when, in mourning the loss of workers like 

 Shumard and Baumgarten, in addition to that of our museum, scarce a 

 half dozen of us gathered around our ever faithful Recording Secretary, 

 the late Spencer Smith; when our Associate Members numbered not fifty, 

 and we were in debt and unable to publish our Proceedings ; when I recall 

 those critical days, and then consider what we have done in the past few 

 years, I feel that we have cause for congratulation. We have during the 

 year published No. 3 of vol. iii. of the Transactions, and, as our Corre- 

 sponding Secretary's report shows, there is an increasing demand for the 

 different numbers of our publications, 385 numbers having been disposed 

 of by exchange and 35 numbers sold. This number contains, with many 

 fine illustrations, articles on the following subjects :— Iron Manufacture in 

 Missouri, Schmidt; Remarks on Canker-worms and Description of a new 

 Genus in Phsehenidse, Riley; Notes on the Natural History of the Grape 

 Phylloxera, Riley; On a New Form of Lecture Galvanometer, Nipher : 

 Notes on Agave, Engelmann ; Notes on the Yucca Borer, Riley; The 

 Rocky Mountain Locust and the Season of 1875, Broadhead ; The Meteor 

 of December 27, 1875, Broadhead; Archaiology in Missouri, Conant; Age 

 of our Porphyries, Broadhead; Oaks of the United States, Engelmann. 



Among the minor communications of the year the following may be 

 mentioned :— Meteorology of 1875, Engelmann ; American Antiquities, 

 Holmes; Porphyritic Rocks of Southeast Missouri, Broadhead ; Mounds 

 of New Madrid, Conant; Meteorology of March, Engelmann; On Distri- 

 bution of Errrors in Numbers written from Memory, Nipher; Oviposi- 

 tion of Leucania unipuncta, Riley; Man and the Elephant in Nebraska, 

 Holmes; Grape and Oak Fungi, Engelmann; Periodical Cicada, Riley ; 

 Entomological Notes, Riley; Centennial Insects, Riley; On Lignites, Pot- 

 ter; Binocular Vision, Nipher; Geographical Range of Species, Riley; 



