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expect greatly increased prosperity until we settle in quarters of our own. 

 I care not how plain and unpretending a building we commence with. 

 Let it only be recognized as the St. Louis Academy of Science, and we 

 shall receive a support from the citizens of St. Louis such as we can hardly 

 hope for under existing circumstances. Under the protection of the Board 

 of Public Schools our library and cabinet are lost on the public as a dis- 

 tinctive feature of the Academy, and they are, and have been for some time, 

 so cramped that there is no possible room for expansion. Go to New 

 York, Buffalo, Albany, Philadelphia, Boston, Cambridge, Baltimore, 

 Chicago, San Francisco, and the museum is one of the city institutions. 

 Instructive as well as entertaining, it is one of the first things sought by 

 the visitor from abroad. Many minor towns have their museums ; and yet 

 St. Louis, the fourth city of the Union, still lacks one. Are we not ourselves 

 largely to blame? I cannot believe that the wealthy men of this city are 

 so lacking in public spirit and liberality that they would, if properly ap- 

 pealed to, refuse to rear a structure that would be a credit to us and to them. 

 The Academy of Science is one of the institutions of St. Louis, and in 

 proportion as it is honored before the world, in that proportion does the 

 city profit. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after 

 many days." The liberal support of an academy of science, the proper 

 encouragement of scientific research, are among the things that not only 

 redound to the honor and credit of a community, but which may be, and 

 almost always are, productive of increased material welfare and pros- 

 perity. 



The comforts and conveniences of present civilized existence are almost 

 entirely due to achievements in the domain of science, applied to human 

 requirements ; and the field of discovery is still open before us. When 

 the State of New York supports a State Museum of Natural History at 

 Albany, and the City of New York appropriates $500,000 for a museum 

 building; when Philadelphia subscribes a still greater sum for a like pur- 

 pose, — surely St. Louis ought not to beg long for $40,000! St. Louis, by 

 her central position, would naturally attract and receive the bulk of the 

 very rich treasures constantly gathered from the bosom of the Mississippi 

 Valley, did she offer inducement to collectors in the way of a substantial 

 and safe museum building. She centres a region unsurpassed in the 

 wealth of its archaeological, ethnological, geological, mineralogical, and 

 natural history specimens; and the records of the past fascinating history 

 of this valley, which rightfully belong to us, have been and are now fast 

 passing from our reach, and enriching Eastern and foreign museums. 

 For reasons sufficiently apparent, many of the most successful collectors of 

 museum material remain single, or, if married, are intestate; if the col- 

 lector have a family, the children generally inherit different tastes. In 

 either case the tendency on the part of such collector is to will his collec- 

 tion to some institution that will duly care for and appreciate it. Without 

 a building we cannot profit by this tendency. But the need of such a build- 

 ing is urgent and obvious, and I am glad that, by recent resolution, the 

 next meeting of the Academy is set apart for consideration of this subject. 



