The President, George Engelmann, M.D., delivered his 

 annual address as follows: 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



Gentlemen : — Our constitution requires me to lay before you a can- 

 did exposition of the condition of our Academy at the present time, and, 

 should it prove to be not as favorable and as nattering as we fondly hoped 

 when, fifteen years ago, we laid its foundation, to probe the causes of 

 the unsuccess and to propose remedial action. 



The history of this Academy is that of many similar institutions. 

 Begun with a great deal of zeal (in the commencement of the year 1S56), 

 members were numerous and full of good cheer and promise; the meet- 

 ings were well attended, scientific papers were read, discussions followed, 

 and in the succeeding year, 1857, tne ^ rst number of our Transactions 

 could be published. A Museum and a Library were founded, partly by 

 the liberal contributions of some members, partly by the donation of the 

 old stock of a similar institution, the " Western Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ence," which preceded our Academy full twenty years (1S36), in the then 

 small town of St. Louis. 



To the first number succeeded a second, third and fourth number of our 

 Transactions, which together made a fine volume of valuable scientific 

 matter, the greater part of it original additions to different branches of 

 learning, and illustrated by 21 plates, and completed in the year i860. 



These publications attracted the attention of the scientific world, and 

 brought us the most liberal exchanges from nearly all the learned socie- 

 ties in America and in Europe, and in fact the whole civilized world. 

 Through these exchanges we have amassed a Library of great value, 

 which money could not buy. The Library fortunately has escaped de- 

 struction by the fire of May, 1869, which swept off our large and valuable 

 Museum. 



We have continued to publish our Transactions, and have been able to 

 issue a second volume, in three numbers, from 1S63 to 186S, not inferior 

 to the first in scientific value. 



Those who take an active interest in our doings know how these 

 volumes are made up. and how they are published. None of the con- 

 tributors (nor any of the members of the Academy) are men who are so 

 situated that they could make the pursuit of science the object of their 

 lives. All of them had their profession or their business to attend to, and 

 had to labor, as the trite saying is, for their bread; few leisure hours only 

 could they devote to that labor of love, their purely scientific studies. 

 And the results of these labors 'were given to the world by the aid of the 

 small annual contributions of the members, and by such subscriptions as 

 the more liberal among them, at times of necessity, chose to make. 



We were happy to have with us as the scientific staff of our Academy, 

 enlivening our meetings and furnishing the most valued contributions to 

 our Transactions, men like Prout, like Shumard, like Seyfarth, whose 

 names and whose papers told for us in the world of science, not to speak 



