Ix 



'January 3, 1881. 



Dr. Geo. Engelmann in the chair. Ten members present. 



The Corresponding Secretary read a letter from Dr. Wads- 

 worth, acknowledging his election to corresponding membership. 



The President, Dr. Geo. Engelmann, then made his annual 

 address as follows. 

 Gentlemen of the Academy of Science : 



Retiring from the Presidency of your Institution, with which you have 

 honored me for the last three years and often before that period, I have to 

 lay before you a statement of the present condition of our Academy, ac- 

 companied with such remarks and suggestions as may offer themselves. 

 You will pardon me if I refrain from adding to these matter-of-f ict points 

 a review of the stupendous progress of science in the past year, and from 

 suggesting what the duty is, or ought to be, of a city of the importance 

 and fame of St. Louis, and of those of her citizens who claim to be pro- 

 gressive men, relative to the encouragement and aid of labors vohintarily 

 and gratuitously undertaken by you. 



In the past year meetings have been regularly attended, and were 

 made interesting and instructive by communications of a scientific charac- 

 ter and by discussions on them. You have published the first number of 

 the fourth volume of your Transactions, full of various scientific contribu- 

 tions, which have been favorably received in this country and in Europe, 

 thus spreading through its Academy the name of St. Louis in all civilized 

 lands. 



Besides this number of your Transactions the Anthropological Section 

 of your Academy has published part first of their Arch;eology of M ssouri, 

 a quarto volume with excellent plates, on the Pottery of the Mound-build- 

 ers, an important addition to the knowledge of prehistoric times. Three 

 hundred copies of this work have been subscribed for by the Academy, 

 and have been in part distributed by the Corresponding Secretary. 



Your collections have not been enriched as much as they mijjfht have 

 been, principally because of the want of room and of a proper disposition 

 of specimens; your library, however, has received most valuable additions 

 through the exchanges which you obtain for your own publications from 

 almost all scientific bodies throughout the civilized world. The Librarian 

 reports under his charge 3. 253 books and 7,834 pamphlets, 995 of which 

 have been added within the year. 



The Corresponding Secretary reports an exchange list of yi Acade- 

 mies and Societies, 120 of which belong to this country and the American 

 British Provinces; of the 252 of other countries. 103 are in Germany. 30 

 in Great Britain, 27 in France, 18 in Italy, 12 in Holland, 11 in Switzer- 

 land, 10 in Belgium, 9 in Russia, 8 in South America, 6 in the East Indies, 

 5 each in Mexico and Sweden, 3 each in Denmark and Spain, and 2 in 

 Portugal. 



