Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary. xxiii 



Such are the full records of the initial meeting held at a 

 time when St. Louis had 122,000 population. It was the 

 beginning of the half century of work which closes with our 

 banquet next Saturday evening. Emerson says that while 

 man's life is divided into periods of seventy years each, the 

 first period is after all the most important one. With our 

 Academy which we expect to live for centuries, this period 

 of fifty years just closing is but a mere point in the progress 

 of time. 



Objects of the Academy. The constitution said of the 

 Academy, that " It shall have for its objects the promotion 

 of science." Our predecessors did not intend to shirk any 

 responsibility in this direction, for they enumerated the fol- 

 lowing subjects and distributed them among fourteen standing 

 committees : — 



Anatomy, Comparative; Botany; Chemistry; Embryol- 

 ogy; Entomology; Ethnology; Geology; Geology, Chemi- 

 cal ; Herpetology ; Ichthyology ; Malacology ; Mammalogy ; 

 Mineralogy; Monstrosities; Ornithology; Palaeontology; 

 Physics. 



Perhaps the division of " Monstrosities " was expected to 

 include all topics not coming under any of the other heads, 

 but the year following added astronomy and meteorology to 

 the list. It is, however, noteworthy that this rather formid- 

 able list avoids subjects theological. In this respect, the 

 founders of the Academy were like Versalius who lived in 

 the Middle Ages when theologians believed that each human 

 body contained an imponderable, incorruptible and incom- 

 bustible bone which served as the nucleus of the resurrection 

 body. Versalius was an able anatomist but he left the ques- 

 tion of the resurrection bone to the theologians. 



The broad principles on which the Academy was founded 

 are further expressed in the charter which was granted by 

 the Missouri Legislature, February 9, 1857, only three days 

 short of twenty years after the charter of the Western 

 Academy of Natural Sciences. Our charter provides that in 

 case of dissolution of the Academy, the property shall go to 

 the city of St. Louis for educational purposes. The mem- 



