4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



I have no record of Dr. Heermann from this date until 1862 

 when Dr. Edward J. Nolan, librarian of the Philadelphia 

 Academy, tells me that he remembers him among those who 

 frequented the Academy when he as a young man first became 

 connected with the institution. Dr. Heermann was then suSer- 

 ing from locomotor ataxia which seriously crippled him. His 

 time at the Academy was spent in making small colored draw- 

 ings of birds copied from works in the library, which he arranged 

 at the back of the trays of eggs in his cabinet. He was labor- 

 iously trying to match each color with a cake of paint in his 

 box, and was astonished and delighted when Dr. Nolan ven- 

 tured to show him that any desired shade could be obtained by 

 a judicious mixing of a few primary colors. Soon after he re- 

 moved to Texas where at some time or other he and his brother 

 had obtained property. He never returned to Philadelphia. 



It was at this time that Mr. Dresser made his acquaintance, 

 and I quote from the letter which he kindly wrote me under 

 date of March 28, 1906, when I asked him for any information 

 he might possess relative to Dr. Heermann : 



" When I arrived at San Antonio on the 16th of September, 

 1863, I was unaware that Dr. Heermann lived there, but Col. 

 Dickinson (2d Texas Cavalry) with whom I was, told me about 

 him, and I at once looked him up. I found him a strong, 

 broad, sturdy man of about fifty (perhaps a year or so older), 

 but I never asked his exact age. His hair and beard were 

 tinged with gray, and he must have been a very strong man, 

 but was then rather lame, and stumbled now and then, and it 

 afterwards proved that his lameness was locomotor ataxia. He 

 and a younger brother had some house property in San Antonio 

 and a tolerably large rancho on the Rio Medina, a ride outside 

 San Antonio. One of the houses in San Antonio was let as a 

 sort of private hotel, and the next house which they also owned 

 was a bungalow consisting of three or four rooms, which 

 A. L. Heermann reserved for himself and lived there, get- 

 ting his food and attendance from the adjoining house. During 

 the whole time I was in Texas my headquarters were San An- 

 tonio, and after a time I arranged with A. L. Heermann to take 

 one of the rooms in his bungalow, and lived with him when in 



