94 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



quharson. Interested and self-sacrificing members remained, but 

 they were not professional scientists. The attack surprised some, 



disgusted others, dis- 

 couraged more. A few 

 brave workers kept 

 their hands on the 

 work. Among them 

 the curator was inde- 

 fatigable. The care of 

 the collections was but 

 a small part of his la- 

 bors. Besides that he 

 had many of the cares 

 of correspondence and 

 of the library. He it 

 was who encouraged 

 the young members of 

 the Agassiz Associa- 

 tions. To make the 

 academy useful to a 

 larger company than 

 its own membership, 

 he organized and de- 

 livered courses of pop- 

 ular lectures to the children of the public schools; these were 

 given at the academy, and were illustrated by its collections. 

 Classes from the different schools had their set times for these 

 lectures, and the result of them was encouraging. The experi- 

 ment might well be tried at other places. 



While not directly an academy enterprise, it is certain that its 

 work and influence led to the holding of the second annual con- 

 vention of the Agassiz Associations of the United States at Daven- 

 port in 1886. There were then two flourishing chapters of the 

 " A. A." in the city, one at the high school and the other in the 

 grammar schools ; the combined membership was about seventy. 

 That the active young members of these chapters drew a large 

 amount of their interest from the academy is beyond doubt. The 

 meeting at Davenport was a great success, and young scientists 

 throughout the United States were stimulated by it. 



With the death of Charles E. Putnam and the later removal 

 of the patient curator to Minneapolis, the little force of workers 

 was still further reduced. The one thing that held the organi- 

 zation together beyond all others was the publication with the 

 mother love, erecting a monument, behind it. In 1886 the publi- 

 cation fund was begun with a gift from Charles Viele, of Evans- 

 ville, Indiana, of fifty dollars. From that time the idea of keep- 



Fio. 11. SLATE TABLET, DAVENPORT. 



