ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 643 



fewer bursting levees to-day. The great engineer died March 

 8, 1887. 



Dr. Engelmann's meteorological investigations were of the ut- 

 most importance, and are fully recorded in the Transactions. He 

 was not, however, the only worker along this line. Dr. Wislizenus 

 was devoted to the same subject. Among his observations was an 

 extended series upon atmospheric electricity. While his work did 

 not lead to that practical application which he had hoped, the rec- 

 ord of his experiments is interesting and valuable. Under Prof. 

 Francis E. Mpher there was organized the Missouri State Weather 

 Service, one of the most creditable State organizations ever estab- 

 lished. As long as the direction of this service remained local, 

 Professor Mpher was in charge. The scope of the service included 

 the whole State, and the plan involved the appointment of one ob- 

 server for each county. Work was begun in December, 1878. 

 Some of the results of this State weather service were contrib- 

 uted to the academy and published in its Transactions. Thus, in 

 1888, there appeared a summary of the results of ten years of 

 labor, including important rainfall maps. Even more important was 

 the Magnetic Survey of the State undertaken by Professor Mpher, 

 and carried on almost wholly 

 at his own expense. The an- 

 nual reports of this survey 

 regularly appeared in the 

 Transactions. 



Dr. Frederick Adolphus 

 Wislizenus, whose name has 

 so frequently been men- 

 tioned in this sketch, was 

 born May, 1810, at Koenig- 

 see, in Schwarzburg-Rudol- 

 stadt, the son of a Protestant 

 minister who was perhaps of 

 Polish descent. In 1828 

 young Wislizenus began the 

 study of medicine at Jena, 

 pursuing the work at Got- 

 tingen and Wiirzburg. On 

 account of political difficul- 



, . r t t t , , A. Wislizenus. 



ties he was obliged to go to 



Switzerland to finish his education, and in 1834 graduated from 

 the University of Zurich. In 1835 he removed to New York 

 to practice his profession. He was there at once a physician, 

 political pamphleteer, and poet. In 1837, with certain friends 



