xlvi Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



minds. Whatever he touched yielded to the marvelous power of that 

 great thinker, until all France knew that there lived among them 

 a man capable of comprehending and adding to the accumulated 

 knowledge of all time, un "cervcau consultant," of human science. 

 The scientific world envied France his possession, and nations with 

 no reason to love her bowed down before the genius of her son, and 

 accorded her respect because of him. 



His was a life of profound and uninterrupted meditation — medita- 

 tion despotic and pitiless, which stoops the shoulders and furrows the 

 brow. Too soon he exhausted the body which he inhabited. 



Toward the end of this magnificent intellectual career, which was 

 the admiration and envy of the world, he turned the power of his 

 mind to certain philosophic questions, profoundly conscious that na- 

 ture was at last about to break him who had wTested so many 

 secrets from her. The foundations of science trembled under his 

 hands, but his was ever a constructive criticism, and he labored 

 for truth, the high goddess whose servant he was. 



A great thinker is dead, one of the greatest of all time. For him 

 life was but a short episode between two eternities of death, thought 

 but a gleam in the midst of a long night, but through the centuries 

 science will bear the impress of the mighty mind of Henri Poincarg. 



A motion was carried that the Academy record in its 

 minutes the death of M. Poincare and that Dr. James' 

 paper be included in full in the record. 



The Corresponding Secretary was requested to convey 

 to Mrs. Russell Sage the appreciation of the Academy 

 for her gift of $250,000 for the purchase of Marsh Island 

 to be used as a reservation for the protection of bird life. 



The death of Dr. W. J. McGee, a Corresponding Mem- 

 ber, was reported. 



November 4, 1912. 

 President Engler in the chair ; attendance 35. 

 Professor F. E. Nipher addressed the Academy on 

 **Geissler Tube Effects in Solid Conductors." 



Professor Nipher gave a verbal account of work supplemental to 

 that published in his last paper (Transactions Academy of Science of 

 St. Louis, Vol. XXI, No. 3). This work has reference to the longi- 

 tudinal creeping of a copper wire through which spark discharges 

 are passed. 



Mr. M. E. Hard gave a brief talk on "Mushrooms 

 Found in the Vicinity of St. Louis," illustrating his re- 

 marks with fresh specimens. 



Messrs. Robert A. Hall and W. H. Schlueter were 

 elected to membership. 



