Klem—The History of Science in St. Louis. 125 
The purchase of this collection by the Academy placed in 
St. Louis two of the best fossil collections in existence to 
which students may refer in their scientific researches 
for typical specimens characteristic of this section of the 
country. 
In 1901, through the efforts of Mrs. Wm. L. Bouton, 
the Academy acquired a collection of six hundred and 
thirty-five butterflies, mostly tropical. 
When the Academy moved into its own home in 1903 
new efforts were made to again establish a museum of 
natural history worthy of the name. Besides the Yan- 
dell and butterfly collections, the Academy has on exhi- 
bition a fine collection of mound builder pottery and some 
forty human skulls from the mounds near New Madrid, 
Missouri; a collection of song birds and birds of prey, 
deposited with the Academy by the Missouri Botanical 
Garden; many minerals from all parts of the United 
States; a small collection of fossil leaves; a collection of 
twenty-five meteorites, among them a section of the Fort 
Pierre meteorite; some fine fossiliferous slabs, mostly 
from St. Louis limestone and of great value; some of the 
fossils of the Hayden Survey, containing the type of 
Titanotherium Proutii; and a good specimen of Bos cavi- 
frons (a species of fossil ox). 
Hand in hand with the formation of a museum went 
the acquisition of a library. In the first year of its ex- 
istence the Academy received the library, consisting of 
one hundred twenty volumes, of the Western Academy of 
Natural Sciences. With this as a nucleus, efforts were 
made to secure the publications of other scientific socie- 
ties. Letters were sent to kindred societies and the ex- 
change value of publications soon became evident. A 
committee was appointed to consider the question of un- 
dertaking some form of publication. After considerable 
thought and discussion the publication of ‘‘Transac- 
tions’’ was decided upon, and the first number was is- 
sued early in 1857. It contained in addition to the char- 
ter, constitution and by-laws, and journal of proceedings, 
