authorized and appointed a Museum Committee as one of its standing 
committees to find ways and means to found a natural history 
museum in St. Louis. 
Work 
M 
Jeffers 
under the direction of Robert McC. Adams. The material unearthed by 
this expedition was divided among the Smithsonian Institute, the 
Missouri Resources Museum and the Academy of Science of St. Louis. 
That which was allotted to the Academy is on display at the present 
time in the museum. 
Mus 
forces with the Academy so that applied science, along with natural 
Museu 
THE LECTURE PROGRAM 
In the early days of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, members 
of the society met together frequently and regularly for professional 
and intellectual companionship. At such meetings there would 
generally be a carefully prepared lecture by one of the members 
or by a visitor on a scientific subject, followed by a discussion 
period and, at the last, a serving of refreshments. Such meetings 
served as stimuli for research on the part of the various members. 
Every member was urged to produce. Members disciplined them- 
selves to critical listening to technical presentations on the various 
scientific subjects presented. In those days science was not so com- 
plicated but that astronomers, engineers, medical men, biologists, 
chemists, geologists, and the like could meet together and find com- 
mon grounds for intellectual companionship and scientific discussions. 
With the coming of rapid extensions in each of the separate 
fields of science and the great increase in the numbers of scientific 
workers, as well as the intense specialization required of investigators 
in each field, common ground rapidly decreased. The time arrived 
when m meetings between workers from the separate scientific fields 
there was little of common understanding that could be discussed 
technically. In the various fields of scientific ' ' "' 
societies came into existence such, for example, as the 
^hemical Society, the Botanical Society of America, the American 
society of Zoologists, as well as various engineering, archeological, 
and astronomical societies. Each of these societies obtained the 
run allegiance and devotion of all its members. No longer could 
tne Academy of Science of St. Louis serve as a common meeting 
ground for workers in all of the various scientific fields. 
14 
speci 
