Vi EGAN. 



conversation in Latin, French, or German and that good books 

 were the first of its household gods. It was in this wholesome 

 and stimulating atmosphere that Paul Freer received the first 

 inspiration for study and investigation that was the compelling 

 influence of his whole career. He was taken to Germany as 

 a child for his rudimentary training, and he was destined to go 

 there again to complete his education and receive from the 

 Germanic school his chief methods and ideals in science, in 

 education, and in general thought. Returning to Chicago, he 

 entered the high school and when his class was graduated he 

 stood at its head, the first student of the school. He had already 

 determined to follow in the footsteps of his father, and from high 

 school he entered Rush Medical College and began the study of 

 medicine and surgery. It was at Rush that chemistry with its 

 wonders and unsolved mysteries made its great appeal to his 

 opening mind. He learned its rudiments at the feet of Professor 

 Haines, well remembered as a sound scholar and instructor, and 

 there resolved to specialize in it. He continued his medical work 

 and graduated with the class of 1882, still a year under the age of 

 21. Germany was then leading the world in science and it ap- 

 pealed to the young student with all the forces of enthusiasm and 

 instinct for he had the blood of the Fatherland in his veins. 

 He determined to go to Munich and join the classes under the 

 great von Baeyer, then the leading chemist of Europe. The 

 choice proved a happy one for there grew a great and lasting 

 friendship between the master and student that was deep in its 

 influence upon the career and work of the younger man. I have 

 recently seen a letter from Doctor Schieffelin, himself an eminent 

 American physician, who went to Munich the year Paul Freer 

 graduated and took his high honors, and in it he ^vrote: 



When I went to Munich in 1887 to study chemistry, I found that Profes- 

 sor von Baeyer, probably the most eminent chemist living, and the labor- 

 atory chiefs were all full of the praises of Paul Freer who had just taken 

 the degree of doctor of philosophy, summa cum laude, which I believe was 

 the first time a foreigner had achieved this distinction. And for twenty- 

 five years I have watched with interest and pride his service to science and 

 the government. He was an American gentleman of the highest type and 

 of a charming personality. 



