698 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
The important part played by Dr. Hoyt in planning so broadly and 
in urging so successfully the initial steps, has already been indicated. 
This service was recognized by choosing him first President of the 
Academy. He was thus enabled to round out the formal organiza¬ 
tion of the Academy on the comprehensive plan adopted. He had the 
merit of assiduity in calling into activity the latent as well as active 
talent available in the state at the time. Though not a special worker 
in any line of research, his intellectual sympathies were wide, his 
aspirations were high; his dream for the Academy was ambitious. 
The working nucleus of the Academy at the start was the group 
of enthusiastic naturalists who had grown up under the stimulus of 
the pioneer conditions. Among these I beg to include those who 
studied the strata beneath and the sky above, as well as those de¬ 
voted to the plants and animals that tenanted the surface. Fore¬ 
most among these, by common consent, was Dr. I. A. Lapham of 
Milwaukee, then already a veteran scientist. By profession a civil 
engineer, he had become at an early day a faithful collector, ob¬ 
server and recorder of natural phenomena in nearly all leading lines 
from bed-rock to sky. He was at once a botanist, a zoologist, an 
archeologist, a geologist, and a meteorologist. He was a distinguished 
example of the best order of the old school of all-around students of 
natural science. Probably we owe to Dr. Lapham, more than to 
any other single individual, the establishment of our Weather Serv¬ 
ice. He served as the first General Secretary of the Academy. 
Scarcely less active and influential in giving vitality to the Acad¬ 
emy at the start was Dr. H. P. Hoy, of Racine, an intimate friend and 
co-worker of Lapham’s in early naturalistic work. He had already 
become a veteran student of birds, insects, and fishes, and was also 
an enthusiastic collector of plants and of fossils from the ancient 
crinoid fields of Racine. He was also an eager student of the relics 
of aboriginal life. Lapham was quiet and modestly demonstrative, 
but Dr. Hoy so bubbled over with enthusiasm that he easily set the 
pace in demonstrative interest. He was chosen as the second Presi¬ 
dent of the Academy. Dr. J. G. Knapp, of Madison, was a frequent 
contributor in several naturalistic lines, as was also Dr. Engelmann, 
of Milwaukee, but the former soon moved from the state and the lat¬ 
ter was removed by death. 
In the physical sciences, Dr. John E. Davies, of the State Univer¬ 
sity, was at first perhaps the leading contributor, with Dr. J. H. 
Eaton, of Beloit, and Drs. R. Z. Mason and J. C. Foye, of Appleton, 
as almost equally active co-workers. Dr. Eaton was perhaps the only 
original member of the Academy who had any notable academic train¬ 
ing in technical research. A graduate of Amherst, he had won a 
Fh. D. at Gottingen by his researches on the compounds of manganese. 
In the field of political economy and social science, at the outset, 
advancement was sought more by rational discussion than by rig¬ 
orous determinations of basal data; and so there was more general 
participation in the discussions than in the more specific sciences. 
The most active leaders were President A. L. Chapin, of Beloit, 
