156 
CALL’S GEOLOGICAL WORK 
early meetings which were turned over to him as secretary on 
about the third or fourth session immediately vanished. He had 
laid them down somewhere while the members were chatting after 
adjournment. In his endeavor several years afterward to record 
the proceedings in a special blank book purchased for the purpose 
he lost two entire meetings, forgot the titles of half of the papers 
read, and failed to enumerate most of the charter members and 
original promoters of the society. Several years later when the 
State of Iowa assumed the publication of the Academy’s Pro¬ 
ceedings Secretary Osborn did all he could to rectify these delin¬ 
quencies by obtaining from each member abstracts of his papers 
and printing them en masse. In this way some members provided 
notes on no less than six to eight papers which they had actually 
presented and read but of which no record had been made in the 
minutes. Therefore Professor Pammel’s account of the charter 
members given at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding 
of the Academy omits many important facts and details because 
of the fact that he relied too implicitly upon the faulty Call 
record. 
In the late eighties’of the last century a number of Professor 
Call’s friends in Des Moines, realizing fully both his brilliant 
attainments and his difficulty in getting a suitable living, put forth 
special ei¥ort to have him appointed to the headship of the science 
department of the Des Moines West High School, then a much 
sought post. In this they succeeded nicely; and he entered upon 
his duties with great zest and high hopes. It so happened that 
about this time he was intensely interested in the reptiles of the 
state. He soon had his entire body of students enthusiastically 
studying snakes. All else in science was neglected or forgotten. 
Students even slighted their other duties to attend the Call snake 
classes. In order to take adequate care of the material which 
fast came pouring in. Call, to cap the climax, invested his entire 
large allotment of funds for science apparatus and equipment 
for the year in glass snake-jars and alcohol. Soon the science 
laboratory would have done credit to the National Museum as a 
snake repository. Then, one day came wide and emphatic pro¬ 
test ; and finally the unfortunate and unavoidable flare-up between 
instructor and school committee. The versatile and enthusiastic 
naturalist was soon worsted. The best and most entertaining lec¬ 
turer the school had ever had, the most ardent scientist who had 
