Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/649

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N 1837 St. Louis was scarcely more than a small frontier town, yet in that year there was organized, through the efforts of two young men of foreign birth, what was perhaps the first society for scientific research established west of the Alleghany Mountains. The prime movers were George Engelmann and Frederick Adolphus Wislizenus. The new society was called the Western Academy of Science. It was progressive and enterprising, and even as early as

1840 made an effort to establish a botanical garden at St. Louis—an effort that failed. Interruptions and discouragement came, and finally the pioneer society ceased to exist.

It was nearly twenty years later that the Academy of Science of St. Louis was born. Organization must have taken place and some things must have been done in 1856. In the list of organizers were the two names of Engelmann and Wislizenus. In January, 1857, the academy was incorporated. The list of incorporators reads: "George Engelmann, Hiram A. Prout, Nathaniel Holmes, Benjamin F. Shumard, Charles W. Stevens, James B. Eads, Moses M. Pallen, Adolphus Wislizenus, Charles A. Pope, Charles P. Chouteau, William F. McPheeters, and others."

The organization of the society, as shown by its standing committees, was sufficiently detailed and heavy to kill a modern society.