these men when the history of St. Louis comes to be written. Busy physicians, they gave their services free of cost to the school they established, letting its earnings go to form a permanent medical fund, the ultimate wise use of which they did not question, though they provided against its alienation. Step by step they raised the grade of their school until it compared favorably with the best of the Eastern medical schools, though in doing so they sacrificed financial success; and at length, that it might enjoy the broadest affiliation, they merged it with Washington University, in which St. Louis always has had confidence and in the development of which it feels justifiable pride to-day. And yet, though professional men, they did not go into the academy for 'shop talk.' The meetings have never been closed to discussions of interest to the medical profession, but of their own volition these men presented only subjects of scientific interest. Even while they were the principal active members, geology, meteorology, botany and ethnology were the chief subjects of discussion, and the papers presented for publication show a keen discrimination between the art of medicine and the sciences, on some of which it rests.
Up to the time of its removal from Washington University, the academy met in a rather informal manner. My own connection with it dates from the autumn of 1885, when I came to the city to live. The notices that I received were more commonly to the effect that the next meeting would be held at a certain time and place than with any indication of what would be done at the meeting. On a long table were to be found the recent additions to the library. At the head of the table sat the president and recording secretary. Around it were half a dozen or a dozen members who looked over the papers between attending to the items provided for on the order of business. When 'written communications' were called for, a paper for publication might be handed in, sometimes accompanied by an oral abstract, sometimes not. The order 'oral communications' was pretty sure to lead some member to produce a specimen, piece of apparatus, or recent publication, on which he spoke, usually in a way to interest everybody present. Not infrequently nearly the entire body, like a German scientific gathering, gravitated after adjournment to a summer garden or winter 'Lokal,' where the discussion was apt to be continued over a glass of beer until the younger men felt that it was time for them to set their faces homeward.
Ladies were occasionally interested in the rumor or announcement that some particular paper was to be presented, but they appeared awed by the informality of the seating about the board, and could rarely be made to feel welcome after a tortuous wandering through the long halls and museum at the top of the University had led them to it. In the meantime the membership had greatly changed. Shumard, Prout, Pope, Swallow, Eads, Holmes, Wislizenus and Engelmann had
