life. He was the first president, and served in several subsequent terms as president, of the "Academy of Science of St. Louis," organized in 1856; he always had something of interest to communicate at its meetings; and, under the inspiration he gave it, it became a living and active body, though not large in numbers.
Dr. Engelmann with his family visited Europe in 1808, when his son entered upon the pursuit of his medical studies at Berlin. Again, a few months after the death of Mrs. Engelmann, suffering from ill health, he went to Germany in the summer of 1883, seeking the benefits of a change of scene. He returned home, having gained a considerable accession of strength. His death was finally accelerated by a sudden cold.
His companions, says the "Universe," "will never forget his pluck and energy, his enthusiasm and diligence, and the geniality and attentiveness shown toward all of them." He was accustomed always to re-examine established suppositions in order to receive new light through newly discovered facts. In all his doings he was very determined; "he had no great esteem for speculation, but relied only upon facts gained by hard and strenuous study. He was a man of strict scientific truth. He could examine a plant again and again in all the stages of its growth, microscopically and chemically, before he came to a conclusion, and what he then wrote was the accurate result of his painful observations, without any hypothetical suppositions. "Nothing," says Dr. Gray, "escaped his attention; he drew with facility; and he methodically secured his observations by notes and sketches, available for his own after-use and for that of his correspondents. But the lasting impression which he has made upon North American botany is due to his wise habit of studying his subjects in their systematic relations, and of devoting himself to a particular genus or group of plants (generally the more difficult) until he had elucidated it as completely as lay in his power. In this way all his work was made to tell effectively."
Not very many of those, Dr. Gray adds in another part of his sketch, "who could devote their whole time to botany have accomplished as much" as did this doctor in practice, who could give it only the time he could spare from his duties as a physician. "It need not be said," Dr. Gray continues, "and yet perhaps it should not pass unrecorded, that Dr. Engelmann was appreciated by his fellow-botanists both at home and abroad; that his name is upon the rolls of most of the societies devoted to the investigation of Nature; that he was 'everywhere the recognized authority in those departments of his favorite science which had most interested him'; and that, personally one of the most affable and kindly of men, he was as much beloved as respected by those who knew him."
