104 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



some account of his early studies, which would 

 be mere repetition here, he goes on : " Be- 

 fore finishing my letter, allow me to ask some 

 advice from you, whom I revere as a father, 

 and whose works have been till now my only 

 guide. Five years ago I was sent to the med- 

 ical school at Zurich. After the first few lec- 

 tures there in anatomy and zoology I could 

 think of nothing but skeletons. In a short 

 time I had learned to dissect, and had made for 

 myself a small collection of skulls of animals 

 from different classes. I passed two years in 

 Zurich, studying whatever I could find in the 

 Museum, and dissecting all the animals I could 

 procure. I even sent to Berlin at this time 

 for a monkey in spirits of wine, that I might 

 compare the nervous system with that of man. 

 I spent all the little means I had in order to 

 see and learn as much as possible. Then I 

 persuaded my father to let me go to Heidel- 

 berg, where for a year I followed Tiedemann's 

 courses in human anatomy. I passed almost 

 the whole winter in the anatomical laboratory. 

 The following summer I attended the lectures 

 of Leuckart on zoology, and those of Bronn 

 on fossils. When at Zurich, the longing to 

 travel some day as a naturalist had taken pos- 

 session of me, and at Heidelberg this desire 



