DEPARTURE FOR PARIS. 159 



fishes, together with that on the fresh-water 



' O 



fishes of Central Europe, he passed nearly a 

 year at home. He was not without patients 

 also in the village and its environs, but had, 

 as yet, no prospect of permanent professional 

 employment. In the mean time it seemed 

 daily more and more necessary that he should 

 carry his work to Paris, to the great centre of 

 scientific life, where he could have the widest 

 field for comparison and research. There, also, 

 he could continue and complete to the best 

 advantage his medical studies. His poverty 

 was the greatest hindrance to any such move. 

 He was not, however, without some slight in- 

 dependent means, especially since his publish- 

 ing arrangements provided in part for the 

 carrying on of his work. His generous uncle 

 added something to this, and an old friend 

 of his father's, M. Christinat, a Swiss clergy- 

 man with whom he had been from boyhood 

 a great favorite, urged upon him his own con- 

 tribution toward a work in which he felt the 

 liveliest interest. Still the prospect with 

 which he left for Paris in September, 1831, 

 was dark enough, financially speaking, though 

 full of hope in another sense. On the road 

 he made several halts for purposes of study, 

 combining, as usual, professional with scien- 



