1807-27.] COLLEGE OF LAUSANNE. 13 



to make use of it when discussions degenerated into 

 quarrels and obliged the contestants to be called out. 

 At Munich especially he was well known on account of 

 several duels, which he fought to his credit and always 

 successfully. 



At the age of fifteen, it was decided that he should 

 enter, as a clerk, the commercial house of his uncle, 

 Francois Mayor, at Neuchatel. But on account of his 

 ability as a scholar, he was allowed to finish his college 

 studies at Lausanne, where he studied " belles lettres ' 

 and the humanities for two years, 1822-1824. It was 

 during his stay at Lausanne that he gave the first indica- 

 tion of the possession of the characteristics which after- 

 ward developed so strongly in him as a savant and as a 

 man. Another of his uncles, Dr. Mathias Mayor, had 

 great reputation as a physician, and a large practice at 

 Lausanne and in all Romande Switzerland ; and from 

 him Louis learned the elements of anatomy. At the 

 same time, he had his first opportunity to see a small 

 museum of natural history, the Cantonal Museum, di- 

 rected by Professor D. A. Chavannes, an entomologist of 

 some note. The Helvetic Society of Natural History, 

 founded at Geneva in 1816, had already collected a small 

 band of Swiss naturalists of great talent, and Agassiz, 

 during his stay at Lausanne, had the good fortune to 

 meet Jean de Charpentier, director of the salt mines of 

 Bex. He was much impressed by the fine face and 

 splendid intellect of de Charpentier ; a rare and perfect 

 type of savant ; and, influenced by the impression he re- 

 ceived from his uncle, Dr. Mayor, Jean de Charpentier, 

 and Professors Lardy and Chavannes, he resolved to be- 



