1827-31-] FISHES FROM BRAZIL. 27 



clever one. Martius had proposed to him to publish the 

 fishes of Brazil collected by Spix and himself during 

 their explorations on the Amazon, from 1817 to 1821. 

 Spix having died in 1826, before finishing the publication 

 of the zoological part, Martius, who possessed excellent 

 judgment and great insight into character, saw at once 

 the ability of young Agassiz as a describer of species, 

 and proposed to him, during the summer of 1828, to 

 take the fishes. The offer was certainly most flat- 

 tering to Agassiz, then in his twenty-first year, and 

 before he had yet published anything to recommend 

 him. Martius assumed all the expenses and, of course, 

 all the profits ; and Agassiz received as his share only 

 a few copies of the book, with an atlas of beautifully 

 coloured fishes. Before the book was issued, Martius 

 told him that it was important that his name should 

 have the title of doctor of philosophy attached to it, and 

 that at the same time it would help him to get a pro- 

 fessorship of natural history. 



However, that title would not do as a substitute for 

 his medical degree, and, bracing his courage, he worked 

 hard, and prepared his theses with great success ; for 

 when he received his degree of doctor of medicine and 

 surgery, the 3d of April, 1830, the dean said to him: 

 " The faculty have been very much pleased with your 

 answers ; they congratulate themselves on being able 

 to give the diploma to a young man who has already 

 acquired so honourable a reputation." It was nine 

 months after the publication of his great work on the 

 fishes of Brazil, a folio with ninety plates, which had 

 attracted the attention of all naturalists, more especially 



