1836-37-] EDOUARD DESOR. 121 



as Vogt says. In fact, Desor entered Agassiz's house, 

 with the smallest possible amount of natural history 

 knowledge ; and in two years he became a tolerably 

 good assistant in natural history, being the best pupil 

 Agassiz had during his stay in Europe. 



It is important to remark that at the time of Desor's 

 arrival at Neuchatel as Agassiz's secretary, nine parts, 

 or "livraisons," of the eighteen composing the whole 

 work of " Les Poissons fossiles," had already been 

 issued ; that is, half of the work had been published. 

 The tenth " livraison ' was on the point of being dis- 

 tributed, and was officially issued at the beginning of 

 1838. Eight plates of echinoderms, for the " Echino- 

 dermes fossiles de la Suisse," were already printed, as 

 well as a certain number of plates of "Trigonia" and 

 "Mya." 



As soon as he was established in Agassiz's house, 

 Desor was put at work on the translation into German 

 and into French of Sowerby's great work on the fossils 

 of Great Britain, and afterward at the translation into 

 German of Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise on Geol- 

 ogy, all of which were almost useless, not one ever 

 having paid the expenses of printing and lithography. 

 If Agassiz had had millions at his disposal, it would 

 have been very well ; but even then he might have 

 used the money with more profit to science. For if up 

 to this time Agassiz had experienced great difficulties 

 and stringency in money matters in keeping his two 

 draughtsmen, and publishing his " Poissons fossiles," 

 he had at least succeeded in keeping free of heavy 

 debts. His new undertakings were regarded with 



