1836-38.] BOURGEOIS DE NEUCHATEL. 135 



Agassiz in July, 1837, three months before Desor came 

 to Neuchatel, and before the name of Desor had been 

 heard "by either Gressly or Agassiz. To be sure, Gressly 

 did learn some palaeontology during his stay with Agas- 

 siz, and felt his influence ; but Gressly above all was a 

 practical geologist and a practical palaeontologist, who 

 learned all he knew of those two sciences, as he him- 

 self told me, from Professor Voltz of Strasbourg, and 

 more especially from Thurmann ; and he always called 

 himself the pupil of Thurmann. 



In 1838, two events of interest to Agassiz happened 

 in Neuchatel : first, his unanimous election by the coun- 

 sellors of the city as " Bourgeois de Neuchatel," and 

 the second, the foundation of the Academy. We read 

 in the Manuals of the Council of Neuchatel, kept at the 

 City Hall, the following deliberation, April, 1838: "M. 

 le maitre bourgeois en chef rappelle les services consi- 

 derables que M. Jean-Rodolphe-Louis Agassiz, originaire 

 d'Orbe et de Bavois, canton de Vaud, professeur d'his- 

 toire naturelle, rend a la Bourgeoisie et au Pays en 

 general par 1'application qu'il fait de ses vastes connais- 

 sances a I'enseignement public et par le lustre que sa 

 reputation universelle repand sur notre patrie et sur la 

 ville de Neuchatel en particulier, a laquelle il donne des 

 preuves du plus sincere attachement, ayant refuse des 

 offres avantageuses et reiterees de places dans les can- 

 tons voisins et dans les premieres universites de 1'Eu- 

 rope. Des merites aussi distingues ont determine^ MM. 

 les Quatre-Ministraux a proposer au Conseil de faire 

 attribuer a ce savant, que deja le Gouvernement a natu- 



r 



ralise sujet de cet Etat, la qualite de Bourgeois de Neu- 



