1839-40-] CHARLES GIRARD. 151 



offices or bureaus are called ; so he hired the young 

 son of a peasant, named Girard, of Concise, the for- 

 mer parish of Agassiz's father, to be his Jack at all 

 trades. Intelligent and desirous to become a naturalist, 

 Charles Girard submitted to the continual and rather 

 severe exactions of Desor ; for he not only had to write 

 under Desor's dictation, but he was constantly running 

 between the laboratory, Agassiz's lodging, the lecture- 

 room, the lithographic establishment, and the printing- 

 press; besides, he was the bootblack for the whole 

 establishment. Desor kept him very close, and pun- 

 ished him remorselessly by sharp reprimands, which 

 were always accepted without a word of retort, for 

 Desor was the head man, and not an easy one to 

 please. 



As Vogt says, during the last six years of Agassiz's 

 life at Neuchatel, it was a kind of scientific factory, 

 producing more than was wanted, and glutting the 

 market with publications, without profit to anybody. 

 Indeed, several of the works issued might have been 

 dispensed with, both as regards cleverness and timeli- 

 ness, to say nothing of the pecuniary expense, which 

 was always rather great, notwithstanding the cheapness 

 of living in Neuchatel. 



However open to just criticism several of Agassiz's 

 undertakings may be, they furnished an example of mar- 

 vellous initiative and of extraordinary impulse. Every 

 one under Agassiz's direction worked hard and well ; 

 there was a sort of rivalry as to who would do best and 

 most. The first part of the " Description des Echino- 



