222 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix. 



of every work going on ; he had to dictate letters, to 

 insert sentences in the descriptions of his assistants in 

 order to connect them and give them unity, to read and 

 correct at least one of the proofs; even to direct the 

 draughtsmen, and to select the drawings to be used, in 

 regard to the artistic merits of which he was very 

 critical and a capital judge, seeing faults where others 

 were glad to admire the fine execution. Agassiz was 

 well seconded by the artists in his service ; but scien- 

 tifically the assistance he received was rather deficient. 

 Karl Vogt had been educated as a naturalist, and soon 

 became most efficient in regard to the anatomy and the 

 embryology of fishes ; he also worked out the osteology 

 and neurology, prepared the specimens, made the draw- 

 ings, and wrote the descriptions. He was a first-rate 

 assistant, knowing well his duties ; and during the five 

 years of his connection with Agassiz he did a great 

 amount of good work. Although he always insisted 

 that he was not a pupil of Agassiz, having learned 

 zoology in Germany, there is no doubt of the great influ- 

 ence exerted by Agassiz on his work during the first 

 ten years of his life as a naturalist. 



In October, 1837, as we have seen, Agassiz engaged 

 Desor as his private secretary, who, until then had done 

 nothing in natural history, with which he was not even 

 acquainted, beyond the general knowledge possessed 

 by any student of a university. Employed first as a 

 translator and a writer of dictated letters, he soon 

 acquired sufficient knowledge of fossil fishes and fossil 

 echinoderms, to help in describing species. Under 

 Agassiz's teaching he made such rapid progress that, 



