1 843-44.] SCIENTIFIC LIFE. 223 



in three years, he became a useful assistant, not only in 

 palneontological works, but also in the work on the 

 glaciers and the glacial question. Vogt says of him, 

 that in 1840 Desor was the " cheville ouvriere ' (key- 

 stone) of the whole Agassiz establishment; and Agassiz, 

 on the nth of June, 1840, writes: 



Dans la redaction de cette seconde partie (Cidarides) de mon 

 memoire (" Description des Echinodermes fossiles de la Suisse ") 

 j'ai ete continuellement assiste par M. Desor, qui a continue a me 

 preter 1'appui de sa plume facile, comme il Tavait deja fait pour la 

 premiere partie. Mais cette fois son travail ne s'est pas borne a 

 une simple redaction ; Pexamen comparatif des nombreuses especes 

 des genres Diademe et Cidaris, dont les caracteres sont si difficiles a 

 apprecier, est meme entierement de son fait. Cependant j'en ai 

 revu la description, afin d'en partager avec lui la responsabilite scien- 

 tifique. II m'est precieux d'avoir trouve dans un ami un collaborates 

 aussi distingue. 



Desor had no initiative faculty, and was totally devoid 

 of original ideas. He never rose above a third-rate 

 naturalist, retaining all his life the spirit of a lawyer, 

 with a special tendency to politics and a politician's 

 methods. Charles Girard was in too modest a position to 

 be helpful scientifically, except in the work of compila- 

 tion, which he always performed very industriously. As 

 regards Gressly, the help he gave Agassiz was invalu- 

 able; the exact geological position of two-thirds of the 

 fossils described in the different palaeontological works of 

 Agassiz was learned from him ; and he furnished more 

 than half of the best specimens of the echinoderms, 

 the Myas and the Trigonias. In the scientific associa- 

 tion directed by Agassiz, Gressly acted as the St. Bernard 

 dog, faithful, true, living, no one knew exactly how, on 



