270 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi< 



des Echinides," to Desor and his help ; and it was the 

 only recognition really due. But Desor, without asking 

 permission, took upon himself to add his name, as one 

 of the two authors of the " Catalogue," a high-handed 

 proceeding which did not come to the knowledge of 

 Agassiz, until May, 1848, when he received the fifty 

 separate copies printed for his private use. It is not 

 surprising that Agassiz resented the presumption and 

 expressed his disapproval in his great work: "Contribu- 

 tions to the Natural History of the United States of 

 America," Vol. I., p. 97, Boston, 1857, i n tne following 

 terms : " Catalogue raisonne, etc. I quote this paper 

 under my name alone, because that of Mr. Desor, which 

 is added to it, has no right there. It was added by 

 him, after I had left Europe, not only without authority, 

 but even without my learning it, for a whole year. . . . 

 This is one of the most extraordinary cases of plagiarism 

 I know of." Being the most important witness in the 

 case, and the only survivor of all those who had anything 

 to do with that "Catalogue," I shall dispose in a few 

 words of the claims made rather cavalierly by Desor in 

 his " Synopsis des Echinodermes fossiles," p. xv, Re- 

 ponse a M. Agassiz, Paris, 1858. 



Not only was I present many times when Agassiz 

 dictated to Desor the descriptions of genera and species, 

 and accompanied him often in his visits to the private 

 and public collections of echinids in Paris, but it was 

 to me that the manuscript was entrusted by Desor when 

 he started for America, on the last day of February, 

 1847. About two-thirds of the " Catalogue " - - the first 

 eight sheets- -had been printed under the supervision 



