Agassiz at 



presented to me. Entering at a side door I find the 

 institution in " full tide of successful experiment." 

 Arranged along the side of the room are numbers of 

 small but firm tables; in the middle of the room 

 etand acquariums; on the walls, diagrams; sus- 

 pended from the ceilings are dried tissues of various 

 animals: running entirely around the room is a 

 single shelf, appropriated for bottles of specimens. 

 At one end of the apartment is a huge black-board, 

 with a hopele.ss arabesque of colored chalk marks 

 thereon, and at the other, shelves for books, and 

 cases of alcohol. W T hat eainest groups are there about 

 the tables! Men and women engaged in study 

 teachers themselves, now pupils. But few books are 

 seen, for their use is discouraged. I notice among 

 those on the tables Harvey's " Marine Alga:," Pack- 

 ard's "Entomology," and Agassiz's "Methods." I 

 wander at will from table to table, overlooking the 

 workers. 



One table seemed to be devoted to those strange 

 creatures, the horse-shoe crabs. Turning from them 

 to a specimen which Dr. Packard has dissected, that 

 gentleman calls my attention to its wonderful net- 

 vork of blood vessels so different from all others of 

 its class, and shows me some exquisite injections of 

 them by Mr. Bicknall lying on the table in a gLiss 

 dish containing the eggs of the same animal. The 

 doctor is watching their development. He was the 

 first to note its peculiarities, and is now repeating 

 his former experiments for the benefit of his pupils. 

 Dr. Wilder is engrossed in his dissection of the ner- 

 vous system of a tish. He is interrupted accasionally 

 by a student who is not sure of the accuracy of a 

 note she has taken down from the last lecture, or a 

 gentleman asking for alcohol to preserve some 

 specimen that excites his desire for permanent pos- 

 session. I see in a shallow dish of salt water beauti- 

 ful polyps confidently expanding their flowery disks 

 Zoophytse properly called plant-animals aptly 

 named; here the flesh-like Alcyoninm and there the 

 dun Anemone. In some dishes are seaweeds, in 

 others shell-fishes. Yonder is an admiring erroup of 

 students watching the movements of a seaworm. It 

 ia a pity we have no prettier name for that graceful 

 form upon whose sides the hues of the rainbow are 

 playing. Truly it was a limp unsightly thing 

 enough when it was dug out of the sand last evening 

 at low tide ; but now in the clear sea-water, itself 

 almost aa transparent, it lies revealed an all-day 

 wonder I see another group standing, and hear the 

 inspiring voice of Prof. Agassiz, who has slipped in 

 from the cottage unawares, and is now explaining 

 the growth of a spiny radiate. These little, green, 

 dime-shaped animals are the young of this other 

 form looking like the lid of a hunting-watch. " This 

 young form has been referred to a distinct genus," 

 gays the Professor; " but observe, if you please, the 



Penikes*. 



63 



position of the terminal pore on top in the imma- 

 ture, at the rim and even beneath in the full-grown 

 animal." Agassiz moves off to look over the work 

 of a German artist, who is engaged in drawing a 

 young skate, which has been removed from an un- 

 laid egg. It is an exquisite little creature, with 

 loose, feathery tufts for gills, the entire body of a 

 delicate salmon color. The Professor is delighted 

 with the specimen. We hear it said that it is a 

 groat discovery, this particular stage in the develop- 

 ment of the skate. " No human eye has ever seen it 

 before." The professor is satisfied with the draw- 

 ing. "Das ist sehr herrlich." Thus the scene 

 varies. Groups form and break, and, to end it, all 

 too soon the toot, toot of the dinner-horn declares 

 recess. 



After dinner, the students reassemble. This' time 

 to listen to a lecture from Prof. Agassiz. He de- 

 livers an eloquent discourse on Types of Animal 

 Life. He speaks without notes ; uses few gestures. 

 He tells us of the varying standards for comparison 

 in different groups of animals, their distinctness of 

 their immutability. In the Batrachia, that is, the 

 group of animals having a tadpole stage, this stand- 

 ard is obtained by the study of their development. 

 But in the reptiles it is otherwise, for here, in place 

 of development, which is an indifferent standard, 

 we must take a comprehensive view of all the 

 structures. Other animals, such as some of the 

 fishes, do not reveal their type in its perfection, but 

 continually remind us of something higher yet to 

 come. There are prophetic types ; for while some 

 fishes, as the sturgeon and the gar, remind us of rep- 

 tiles, others again, as the sharks, hint of forms yefc 

 higher than the reptiles, viz., those having social in- 

 stincts and which retain their young in close rela- 

 tion to their own tissues. The Professor became 

 warmed up as he alludes to the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion. "Some," cries he, "\vould have us develop 

 the Amphioxus (fish) from an Ascidian (mollusk) two 

 utterly remote types. This is worse than an absur- 

 dity it is a lie !" It would give Darwin a new sen- 

 sation to hear this. After the lecture, more looking 

 into dishes and more off-hand table demonstrations 

 and explanations. Then supper and darkness. After 

 supper the horn gave another toot. " What now, 

 boy ?" " Lecture this evening, Sir !" And now, as a 

 closing exercise of the day. we have a fine stereopti- 

 cou exhibition by Mr. Bicknall, of corale, insects, 

 and injections. 



The following day, Thursday, dawned gray and 

 desolate; beating winds and pelting rain. The sea, 

 even in the haven between the islands, ws full of 

 angry caps. A heavy surf beat the shore, and the 

 air was filled with flying scum. No getting away 

 to-day, so indoors again. It is an ill wind that blows 

 no one good. While a prisoner at Penikese T ~* 



