24 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xin. 



at Harvard University, and his two Lowell lectures, 

 Agassi/, went every afternoon, when not engaged 

 to the Lowell Institute, to some suburban town, like 

 Salem, Framingham, Worcester, etc., and delivered an 

 evening lecture, accepting any offer, however small, 

 which was offered to him. Only his strong constitu- 

 tion enabled him to stand such fatigue ; for, as too 

 often happened with him, he was burning the candle 

 at both ends. However, he was happy, for his suc- 

 cess as a lecturer was beyond his most sanguine ex- 

 pectation ; his audiences being so large that he was 

 obliged to repeat next day each of his lectures at the 

 Lowell Institute. " The Evening Traveller," a Boston 

 newspaper, similar to "The Tribune" of New York, had 

 each lecture stenographically reported, and published it 

 with woodcuts the day after its delivery, and the sale 

 was so great that the newspaper was obliged to reprint 

 each number containing these lectures, and finally to 

 issue them in the form of a pamphlet, under the title, 

 "Twelve Lectures on Comparative Embryology, deliv- 

 ered before the Lowell Institute, December and Jan- 

 uary, 1848-49," Boston, 8vo. The newsboys in the 

 streets of Boston and Cambridge used to cry Professor 

 Agassiz's lectures at the same time that they announced 

 a revolution in Europe, or a shipwreck of a great trans- 

 atlantic steamer, or the election of General Taylor as 

 President of the Republic. No one was more popular 

 in New England than Agassiz ; he even rivalled the 

 great statesman, Daniel Webster. 



During 1848 Agassiz's prominent part on two pub- 

 lic scientific occasions showed what a high place he 



