4^ LOUIS AG ASS IZ. IAP. xiv. 



Kelton, Pierce, etc. Longfellow especially pleased him 

 much, and both became absorbed in reciting old French 

 verses, for Ampere was somewhat of a poet himself, 

 and was also professor of old Frencn literature at the 

 College de France, at Paris. 



Ampere-like, for his father and he were celebrated 

 for their absent-mindedness, he stayed eight days, say- 

 ing every morning that he was going back to Boston ; and 

 not only remaining, but, as each day passed, forgetting 

 even to bring a change of linen from his Boston hotel. 

 How he managed to keep up appearances with the same 

 shirt was a problem which furnished great fun to Agas- 

 siz's children, who were disposed to see the comical side 

 of their father's extraordinary guest. Every morning- 

 Ampere's shirt collar was lowered, in order to conceal the 

 mark of the preceding day, until the collar wholly dis- 

 appeared on the last day. Then he found his way back 

 to the Tremont House. Good Ampere ! He was a well 

 of knowledge, ready to talk for hours on zoology, botany, 

 geology, palaeontology, old French, history, political 

 economy, philology, travels, physics, chemistry, poetry, 

 glaciers, fine arts, romance languages (such as Pro- 

 ven^al, Italian, Spanish), German literature; in fact, on 

 any subject, like a veritable encyclopaedist. 



Appointed professor of comparative anatomy at the 

 Medical College of Charleston, South Carolina, Agassiz 

 assumed his new duties in December, 1851, his lectures 

 being delivered every winter, between his autumn and 

 spring courses at Cambridge. He took with him all his 

 family, besides two assistants, Clark and Stimpson, and 



