5 8 LOi'IS AGASSIZ. [CHAP, xv. 



School. The Charleston climate had always disagreed 

 with him; and at each of his four visits, from 1847 to 

 1852, he suffered an attack of sickness, either while 

 there or as soon as he left. His South Carolina friends, 

 Drs. Holbrook and Ravenel, who had taken such good 

 care of him during his last illness, advised him not to 

 return, and he consequently resigned his professorship 

 at the Medical College. 



As soon as his lectures were finished, he started for 

 a prolonged tour in the South, delivering lectures at 

 Mobile, New Orleans, and St. Louis. The Mississippi 

 River was a wonder to him, with its muddy waters, and 

 its rich fauna of fishes, turtles, and caimans. He had 

 there, on a smaller scale, the spectacle which so much 

 impressed Spix on the Amazon, and which had haunted 

 him ever since he had described Spix's fishes at Munich 

 in 1829. The journey up the Mississippi increased, if 

 possible, his desire to explore the Amazon ; a desire 

 which he finally realized fourteen years later. 



By this time his house on Oxford Street was over- 

 crowded by inhabitants, books, and all sorts of imped- 

 imenta. Agassiz was still so full of future work, and 

 he was so eager to accumulate materials of all sorts for 

 studies, that he brought home everything he could lay 

 his hands upon. As an illustration I may give a per- 

 sonal recollection. During May, 1853, he drove to my 

 house in Dorchester, and packed his two-horse carriage 

 full of my books, such as the publications of the Geo- 

 logical Society of London, a full set of the reports of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 



