i868-7o.j LETTER TO J. MARCOU. 165 



de m'accorder une forte somme pour etendre le Musee et je voudrois 

 y attacher un mouleur de premiere force. Vouclriez-vous voir Stahl 

 au Jardin cles Plantes et lui demander s'il serait dispose a venir me 

 rejoindre ; et si non, peut-etre a fil forme quelqu'eleve qu'il pourrait 

 me recommander consciencieusement pour faire des travaux delicats, 

 aussi bien que des moules de grands ossements fossiles. Faites lui 

 en meme temps mes amities. 



Des que je serai moins affecte par la position necessaire pour 

 ecrire qui me suffoque, je reprendrai la plume plus longuement. 



Bien a vous, 



Ls. AGASSIZ. 



This letter shows unmistakable signs of the difficulty 

 Agassiz experienced in holding his pen. Indeed, I 

 never received one from him so plainly indicating 

 tremulousness. 



His health, regained during his Brazilian journey, 

 broke down again during the spring of 1868. The 

 heart was affected this time, and Dr. Brown-Sequard 

 ordered a complete cessation of cigar-smoking, a 

 great privation to Agassiz. He was not an easy in- 

 valid, being too full of schemes of all sorts, and very 

 impatient of bodily inactivity. 



The Poirrier collection, referred to in the above let- 

 ter, was a rich collection of very rare vertebrates from 

 the fresh-water Tertiary formation of Auvergne. I had 

 to look at it attentively, at the request of Agassiz ; but 

 the death of M. Poirrier and the serious sickness of 

 Agassiz prevented the purchase. The collection has 

 been secured since by Mr. Cope, of Philadelphia, and, 

 consequently, is in good hands. 



M. Stahl, Agassiz's former modeller at Neuchatel, 

 trained with great care to the work of modelling fossil 



