19* LOUIS AGASSI Z. [CHAP. xxn. 



fifteen thousand dollars annually, only half the sum needed to carry 

 on the present scale of operations (" Annual Report of the Museum 

 for 1873," PP- 4> 5 5 Boston, 1874). 



The constant success of Agassiz, in obtaining for his 

 Museum appropriations of large sums of money from 

 the Legislature of Massachusetts, is something unique 

 in natural history, for the Museum has been finally 

 turned over by its trustees to Harvard University, a 

 private corporation ; and if Harvard had asked of the 

 Legislature a sum of money, however small, for the 

 foundation of a museum, it would never have been 

 granted. The success is entirely personal, and due 

 wholly to Agassiz's power of persuasion He 

 quickly became expert in handling the Legislature. 

 When called before the Committee of Appropria- 

 tions to explain the nature of his wants, he would 

 meet every member of the committee, first in private, 

 then in the committee-room. But before any step 

 was taken, he would call on the Governor, the 

 Lieutenant-Governor, the President of the Senate, 

 the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of the 

 Board of Education, and the Chief Justice of the 

 Supreme Court, all cx-officio trustees of the Mu- 

 seum, and consequently in sympathy with its needs. 

 The amount of scientific diplomacy he made use of is 

 something astounding; for instance, he would detail, 

 with great clearness, the working of the institution, 

 and make it clear that the Museum is an element of 

 education even in the most elementary school of the 

 commonwealth, and that in the future generations there 

 would not be a child who would not have the oppor- 



