CHAPTER XXIII. 



1873- 



THE ANDERSON SCHOOL OF NATURAL HISTORY AT PENIKESE ISLAND 

 AN UNEXPECTED GIFT "EVOLUTION AND PERMANENCE OF TYPES" 

 AGASSIZ'S LAST WORDS ON DARWINISM THE GIGANTIC SQUID OF 

 NEWFOUNDLAND AGASSIZ'S LAST ILLNESS His LAST WORDS 

 DEATH POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION THE FUNERAL THE GRAVE- 

 STONE. 



AGASSIZ came back from his journey around South 

 America with such renewed vigour of mind and body 

 that he renewed his social duties, and his always hos- 

 pitable house was often open to his friends and his 

 large family circle. 



At the beginning of 1873 occurred the most extraor- 

 dinary episode in Agassiz's life. A merchant of New 

 York, upon seeing in the newspapers the announce- 

 ment that Agassiz proposed to give a course of in- 

 struction in natural history, chiefly designed for 

 teachers, and students preparing to become teachers, 

 to be delivered on the island of Nantucket during 

 the summer months, offered him Penikese Island, 

 one of the Naushon Islands, in Buzzard's Bay, oppo- 

 site New Bedford, on the southern coast of Massa- 

 chusetts, and to complete the gift, an additional 

 endowment of fifty thousand dollars, for the support 



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