240 APPENDIX A. 



to the storage of the first collections made by Agassiz in America, 

 though the account of his European life is short and somewhat 

 inaccurate ; e.g. Agassiz was never at school at Orbe. 



1877. Louis Agassiz, notice biographique, par Ernest Favre, in 

 " Archives des Sciences de la Bibliotheque Universelle, 1 ' May and 

 June, 1877, 53 pages; issued also separate!}', Geneve. An English 

 translation, made by order of Professor Joseph Henry, the secretary 

 of the Smithsonian, was published in the ' Annual Report of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for 1878," pp. 236-261, Washington. 



The author was too young to have known Agassiz personally, but 

 he makes good use of the knowledge of his father, Alphonse Favre, 

 an old pupil of Agassiz ; and the biography is original and good, 

 containing extracts from letters of Agassiz to Alphonse Favre, 

 and several anecdotes about Agassiz, when in Switzerland. I may 

 add that M. Ernest Favre asked me to write the biography for the 

 " Biblioth&que Universelle." But at the time, I was passing a 

 winter at Algiers, far from all my notes and books ; and I declined, 

 but promised to furnish him some notes, more especially upon the 

 life and works of Agassiz in America. He begged me to do so, 

 as otherwise he would not undertake the work. I therefore sent 

 him notes, which he acknowledged very courteously in a foot-note 

 on the first page of his Notice. But, influenced by his acquaintance 

 with M. Desor, and also by a little difficulty which had occurred 

 between Agassiz and his father, he gave Desor much more credit 

 for the fossil echinoderms than he is really entitled to, curiously 

 reversing the facts, by saying that Agassiz was the collaborator of 

 his assistant and secretary. Agassiz began the work on echino- 

 derms many years before he knew Desor, and before Desor came to 

 Neuchatel, as his secretary, and worked out the greater part of it until 

 1846; and the part taken by Desor is wholly secondary, and far 

 below Agassiz's in excellence. I am obliged to make this statement 

 because M. E. Favre, in quoting me as furnishing numerous fa< 

 seems to indicate that his opinion of the part taken by Desor, in 

 the publication of the " Catalogue des Echinodermes vivants ct 

 fossiles," 1846-1848, is more or less in accordance with my infor- 

 mation, which is erroneous. As I have previously said. I saw the 



