1849-52-] ArrOIXTED AT CHARLESTON. 43 



the artist Burkharclt, a rather cumbrous establishment 

 so far from Cambridge. Always most hospitably re- 

 ceived by the Charleston savants and the "elite" of 

 Charleston society, he found opportunity to deliver not 

 only his courses before the Medical College, three times 

 a week, but also an evening course of lectures to the 

 public in general. But the strain was too great, and 

 his health began to break down. Sullivan's Island, a 

 few miles south of Charleston harbour, where he estab- 

 lished his laboratory, did not agree with him. He was 

 constantly feverish, and the South Carolina climate was 

 decidedly unfavourable for him. 



Before leaving Charleston he learned with joy that 

 the French Academy of Science of the Institute of 

 France had bestowed on him its first award of the " Prix 

 Cuvier," in consideration of his splendid and difficult 

 work, the " Poissons fossiles." This prize was founded 

 with the money remaining from a public subscription to 

 raise a marble statue of Cuvier in the geological gallery 

 of the Jardin des Plantes, and a monumental fountain 

 at the corner of Cuvier and St. Victor streets, close by 

 the gate of the Jardin des Plantes, in the Pitie Square. 

 It was a reward well bestowed, honouring both the 

 Academy and the recipient. 



Agassiz, about this time, had two curious experiences, 

 for which his previous European training had not pre- 

 pared him. To his great and disagreeable surprise, he 

 found himself entangled in two somewhat serious diffi- 

 culties almost before he was aware of it. The religious 

 world, always so powerful in America, and more espe- 



