54 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAI-. xv. 



i-ainst Clark. The case was a particularly trying one, 

 and is much to be regretted. Poorly paid, --receiving 

 hardly enough to sustain his family, Clark thought 

 that the least he could receive from Agassiz was pub- 

 lic acknowledgment of collaboration on the title-pages 

 of the second, third, and fourth volumes of the " Con- 

 tributions to the Natural History of the United States." 

 Instead of this, Agassiz contented himself with saying 

 in the prefaces that he had "received much valu- 

 able assistance" from his friend and colleague, "Pro- 

 fessor H. J. Clark," who had "assisted him from the 

 beginning of his investigations of the embryology of 

 these animals with untiring patience and unsurpassed 

 accuracy." On the point of authorship, Agassiz was 

 very sensitive and easily offended, and would not allow 

 any one to interfere. Clark asked him in vain to refer 

 his claim to "an arbitration by competent umpires." 

 Agassiz declined to consent to such a demand, which 

 he considered as rather preposterous from an old 

 pupil. 



Then Clark published in July, 1863, a small pamphlet 

 of three pages only : "A Claim for Scientific Property," 

 over his signature and title of adjunct professor of Har- 

 vard University, which brought the affair to a crisis and 

 caused his dismissal. Clark never rallied from the 

 shock, and died at Amherst the ist of July, 1873, a 

 few months before Agassiz's death. I do not hesitate 

 to say that this was the most unfortunate scientific diffi- 

 culty with which Agassiz was connected. Although he 

 was right in the main, he might have shown more Ion- 



