1865-67.] LETTER TO SIR PHILIP EGERTON. 155 



regard to the origin of species, for he visited exactly 

 the same ground that Henry W. Bates and Alfred R. 

 Wallace had visited a few years before. In a letter to 

 his old friend the ichthyologist, Sir Philip de Grey 

 Egerton, dated Cambridge, March 26, 1867, Agassiz 

 says, " I have about eighteen hundred new species of 

 fishes from the basin of the Amazons ! . . . It sug- 

 gests at once the idea that either the other rivers 

 of the world have been very indifferently explored, or 

 that tropical America nourishes a variety of animals 

 unknown to other regions. . . . My recent studies 

 have made me more adverse than ever to the new 

 scientific doctrines which are flourishing now in Eng- 

 land. This sensational zeal reminds me of what I 

 experienced as a young man in Germany, when the 

 physio-philosophy of Oken had invaded every centre of 

 scientific activity, and yet, what is there left of it ? I 

 trust to outlive this mania also. As usual, I do not ask 

 beforehand what you think of it, and I may have put 

 my hand into a hornets' nest, but you know your old 

 friend Agassiz, and will forgive him if he hits a tender 

 spot." 1 



Until the end of his life Agassiz considered "the 

 transmutation theory as a scientific mistake, untrue in 

 its facts, unscientific in its method, and mischievous in 

 its tendency " (" On the Origin of Species " in " Ameri- 

 can Journal of Science and Arts," Vol. XXX., July, 

 1860, p. 15). 



It is just to say that the sixteen months spent in 

 Brazil were among the most happy of Agassiz's life. 



1 " Louis Agassiz," by Mrs. E. C. Agassiz, Vol. II., pp. 646-647. 



