100 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
later years to verify his geological deductions and to find mate- 
rials for his work on echinoderms. 
At the age of 11, Agassiz engaged in classical studies at the 
College of Bienne, and afterwards was a student for two years 
at the Academy of Lausanne. In 1824 he entered the Medical 
School of Zurich where two additional years were spent. Hav- 
ing been encouraged in his natural history studies by the 
zoologist Schinz, according to the custom of the time he left 
Zurich and entered the University of Heidelberg, where he 
studied physiology and anatomy under Tiedeman, zodlogy under 
Leuckart, and botany under Bischoff. At this time Alexander 
Braun was studying at Heidelberg, and an intimate friendship 
was formed between the two young men, Braun inviting Agassiz 
to his home during the summer vacations. To this charming 
home, most delightfully situated at Carlsruhe, many naturalists 
and other men of learning were attracted, and by the intimate 
intercourse with those who like himself were engaged in the 
study of nature, and by comparison of investigations made, 
Agassiz broadened his own views, and laid the foundations for 
his future work. With Braun and Schimper, Agassiz spent the 
years from 1827 to 1830 at the University of Munich, continuing 
his medical studies and mainly occupied with zodlogical investi- 
gations. These three men formed the nucleus of a company of 
young scientists who organized a society called the “ Little 
Academy of Sciences,” where each gave lectures on his favorite 
topic. In these years were finished those preliminary studies 
which formed the basis of his life work. With Oken he dis- 
cussed classification; with Dollinger, embryology; Von Martius 
instructed him in the geographical distribution of plants; and 
Schelling in philosophy. He published his first work at this 
time and prepared two others. Owing to the death of Spix, 
Agassiz was chosen by Von Martius, the Brazilian explorer, 
to describe the fishes collected during his expedition. So well 
was this done by Agassiz, then but twenty-one years of age, that it 
gave him rank among the best naturalists of the time. 
