516 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



biology was not fully determined before they went to him. I think it 

 will be possible to show in due time, that the critical period for the 

 biologist is much earlier than some of us have supposed, is, in fact, 

 during the years of childhood. This would agree with Dr. Halsted's 

 opinion, expressed above, about mathematicians. The list of those who 

 received no university training is significantly long, including Ashmead, 

 Beutemnuller, W. Brewster, F. M. Chapman, Cockerell, Coquillett, D. 

 G. Elliott, Gill, Lucas, McGee, Miss Eathbun, Ridgway, Schuchert, 

 Simpson, J. B. Smith, Thayer, C. D. Walcott, Whitfield and Uhler. 

 On the other hand, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Cornell, Amherst, 

 Michigan and a few others have long lists of prominent graduates, and 

 the list of those who studied in Germany is surprisingly large. In all, 

 56 institutions in the United States are represented in my list, mostly 

 by only one or two names. There is plenty of evidence that first-class 

 men may come from institutions which do not ordinarily turn out zoolo- 

 gists of any sort, or perhaps ordinarily do turn them out, in a different 

 sense. 



Dr. D. S. Jordan is the man who comes first into our mind as a 

 gift from Agassiz. He himself is always ready to insist upon his 

 obligations to that great naturalist; but the following information, 

 kindly supplied to me by Dr. Jordan, shows that he was a good biologist 

 before he ever saw the master. 



When a boy I lived on a farm in western New York. I was very early 

 interested in the local botany and had made a collection of the local fauna be- 

 fore I entered college. At college I developed this as a thesis, called ' The 

 Fauna of Wyoming County, New York,' for a master's degree. I was also very 

 much interested in the breeding of sheep, and from my twelfth year to the time 

 I went to college I gave considerable attention to this, having a pretty fair 

 knowledge of all matters pertaining to a flock of sheep. Very soon after enter- 

 ing Cornell I was made laboratory assistant in botany, and was ultimately 

 promoted to an instructorship. I did not take up zoology as a serious matter 

 until after I had left Cornell. At Penikese I was instructor in marine botany. 

 Agassiz thought that I ought to do some work of an entirely different sort, 

 and placed me in charge of the work of collecting fishes, asking me to study 

 the habits of the different forms. On going to Wisconsin where marine botany 

 is scanty I was advised by him to take up the anatomy of fishes and especially 

 of the ganoid forms. I did a good deal of work on birds, but deliberately chose 

 fishes because the group was comparatively little known and apparently offered 

 a wide field. The influence of Agassiz was a great element in my scientific 

 progress. Not less great was that of Agassiz's student, Charles F. Hartt, sev- 

 eral years ago professor of geology at Cornell a subject in which I did a good 

 deal of work. (Litt., October 25, 1901.) 



It is perhaps by his general influence upon the country that Agassiz 

 did most to promote the study of biology in America. Such a man 

 always attracts to his person the enthusiastic young men who are able to 

 benefit most by his teaching, but who would probably have made good 

 biologists in any case. For most of these, the turning point had been 



