LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



[SEE THE FRONTISPIECE.] 



PROFESSOR AGASSIZ is a native of Switzerland, and was born in the Canton of Friburg, 

 in the town of Mottier, on the 28th of May, 1807. His ancestors were of French origin, 

 and were among those Protestants whom the revocation of the Edict of Nantes obliged to 

 leave France. 



The father of Agassiz was a Protestant minister, and it was expected that his son, fol- 

 lowing the example of his ancestors, would devote himself to the service of the Church. 

 But Natural History, which from an early age strongly arrested his attention, had, on the 

 completion of his studies at school, gained so great an ascendency, that he chose the pro- 

 fession of medicine, as offering the best opportunities for prosecuting his favorite pur- 

 suits. He commenced the study of his profession at the Academy of Zurich, whence he 

 went to the University of Heidelberg, where he devoted himself especially to the study 

 of anatomy, under the direction of the celebrated Professor Tiedemann. At the Univer- 

 sity he was noted, not only for assiduity in study, but for the rare talent of managing with 

 equal dexterity the rapier and the scalpel. From Heidelberg he went to the University 

 of Munich, where he remained four years. Before this Agassiz had commenced lecturing 

 to his fellow-students, and his already extensive knowledge of Natural History soon 

 attracted the notice of scientific men and his instructors. So great was his reputation, 

 that he was employed by Martius to prepare the ichthyological department of the Natural 

 History of Brazil, a work which gained him great credit. 



At this period, his parents, disliking his exclusive devotion to science, withheld his al- 

 lowance ; but his enthusiasm procured him advances from Cotta, a bookseller. Having, 

 however, gained the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Philosophy, he went to Vienna, 

 where he applied himself to the study of existing and fossil fishes. A friend having lent 

 him some money, he visited Paris, and here gained the friendship of Cuvier and Hum- 

 boldt, with the former of whom he remained until his death, in 1832. 



Having returned to Switzerland, he was appointed Professor of Natural History in the 

 University of Neufchatel, a place which he filled until his departure for the United 

 States. In 1833 he commenced the publication of his great work, Poissons Fossiles, in 

 five volumes, with an atlas of about four hundred folio plates, and comprising descrip- 

 tions and figures of nearly a thousand species of fossil fishes. This work gained for him 

 the respect of the scientific world, and at the age of thirty-four Agassiz was a member of 

 every scientific academy of Europe. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon 

 him by the Universities of Edinburgh and Dublin, and he was also admitted to the free- 

 dom of those cities. The Order of Knight of the Red Eagle of Prussia was conferred 

 upon him by the king of Prussia. 



