HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT PROFESSOR 



VERRILL 1 



IN regard to the methods of instruction of 

 Agassiz I must say that so far as I saw 

 and experienced he had no regular or 

 fixed method, except that his plan was to make 

 young students depend on natural objects rather 

 than on statements in books. To that end he 

 treated each one of his new students differently, 

 according to the amount of knowledge and 

 experience that the student had previously 

 acquired, and often in line with what the 

 student had done before. Not infrequently 

 young men came to him who were utterly 

 destitute of any knowledge or ability to study 

 natural science, or zoology in particular, but 

 had an idea that it would be a 'soft snap,' as 

 the boys say. In such cases he often did give 

 them a lot of mixed stuff to mull over, to see 



1 From a private letter from Professor Addison Emery 

 Verrill to Lane Cooper. The extract is printed with the 

 consent of Professor Verrill. 



3 [27] 



