HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT 



ticularity with which it is possible for me to 

 comply. 2 The courses given by Agassiz on 

 zoology and geology were attended by me 

 during the three years (1859-62) of my pupilage 

 with Jeffries Wyman, and the two years 

 (1866-68) in which I was the assistant of Agassiz 

 himself. Naturally, and also for special reasons, 

 the deepest impression was made by the first 

 and the last of these courses. With the former 

 the charm of novelty intensified the great, in- 

 deed indescribable, charm of the speaker. No 

 topic was to me so important as the general 

 problem of animal life, and no expositor could 

 compare with Agassiz. As an outlet for my 

 enthusiasm each discourse was repeated, to 

 the best of my ability, for the benefit of my 

 companion, James Herbert Morse, '63, on the 

 daily four-mile walk between Cambridge and 

 our Brookline home. So sure was I that all 

 the statements of Agassiz were correct and all 

 his conclusions sound, that any doubts or 



2 Not only have I preserved all the letters from Agassiz, 

 the first dated Sept. 4, 1866, and the last Nov. 25, 1873, but 

 also my diaries in which are recorded all significant incidents 

 and conversations from my first introduction in 1856 to the 

 last interview, Sept. 5, 1873. [Note by Professor Wilder.] 



[33] 



