HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT 



'Take this fish,' said he, 'and look at it; we 

 call it a haemulon; by and by I will ask what 

 you have seen.' 



With that he left me, but in a moment re- 

 turned with explicit instructions as to the care 

 of the object entrusted to me. 



'No man is fit to be a naturalist,' said he, 

 'who does not know how to take care of speci- 

 mens.' 



I was to keep the fish before me in a tin tray, 

 and occasionally moisten the surface with alco- 

 hol from the jar, always taking care to replace 

 the stopper tightly. Those were not the days 

 of ground-glass stoppers and elegantly shaped 

 exhibition jars; all the old students will recall 

 the huge neckless glass bottles with their 

 leaky, wax-besmeared corks, half eaten by 

 insects, and begrimed with cellar dust. Ento- 

 mology was a cleaner science than ichthyology, 

 but the example of the Professor, who had 

 unhesitatingly plunged to the bottom of the 

 jar to produce the fish, was infectious; and 

 though this alcohol had 'a very ancient and 

 fishlike smell,' I really dared not show any 

 aversion within these sacred precincts, and 



[41] 



