THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 



PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



The Life and Writings of Louis Agassiz, Doctor of Philosophy 

 and Medicine^ LL.D. of Edinburgh and Dublin, Knight of 

 the Order of the Bed Eagle of Prussia, formerly Professor 

 of Natural History in the Academy of Neufchdtel, now Pro- 

 fessor of Zoology and Geology at Cambridge, in the United 

 States of America, ^'c, ^c, ^c. 



The Agassiz family is of French origin, and were among 

 those Protestants whom the revocation of the edict of Nantes 

 obliged to leave France. 



The immediate ancestors of M. Agassiz fled to the Pays 

 de Vaud, which, at that time, made part of the Canton of 

 Berne. From the time of their establishment in their new 

 residence, their prosperity has been uninterrupted. The 

 branch to which our naturalist belongs has been especially 

 devoted to the ministry ; the whole line for five generations 

 have been clergymen. The father of Agassiz was pastor at 

 St Imier (one of the Protestant parishes of the ancient bishop- 

 ric of Basle, which had been just incorporated into the 

 French empire), when he married the younger daughter of a 

 physician of the Canton de Vaud, Mademoiselle Rose Mayor, 

 a young lady as remarkable for the vivacity of her mind as 

 for her be^buty. They had the misfortune to see their first 

 four children die one after the other, and the family seemed 

 in danger of becoming extinct, when there was born a fifth 

 son, who has become the eminent man of whose life and la- 

 bours we propose to give some account. 



Louis Agassiz was born on the 28th of May 1807, exactly 

 a century after the birth of Linnaeus. From his birth he 



VOL. XLVI. NO. XCI. — JAN. 1849. A 



