Record. xxxvii 



speculations of Oken. To Ignatius Bollinger, professor of anat- 

 omy and physiology, "a careful, minute, persevering observer, 

 as well as a deep thinker," he was indebted for instruction in the 

 use of the microscope and in ''his own methods of embryo- 

 logical investigation." From Bollinger, as he tells us, he 

 "learned to value accuracy of observation." The last and 

 greatest of the great teachers from whom he received direct in- 

 spiration was Cuvier, in whose laboratory and under whose ap- 

 proving eye he worked for several months. The close personal 

 relation with Cuvier was cut short by his death (May 13, 1832), 

 but in the course of this brief intimacy the master recognized in 

 the young naturalist a successor worthy to take up a great work 

 which he had himself begun, but which he could not hope to 

 complete. 



Agassiz's productive career as a naturalist opened auspi- 

 ciously with the pubHcation, 1828-29, of a recension and descrip- 

 tion of the fishes collected by the Martius-Spix expedition 

 (1817-1820), in Brazil. Tliis sumptuously illustrated volume 

 in Latin, published at the expense of Martins, the surviv- 

 ing leader of the expedition, was prepared by Agassiz while 

 he was still a student at Munich; its prospective issue was the 

 occasion of his taking the degree of Boctor of Philosophy (Er- 

 langen, 1829). The work was dedicated to Cuvier, who com- 

 mended it highly, in an extant letter, for "the importance and 

 rarity of the species described," for "the beauty of the figures," 

 and, especially, for "the accuracy of the descriptions." 



The work on the Brazilian fishes was but the prelude to 

 studies in ichthyology which were destined to place Agassiz in 

 the front rank of the naturalists of his time. An illustrated 

 work on the fresh-water fishes of Switzerland, and another on 

 fossil fishes, of which there were many specimens in the museum 

 at Munich, were forthwith taken in hand. The latter project, 

 expanded to wholly unforeseen proportions, took form in the 

 epoch-making "Recherches sur les Poissons fossiles," 5 vols., 4to, 

 with 400 folio plates, 1833-1843, which, supplemented by a 

 ^' Monographie comprenant Vhistoire des Poissons du vieux grh 

 rouge (Old Red Sandstone ou systeme devonien)" 1 vol., 4to, 

 with 43 folio plates, remains the enduring monument of genius, 

 indomitable courage, and untiring industry. 



In the fall of 1832 Agassiz entered upon the duties of a pro- 

 fessorship of natural history created for him in connection with 

 the Lycee at Neuchatel. In the small Swiss city, the seat of the 



