xlvi Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



work at Neuchatel, he was invited by Professor Tiedcmann to 

 allow his name to be presented fo:- the professorship of zoology 

 at Heidelberg, then about to be vacated by his former teacher, 

 Professor Leuckart. In a letter to Humboldt (December, 1832) 

 he gives his reasons for declining: — "First, as my lectures do not 

 claim a great part of my time I shall have the more to bestow 

 on other work ; add to this the position of Neuchatel, so favorable 

 for observations such as I propose making on the history of 

 development in several classes of animals ; then the hope of free- 

 ing myself from the burden of my collections; and next, the 

 quiet of my life here with reference to my somewhat overstrained 

 health. Besides my wish to remain, these favorable circum- 

 stances furnish a powerful motive, and then I am satisfied that 

 people here would assist me with the greatest readiness should 

 my publications not succeed otherwise." The event abundantly 

 justified his decision. In 1838 he received urgent and tempting 

 calls to Geneva, and to Lausanne; but strong ties to Neuchatel 

 prevented his acceptance. In 1854 he declined a call to the 

 newly established University of Zurich. The crowning honor 

 came to him in 1857, when he received a formal invitation, in the 

 name of the emperor, to accept the chair of Palaeontology at 

 the ]\Iuseum of Natural History in Paris. Two volumes of the 

 "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States" 

 had just been issued, and a third was in preparation; the 

 "Museum of Comparative Zoology" was approaching the stage 

 of definite realization : the field of work in America held him 

 by a bond too firm to be broken. 



In a published notice of Agassiz (1845), the distinguished 

 naturalist of Geneva — Professor Jules Pictet de la Rive — 

 enumerates, as qualities pre-eminently characteristic of him: — 

 "ce melange d'imagination et de jugement qui caracterise les 

 creations brillantes et durables, une grande perseverance dans 

 I'etude des faits, une eloquence chaleureuse et entrainante, 

 . . . son caracterc aimable et attachant, son ardeur dans tout 

 ce qu'il entreprend, sa vivacite dans la discussion unie a la poli- 

 tesse du coeur et en un mot toutes les qualites qui lui ont cree 

 partout des amis et qui I'ont fait I'ame de reunions des natural- 

 istes suisses qu'il vivific par sa presence."* To a personal charm 

 all his own he joined a simplicity and sincerity of manner which 

 inspired unreserved confidence, and a generous sympathy which 



* Album de la Suisse Romane, vol. v; quoted by J. Marcou, op. cit., vol. i, 

 pp. 255-56. 



