368 Humboldt and Agassiz. [August, 



The night before washing, rub the clothes where most soiled, with 

 tbe soap, and soak in water until morning. This soap which has 

 been more than doubled in quantity, will go quite as far, bulk for 

 bulk, as the original, thus saving at least one-half. The boiling and 

 washing are to be performed in the usual manner; but it will be 

 found that the labor of rubbing is diminished three-fourths while 

 the usual caustic or eating effect of the soap is greatly lessened; 

 and the hands will retain a peculiar soft and silky feeling, even after 

 a large washing. The preparation is adapted to all kinds of fabrics, 

 colored or uncolored, including flannels, and is thought to increase 

 their whiteness. 



It is well known that ?*L Agassiz, one of the most gifted men to 

 whom Switzerland has given birth, is now settled at Cambridge Col- 

 lege, in the United States. M. Agassiz had no fortune of his own 

 to begin life with. He became early acquainted with poverty, and 

 once, when he was in Paris, was reduced to so low a pitch that he 

 had no means to take him back to Switzerland. A friend, no richer 

 than himself, having mentioned him to Baron Humboldt, whom 

 Agassiz had never seen, he received next morning a flattering letter 

 from the illustrious man, begging him in the kindest and most deli- 

 cate manner to allow him to advance the sum necessary to meet 

 his wants. M. Agassiz delights in telling this story. Some years 

 afterward, when M. Agassiz had earned to himself a name in science, 

 he had gone to great expense in order to publish his work on fossil 

 fishes. In consequence of this he owed his brother one hundred 

 thousand francs. This debt he desired to pay as soon as he could. 

 Where in Europe could he have means of clearing it ofi" rapidly by 

 means of lectures ? He came to the United States and gave a course 

 of lectures on geology, in the Powell Institution, at Boston, and 

 though improvising in a language that was not his own, he produced 

 an immense effect. His audience was so numerous that he was 

 obliged to deliver each lecture twice, and in a few years gained 

 enough by his various courses of lectures to repay his hundred 

 thousand francs. This is a specimen of what may take place in mer- 

 cantile America, and it shows that its people are not utterly indifferent 

 to science, and that if they delight in making money, they know also 

 how to spend it nobly. 



