xii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 



articulate exponent of the idea of divine intervention in natural 

 history. His admiration for Cuvier's exposition of this philosophy 

 was such that in the Essay on Classification, the work he considered 

 his supreme intellectual achievement, he called the French savant 

 "the greatest naturalist of all times." 



It was in Paris, too, that Agassiz enjoyed the friendship and sup- 

 port of the Prussian statesman, philosopher, and naturalist. Baron 

 Alexander von Humboldt. While Cuvier taught Agassiz much about 

 the method and philosophy of science, Humboldt taught him less 

 tangible but equally valuable lessons. He impressed on the young 

 Swiss the importance of cultural and political support for scientific 

 endeavor, introduced him into the salons of wealthy and influential 

 patrons of science, and showed him by precept and example that 

 the man of science must also be a man of the world. To Humboldt 

 Agassiz owed his appointment as professor at the College de Neu- 

 chatel in Switzerland, and to him the younger man could always 

 turn for spiritual and material aid. Indeed, the special virtues of 

 both Humboldt and Cuvier helped produce in Agassiz a brilliant 

 investigator, an inspired teacher, and a vibrant personality. 



From the time he came to teach at Neuchatel in 1832 until he 

 left the Swiss town for the United States in 1846, Agassiz established 

 himself as a professional naturalist of high talent and promise. In 

 a pioneer effort he published Recherches sur les poissons fossiles, 

 (1833-1843), a description and analysis of over 1,700 species of ancient 

 fishes, detailing their anatomy, geographical distribution, zoological 

 character, and stratigraphic relationships. This work, an amazing 

 feat for so young a man, earned him European recognition. His 

 analyses of fossil fishes were models of the kind of precise in- 

 vestigative techniques he had learned from Dollinger and Cuvier. In 

 these five volumes his fellow naturalists could see spread before them 

 the rich holdings of the great and small European museums and of 

 private collections as well. 



Even at this early stage in his career Agassiz showed a strong in- 

 terest in classification. Believing that "a physical fact is as sacred as 

 a moral principle," he understood that facts by themselves Avere of 

 little value unless interpreted. He devised a new system of classifica- 

 tion for fossil fishes, drawn from principles of comparative anatomy. 

 In Poissons fossiles he gave evidence of discarding one of the major 



