NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 157 



labors. Although he exercised the lull powers of his miud in the prep- 

 aration of his memoirs, yet the most complex questions were appar- 

 ently to him very simple. He seemed to treat the varied and compli- 

 cated matters of government and science which engaged his thoughts 

 very much as an accomplished chess-player carries on several games at 

 once without seeming to regard any one of them with especial attention. 

 Even the most powerful organization of the nervous system must in 

 time give way, and with l)e la Eive the physical force was not equal to 

 the intellectual requirement. Great energy is exhausting when old age 

 prevents the regular renovation of the faculties. De la Eive expe- 

 rienced a slight attack of ])aralysis in the spring of last year, and 

 in the autumn when he intended to go to the south of France for 

 the improvement of his health he was seized with a second attack, much 

 more severe, of which he died at Marseilles, on the 27th of November, 

 1873, aged seventy-two years. Today, then, remains to us only the 

 memory of this beautiful life, and an example well worthy of regard. 



After De la Eive to mention Agassiz, his associate in all the scientific 

 societies, and in the list of the eight foreign associates of the Academy 

 of Sciences of Paris, seems but a natural transition. The life of this 

 savant is full of interest, but in speaking of it as I should I encounter 

 a peculiar difficulty. For thirty years the journals of every country have 

 never lost sight of Agassiz. When in the midst of his career an excel- 

 lent notice was published of him, and hardly had he closed his eyes 

 when innumerable journals, American and European, contained detailed 

 necrological articles concerning him. To extract from these, comment 

 upon them, and complete them would require a volume. I will confine 

 myself, then, to a few general observations, adding only some authentic 

 details upon a point forgotten or generally unknown, but which is of 

 considerable importance, both as regards Agassiz and the history of the 

 scientific development of Switzerland. I speak of the causes which 

 determined the learned naturalist to fix bis abode in the city of Neu- 

 chatel rather than in Germany or at Paris. 



Louis-Jean-Rudolphe Agassiz was born on the 28th of May, 1807. 

 His father was a Protestant clergyman who resided then at Mot- 

 tier, canton of Friburg, and afterward established himself at Concise, 

 not far from i^Teuchatel. He manifested, it is said, from his infanc^^, 

 an enthusiasm for natural history, and especially for the study of the 

 habits of the fish of our lakes, an indication of his future tastes. He 

 passed through the gymnasium of Bienne, and afterward the academic 

 course of Lausanne. Having a great desire to engage in the pursuit of 

 science, he obtained from his father permission tostudy surgery, which he 

 did successfully at Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich. It was in the latter 

 city he received his diploma of doctor. As he had prepared an article 

 upon fresh-water fishes, M. de Martins then proposed to him to under- 

 take the description of the fishes of Brazil, which his traveling compan- 

 ion Spix, prematurely deceased, had hardly commenced. This was a 



