162 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND 



directed. If at the time when Agassiz was a poor student he dreamed 

 of an Eldorado suited to his desires, his dream was realized more than 

 once toward the end of his life. 



Agassiz could teach in three languages with equal grace and facility. 

 He was the partisan of no particular school. Science was to him neither 

 German, French, nor English, but of all countries. He excelled in the 

 examination of details, and in the comparison of forms. I cannot say 

 that he was equally sui)erior in the principles of natural classification 

 and in theoretic deductions. It may be considered at the least singular 

 that the author of the immense discovery of a parallelism between the 

 successive forms of the embryo of a fish, and the successive forms of 

 the class of fishes in general in geological times should persistently deny 

 all evolution in the two kingdoms. However, other naturalists of great 

 distinction, formed as Agassiz by practical investigations, have adopted 

 debatable theories, and I doubt, for example, whether it would be possible 

 to reduce several of the hypotheses of Linnseus to the rigorous form of 

 the syllogism. 



One peculiar circumstance in the life of Agassiz is, that he never ac- 

 cepted any position or desired to live in a great city. We have seen 

 that he preferred Neuchatel to Paris. He had no greater inclination 

 for Berlin and London, where friends and even powerful patrons would 

 have drawn him. He probably felt within him an inward activity which 

 did not require the excitement of great cities, and we know that he 

 absolutely avoided going out of his specialty. He died in a modest 

 habitation, near Harvard University, on the 18th of December, 

 1873, from a rapid prostration of the nervous system. His obsequies 

 were attended by an immense assembly. The feeling caused by the 

 death of this man was so general among the people of Boston, that, 

 although he had never taken part in politics, the flags of all the public 

 edifices of the city were lowered in token of grief. 



Donations by thousands of dollars as a testimonial still continue in 

 favor of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the favorite work of 

 Agassiz. On the 2Gth of June the subscription amounted to $120,000. 

 The learned American, to whom I owe this information, thought that 

 this sum was not suCQcient. In Europe we would consider it munificent. 

 Already during the year 1873 the establishment had received from 

 various donors $156,000. Among these contributors, Agassiz had the 

 pleasure of counting one of his best pupils, his only son, whom fortune 

 had favored, and who, making a good use of the wealth he had acquired, 

 gave $4G,0U0. It is he, Alexander Agassiz, the author of the remark- 

 able work upon Echinoids, who has now the direction of the museum, 

 and we have no doubt that he will acquit himself of the charge with 

 great advantage to science. 



Don Eamon de la Sagra, a Spaniard by birth,* was established in his 

 youth at Havana, where he gave much attention and labor to the develop- 



* Born at Corunua on the 7th of December, 1801. 



