LTNNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. xHii 



OBITUAEY NOTICES. 



LoFis John Eodolph Aoassiz was born on the 28th of May, 

 1807, in the Parish of Mottier, between the lakes of Neufchatel 

 and Morat. His father was the Protestant Pastor of this Parish. 

 At the age of thirteen he entered the gymnasium of Biel, where lie 

 gave evidence of ability which attracted the special notice of his 

 teachers. After be had been at Biel nearly four years he was 

 removed to the Academy of Lausanne, as a reward for his pro- 

 ficiency in science. He afterwards studied medicine and natural 

 science at Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich, taking the degree of 

 M.D. at the last-mentioned place. During his residence at 

 Heidelberg and Munich he studied with special care the science 

 of comparative anatomy, for his proficiency in which he became 

 subsequently distinguished. In the year 1826 Martius, the 

 eminent Bavarian naturalist, entrusted to Agassiz the editing of 

 an account of nearly 120 species offish, many of them little known, 

 which Martius and his travelling companion Spix had collected in 

 Brazil, the study of which led Agassiz to make further researches 

 into the nature and classification of fislies, more especially of the 

 SalmonidaB and the freshwater fishes of central Europe. He 

 published the first part of an elaborate work on this subject, with 

 illustrations, at Neufchatel in 1839, a second and third part fol- 

 lowing after a few years' interval. 



He had already devoted much attention to the subject of fossil 

 fishes, and had published the results of his studies in a work entitled 

 ' Eecherches sur les Poissons fossiles ' (Neufchatel, 1833-41). He 

 next came to England to study the fossil strata of the country and 

 its treasures, publishing in 1844 an elaborate account of those dis- 

 covered in the Old Eed Sandstone of the Devonian system. The 

 direction of his studies at this period may be traced in the titles 

 of his next publications — ' Description des Echinodermes fossiles 

 de la Suisse,' ' Monographie des Echinodermes vivants et fossiles,' 

 ' Etudes critiques sur les Mollusques Fossiles,' and ' Memoire sur 

 les moules des Mollusques.' 



From these studies he passed to another branch of natural 

 history — the study of the glacial system of his native mountains ; 

 and he published, in 1840, at Neufchatel, his 'Etudes sur les 

 Glaciers,' which suddenly made him famous, and opened a subjoci. 



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