242 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



researches formed the basis of the ulterior investigations of this class. 

 Mr. Desor soon made a specialty of the subject, and to him we owe the 

 publication of several works in the preparation of which Agassiz was 

 only his collaborator. Agassiz also pursued some investigations, as new 

 as they were original, on living and fossil mollusca.* 



A large number of articles upon special points of natural history and 

 memoirs containing more general conclusions, succeeded each other rap- 

 idly during these years. While these original memoirs exhibited the 

 scientific genius of their author, his numerous lectures, the fruits of his 

 vast erudition, formed the substance of various other works. 



One of the principal of these is a catalogue of the genera of all known 

 animals, a work to which several of the most distinguished geologists 

 of that period contributed. At the same time he collected the elements 

 of a zoological and geological dictionary published later in London, t 



" We have a good working force," he writes to a friend in Geneva ; 

 " Gressly is here. Desor is studying the Galerites. I am busy, alter- 

 nately, with Myas and the fresh-water fishes. Vogt with anatomy. 

 Thus the time passes agreeably and usefully." 



The energy he displayed during these years was something astonish- 

 ing ; the history of science presents no other example like it. One of 

 his collaborators gives us a vivid picture of the activity which reigned in 

 the laboratories of Neuchatel. " It might be supj)osed," said Mr. Vogt, 

 "that in such complicated machinery the wheels would sometimes have 

 interfered with each other. The printing-oflice constantly demanded 

 copy, the lithographic establishment designs, and yet the work of his 

 original researches never ceased; hardly had we the time necessary to 

 comiilete one set of labors before Agassiz had new plans and assumed 

 new tasks. Every thought that passed through his head was converted 

 into a great work, with hundreds of folio plates, hundreds of pages 

 of text; in all this he was the acknowledged master, as well as in the 

 collection of new material for his work. He knew how to draw all Eu- 

 rope into contribution. Often boxes Avhich had been sent for and awaited 

 with feverish impatience* remained weeks and even months unopened, 

 because in the meanwhile another subject occupied attention, and the 

 objects they contained had lost their interest." 



Order did not prevail either in the abode or in the laboratory of Agas- 

 siz. " In my house everything is astray but nothing is lost," he would 

 say to those who came to consult specimens or books he could not 

 find. 



The reputation of the young savant extended rapidly. In 1839, at the 



* Memoire stir les moules dcs Mollusques vivants et fossiles. M^m. Soc. NeuchMel; II. — 

 Etudes critiques sur les MoUusques fossiles. Memoire sur les Trigonies ; 1840. — Monographie 

 des Mijes ; 1842-1845. — IconograpMe des Coquilles teriiaires r^putees identiqiies avec les 

 rivantes ; 1845. 



\ BihUograpMa Zoologiae et Geologiae. A general catalogue of all books, tracts, and 

 memoirs on zoology, by Prof. L. Agassiz, corrected, enlarged, and edited by Strickland. 

 London, 1848. 



