LOUIS AGASSIZ. 789 



and after a few soft words and a movement of the stick over the bristles of 

 the creature in the right direction, the pig would lift its head erect, its small 

 eyes would glisten with a vague intelligence, it would remain almost motion- 

 less in a kind of pleased surprise, and emit a sound indicative of as much 

 content and comfort as are indicated by the purring of a cat. The neigh of 

 a horse to him was a more friendly neigh than any ever heard by a hostler 01 

 a jockey. He carried serpents in his hat and in his pockets with a grand 

 unconcern, and dropped them sometimes in his bedroom, so that his wife 

 was frequently troubled by finding them coiled up in her boots. Whenever 

 he entered a menagerie he was eagerly welcomed by lions, tigers, wolves, 

 hyenas, and other beasts of prey^ which considered even their keepers as 

 stupid louts, but recognized in him the one person that they could have a 

 rational conversation with. 



Year by year Agassiz strove to support the ever-increasing burdens of his 

 task, — his vast correspondence carried on in three languages ; the superin- 

 tendence of numerous assistants ; protracted conferences almost daily with 

 the learned men who were at the head of the different departments ; and a 

 constant and intense study of the grand question of arrangement.' In addi- 

 tion to this labor, especially devoted to the Museum, he exerted himself in 

 many other ways. He gave lectures and contributed to scientific literature. 

 He was at the disposal of every one who came to ask questions ; and he 

 found time to attend agricultural meetings, learned societies, and literary 

 clubs. Besides all this, he undertook a task very disagreeable to him in 

 asking aid to carry on so expensive an establishment. More than once his 

 warm friend and admirer, Browii-S6quard, warned him that such a strain 

 was not to be borne. Agassiz could not stop. He was driven by a power like 

 that which the Greeks called mighty fate. At length, in December of 1869, 

 his system gave way, and his brain was attacked in a manner which threatened 

 paralysis. Nothing saved him then but his powerful constitution, seconded 

 by the most careful treatment. Weakened by disease and with death im- 

 minent, his heroism was at once noble and pathetic. One day the tears 

 began to roll down his cheeks, and he said : " Brown-Sequard tells me I 

 must not think. Nobody can ever know the tortures I endure in trying to 

 stop thinking ! " 



His physical health had been so great that, when he was superintending 

 the arrangement and publication of one of his early works, he labored for a 

 couple of months steadily at his desk at the rate of sixteen or eighteen 

 hours a day, taking no exercise ; and when the delightful task was com- 

 pleted, he started on an excursion among the Alps, which exacted as much 



