112 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



of the establishment. Henceforth the current of 

 Agassiz's thoughts ran in a new channel. In the 

 words of a contemporary, "he determined to found 

 a great museum arranged to show his views of the 

 relations of living animals among themselves, and 

 their connections in the geological and embiyological 

 successions. Such a museum he hoped to leave as 

 a legacy — his all — to the people of this country 

 (America), and to make it at once a mark of his 

 affection and a monument of his labour. He gave 

 less and less of his time to those special investigations 

 by which he had gained his reputation, and pondered 

 more and more on this museum, which should serve 

 as a tabulation of the creative thought by presenting 

 the creatures themselves in a connected order." 



Day by day he laboured to increase his collections 

 and to forward their arrangement. His Brazilian 

 expedition, undertaken in I860, at the cost of Mr. 

 Nathaniel Thayer, brought back vast riches in natural 

 history specimens. Not the sight, however, of familiar 

 fishes that took him back to Munich and the time of 

 Spix and Martius, could turn him again to special 

 studies. He kept on with ever-increasing toil, and 

 yet preserved his relations to the public, his popular 

 lectures, his interest in education and agriculture, 

 his voluminous correspondence. All this, in addition 

 to his duties as Professor of Natural History, was 

 too much even for his powerful frame, and in 1869 

 he was seized with a cerebral attack which threatened 

 his life. From it he recovered only to enter, with 

 all the spirit of a youth just beginning the world, 



