168 The Science of Life. 



As he says, the young naturalist of that day who did 

 not share, in some degree, the intellectual stimulus 

 given to scientific pursuits by physio-philosophy would 

 have missed a part of his training. Another influence 

 (at Munich) was that of Dollinger, an impressive 

 master, at whose feet Von Baer also sat, and who 

 probably inspired them both with the idea of the 

 Recapitulation Doctrine, though Agassiz may also have 

 learnt of this from Oken. 



His industry as a student must have been like that of 

 his later life, for he knew, he says, " every animal 

 living and fossil " in eight museums in different German 

 towns. One is hardly surprised to read that when 

 Agassiz went to Paris to prosecute his work, Cuvier 

 not only welcomed him, but handed over his drawings 

 and notes on fossil fishes. The publication of the 

 famous Poissons Fossiles, which extended from 1833 to 

 1844, involved extraordinary labour and self-denial on 

 the author's part. In 1846 Agassiz migrated to 

 America, where for twenty-seven years he exerted a 

 profound influence both within and beyond zoology. 



By his Poissons Fossiles y in which over a thousand 

 species were recorded, most of them being described 

 and figured, order was introduced into what had been 

 chaos, and a magnificent demonstration was given of 

 what anatomical patience and insight could do with 

 subjects so difficult as many fossil fishes are. And 

 although his classification according to scales cannot 

 now be accepted for major groups, it must be remem- 

 bered that the author was fully aware of its empirical 

 character. As to the basis of classification, Agassiz was 

 perfectly clear that there were three tests of a natural 

 system: anatomical, palaeontological, and embryo- 

 logical. 



According to Eastman, Agassiz's work "marked an 

 epoch in the history of palaeontology and zoology in 

 general, since one of its brilliant results was the dis- 

 covery of certain comprehensive laws, which are now 

 admitted to be of fundamental importance. Without 

 doubt the most far-reaching of these in its consequences 

 is the analogy which he pointed out between the em- 



