APPOINTMENT AT CAMBRIDGE, 457 



ized at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in direct 

 connection with Harvard University. This 

 school, known as the Lawrence Scientific 

 School, owed its existence to the generosity 

 of Abbott Lawrence, formerly United States 

 Minister at the Court of St. James. He im- 

 mediately offered the chair of Natural His- 

 tory (Zoology and Geology) to Agassiz, with 

 a salary of fifteen hundred dollars, guaranteed 

 by Mr. Lawrence himself, until such time as 

 the fees of the students should be worth three 

 thousand dollars to their professor. This time 

 never came. Agassiz's lectures, with the ex- 

 ception of the more technical ones addressed 

 to small classes, were always fully attended, 

 but special students were naturally very few 

 in a department of pure science, and their fees 

 never raised the salary of the professor per- 

 ceptibly. This was, however, counterbalanced 

 in some degree by the clause in his contract 

 which allowed him entire freedom for lectures 

 elsewhere, so that he could supplement his 

 restricted income from other sources. 



In accordance with this new position Agas- 

 siz now removed his bachelor household to 

 Cambridge, where he opened his first course 

 in April, 1848. He could hardly have come 

 to Harvard at a more auspicious moment, so 



