508 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



were strained to the utmost, merely to save 

 these precious materials from destruction. It 

 is true that in 1850 the sum of four hundred 

 dollars, to be renewed annually, was allowed 

 him by the University for their preservation, 

 and a barrack -like wooden building on the 

 college grounds, far preferable to the bath- 

 house by the river, was provided for their 

 storage. But the cost of keeping them was 

 counted by thousands, not by hundreds, and 

 the greater part of what Agassiz could make 

 by his lectures outside of Cambridge was 

 swallowed up in this way. It was, perhaps, 

 the knowledge of this which induced certain 

 friends, interested in him and in science, to 

 subscribe twelve thousand dollars for the pur- 

 chase of his collections, to be thus perma- 

 nently secured to Cambridge. This gave him 

 back, in part, the sum he had already spent 

 upon them, and which he was more than ready 

 to spend again in their maintenance and in- 

 crease. 



The next year showed that his over-bur- 

 dened life was beginning to tell upon his 

 health. Scarcely had he arrived in Charleston 

 and begun his course at the Medical CoUege 

 when he was attacked by a violent fever, and 

 his life was in danger for many days. Fortu- 



