CHAPTER XVIII. 



1855-1860: ^t. 48-53. 



" Contributions to Natural History of the United States." — 

 Remarkable Subscription. — Review of the Work. — Its 

 Reception in Europe and America. — Letters from Hum- 

 boldt and Owen concerning it. — Birthday. — Longfellow's 

 Verses. — Laboratory at Nahant. — Invitation to the Mu- 

 seum of Natural History in Paris. — Founding of Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge. — Summer Vaca^ 

 tion in Europe. 



A FEW months earlier than the school cir- 

 cular Agassiz issued another prospectus, which 

 had an even more important bearing upon his 

 future work. This was the prospectus for his 

 " Contributions to the Natural History of the 

 United States." It was originally planned in 

 ten volumes, every volume to be, however, ab- 

 solutely independent, so that the completeness 

 of each part should not be impaired by any 

 possible interruption of the sequence. The 

 mass of original material accumulated upon 

 his hands ever since his arrival in America 

 made such a publication almost imperative, 

 but the costliness of a large illustrated work 



