574 



NATURE 



[April 24, 1879 



Europe, and Cuvier granted to the young Agassiz with 

 genuine disinterestedness and liberality the complete use 

 of its rich material. With untiring diligence and rare 

 perseverance, Agassiz here continued his researches on 

 fossil fishes, and anew worked thoroughly through the 

 rich pateontological collection of Conte Gazzola, which 

 contained the originals of Volta's celebrated treatise 

 *'L' Ittiologia Veronese." 



In 1833 Agassiz again visited the great museums of 

 Germany and Switzerland, and had already distinguished 

 500 species of fossil fishes, when, in August, 1834, he 

 sailed for England, in order to study there the excep- 

 tionally rich public and private collections, in which he 

 found 300 new species. In the year 1835 ^.nd 1840, he 

 extended his journeys into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 

 visiting 'London again and again, in order there to test 

 the notes collected for many years for the completion of 

 his work, and to make himself acquainted with the newest 

 discoveries in the department of paleontology. 



In 1844 Agassiz concluded the publication of his 

 gigantic work on the Fossil Fishes, which appeared at 

 Neuchatel in five quarto volumes, with 311 folio plates- 

 Eighty of the greatest museums of Europe had furnished 

 the material for it, and the number of described species 

 amounted to 1,700 in about 20,000 examples. The 

 "Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles "is undoubtedly 

 Agassiz' s most important work, and forms, with Cuvier's 

 and Valenciennes' " Histoire Naturelle des Poissons " 

 and Johann Miiller's treatises, the foundation of our 

 present knowledge of fishes, while it does not confine 

 itself to the region of ichthyolites, but extends over the 

 entire wide field of the anatomy and classification of 

 fishes, essentially modifying the latter. Agassiz con- 

 sidered, and with justice, that the separation of the ganoids 

 from the other fishes into the rank of a special order, as 

 the greatest step towards progress for which science was 

 indebted to him ; and, on the basis of the comparison of 

 the fossil fishes of all formations with living forms, he 

 enunciated several generally valid laws, which have had 

 an important bearing on the development theory of the 

 whole organic world. 



As a special fruit of Agassiz' s stay in England appeared 

 in 1844 and 1845, a monograph on the Fossil Fishes of 

 the Devonian System and a smaller treatise on the Fishes 

 of the London Clay. 



As early as 1832 was Agassiz called to be professor at 

 Neuchatel, and in a short time raised the little town to 

 be a chief seat of science in Switzerland. He created a 

 Natural History Museum, and was the chief founder of 

 the Scientific Society, which issued the first volume of its 

 Memoirs in 1835. From all parts of Switzerland came 

 young and talented pupils and friends of nature thither, 

 and gathered round Agassiz, who understood how to 

 inspire them with his great ideas. They followed him in 

 his frequent zoological and geological excursions in the 

 Jura and the Alps, and assisted him in procuring scientific 

 material and helping him in the time-consuming prelimi- 

 naries of those numerous works which date mainly from 

 the years 1835 to 1845. Along with his friends Desor 

 and Valentin, Agassiz published the great monograph on 

 living and fossil Echinoderms. 



The rich collection of fossil conchifera of Switzerland, 

 which a young and able geologist of the name of Gressly 



had brought back from his travels, led Agassiz to work 

 out the fossil conchifera of the Jura and the chalk, the 

 result being published under the title of " Etudes Critiques 

 sur les MoUusques fossiles du Jura et de la Craie," in 

 four parts with 100 plates. This was followed by several 

 similar supplementary publications on fossil conchifera, 

 of which the " Iconographie des Coquilles tertiares, 

 reputdes identiques avec les especes vivantes ou dans 

 differens Terrains de I'lilpoque tertiaire," and " Mdmoire 

 sur les Monies de MoUusques vivans et fossiles," are the 

 most important. 



In spite of these numerous and comprehensive works, 

 Agassiz found time to devote to the study of living fishes. 

 Thus may be mentioned his treatise on the cyprinoids 

 (1834); the great work brought out in conjunction with 

 Carl Vogt between 1839 ^^^ 1845, o^i the freshwater fishes 

 of Central Europe ; in 1842 he brought out his most im- 

 portant " Nomenclator Zoologicus," the result of many 

 years' gatherings, and which contained an alphabetical 

 arrangement of the specific names of the entire animal 

 kingdom, their etymology, information as to the authors 

 who had proposed these names, as well as the year of 

 their appearance. The " Nomenclator" found a magni- 

 ficent conclusion in the " Bibliographic gdndrale d' Histoire 

 Naturelle," printed at the cost of the Ray Society, un- 

 fortunately not without some ugly mutilations on the part 

 of the editor. 



While Agassiz no doubt exercised a considerable in- 

 fluence on geology by means of his palaeontological 

 researches, still it is as a glacealist that his name 

 will always be prominently associated with that sciencc- 

 Venetz', Schimper's, and especially Charpentier's ob- 

 servations and theories on the greater extension of 

 glaciers, and their relations to erratic blocks at- 

 tracted the attention of Agassiz in 1836 to the gla- 

 cial phenomena of Switzerland. Charpentier's theories 

 on the former extension of glaciers and other points 

 especially interested Agassiz, who gave himself with his 

 peculiar energy and fertility of idea to the study of ^ 

 glaciers. With Gyot, Desor, Studer, and other young; 

 friends, did Agassiz during several years visit most of the i 

 glaciers of Switzerland, and examined them in thei 

 entire extent, from their origin to their lowest margins 

 In 1841 was the ascent of the Jungfrau undertaken. Inl 

 the middle of the Aar glacier, at a height of 8,000 feet 

 above the sea, twelve miles from any human habitation, 

 protected by a huge block, was a station erected, whichj 

 latterly obtained a European celebrity, under the name 

 " Hotel des Neuchatelois." Here for fully eight year^ 

 were researches carried out on the origin of glaciers, the 

 forward and backward oscillations, the structure an<j 

 thickness of the ice, as well as its formation, the origin 

 moraines, &c. In 1840 appeared Agassiz' s first grea^ 

 work, " ifetudes sur les Glaciers," in which he thoroughlj 

 discussed the chief phenomena of glaciers, and deve 

 loped his views on their earlier extension. In a seconc 

 work, " Syst^me glacial," he gave a satisfactory accoun^ 

 of the observations made in the years 1841-45, especiallj 

 on the progress of glaciers in vawous years and under thi 

 influence of conditions of temperature. The adoption o| 

 a special glacial period was the final result of Agassiz'l 

 research among the glaciers of Switzerland, as well aj 

 those of Scotland and Wales. An immense ice-bed, the 



