154 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



line roughly as it appeared. The following day he went to the 

 Jardin des Plantes, and there he cut away the stone of a fossil 

 fish, Cydopima spinosum and found the figure of his dream, 

 which is pictured in the above mentioned work, Vol. IV, tab. i, 

 p. 21. 



With the death of Cuvier dark days fell upon Agassiz; he be- 

 came more and more impoverished, he was forced to relinquish 

 his artist and then, owing to complications which followed, he was 

 absolutely forced to face the possible abandonment of the career 

 he had laid out for himself. He even decided to return to his 

 native town and teach, to leave Paris and all its treasures, which 

 meant so much to the student. But Agassiz was a man of destiny, 

 and in this instance destiny may be translated to mean the logical 

 result of true and conscientious effort in a given direction. When 

 his fortunes were at the lowest ebb, out of a clear sky came a 

 letter from Von Humboldt inclosing a letter of credit for one thou- 

 sand francs. This was another stepping-stone in his career, and 

 from then on Humboldt became his friend and patron. Through 

 the author of Cosmos he secured a professorship at Neuchatel, 

 which while small, eighty louis per annum, was guaranteed for 

 three years. Baron Von Humboldt's letter to the college author- 

 ities contains the following: "He (Agassiz) is distinguished by his 

 talents, by the variety and substantial character of his attainments, 

 and by that which has a special value in these troubled times, his 

 natural sweetness of disposition." 



Von Humboldt advanced Agassiz's interests as rapidly as pos- 

 sible, and in 1832 we find him a national figure as a professor deliv- 

 ering his first lecture "upon the relations between the different 

 branches of Natural History and the then prevailing tendencies of 

 all the sciences." It was at this period that Leopold Von Buch, the 

 famous geologist, said that he dreaded to knock at the door of Ag- 

 assiz of Neuchatel. "Why," asked a friend. "I fear that he will 

 take me for a new species," was the witty rejoinder, which spoke 

 volumes for Agassiz at the time. Agassiz, now about twenty-six 

 years of age, married the sister of his friend, Cecile Braun, and 

 honors came thick and fast and recognition from scientists all over 



