LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



III 

 CORRESPONDENCE WITH LOUIS AGASSIZ 



The arrival in this country of Louis Agassiz, the Swiss 

 naturalist, gave a marvellous impulse to the study of 

 natural history. He had been a correspondent of Profes- 

 sor Silliman, certainly since January, 1835, and when ten 

 years later a transatlantic voyage seemed probable, in the 

 company of the Prince of Canino, the student of glaciers 

 and fossils turned to Silliman for counsel. The illness of 

 the Prince broke up his project. Soon, however, Hum- 

 boldt induced the King of Prussia to provide the requisite 

 means, so that to this enlightened monarch, America 

 owes Agassiz. He arrived in 1846, was invited to deliver 

 a course of lectures in the Lowell Institute, received from 

 Professor Bache special facilities for studying ocean fauna 

 on one of the vessels of the Coast Survey, and was soon 

 persuaded to accept a professorship of zoology in the 

 newly founded Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard. 

 As early as 1847, before going to Boston, he came to New 

 Haven, and made the personal acquaintance of those 

 whom he knew so well by name, especially of his vener- 

 able correspondent, whom he names " the dean of Amer- 

 ican science," Professor Silliman, his son, and his 

 son-in-law, Professor Dana. 



The friendship of Agassiz, which was soon followed by 

 that of Guyot, exerted a powerful influence Upon Dana's 

 intellectual growth. Previously, Gray had been the only 

 naturalist, outside of New Haven, with whom he had been 

 on terms of scientific intimacy as with a peer, for jnost of 

 the other naturalists whom he knew were younger men, 

 or were restricted in their pursuits. Agassiz, like Darwin, 

 was an investigator in broad domains. Henceforward 

 they met not infrequently, and the exchange of letters 

 was constant. Agassiz became one of the contributors 



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