30 LOUIS AOASSIZ. 



of the specimens, developed his subject in a 

 more general and practical way. 1 Of the 

 medical professors, Nageli was the more in- 

 teresting, though the reputation of Chelius 

 brought him a larger audience. If there was 

 however any lack of stimulus in the lecture- 

 rooms, the young friends made good the de- 

 ficiency by their own indefatigable and intelli- 

 gent study of nature, seeking to satisfy their 

 craving for knowledge by every means within 

 their reach. 2 



As the distance and expense made it impos- 

 sible for Agassiz to spend his vacations with 

 his family in Switzerland, it soon became the 

 habit for him to pass the holidays with his 

 new friend at Carlsruhe. For a young man 

 of his tastes and acquirements a more charm- 

 ing home-life than the one to which he was 

 here introduced can hardly be imagined. The 



1 This collection was purchased in 1859 by the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and 

 Agassiz had thus the pleasure of teaching his American pu- 

 pils from the very collection in which he had himself made 

 his first important paleontological studies. 



2 The material for this account of the student life of the 

 two friends at Heidelberg and of their teachers was chiefly 

 furnished by Alexander Braun himself at the close of his 

 own life, after the death of Agassiz. The later sketches of 

 the Professors at Munich in 1832 were drawn in great part 

 from the same source. 



