32 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



landers, while at the same time a further fund of 

 $71,000 was raised by private subscription. Armed 

 with these resources, he built what was then intended 

 to be, and now actually is, a portion of the northeast 

 wing of the present huge structure. This first section 

 of the building was completed in the spring of 1860. 

 The personnel of the Museum was planned much after 

 the organization of the Jardin des Plantes. Many of the 

 early assistants later became professors at Harvard or 

 other universities, or were placed in charge of mu- 

 seums, which were afterward established all over the 

 country. 



Alexander Agassiz's position, besides giving him the 

 care of the department of Radiates, included the gen- 

 eral charge of the work and business of the institution. 

 This involved a vast amount of mechanical labor in 

 arranging and storing the immense mass of material 

 which poured in from all sides ; for the plans of Louis 

 Agassiz were always on a huge scale, far beyond his 

 resources in men and money. To this was added the 

 establishment and care of all exchanges, and the dis- 

 entanglement of the financial difficulties into which the 

 cheerful optimism of his father constantly plunged not 

 only the Museum, but also the family purse. 



The following letters, selected from his correspond- 

 ence of that time, may give some suggestions of how 

 eager and many-sided was his activity in developing 

 the relations of the Museum with other institutions, in 

 making exchanges of specimens, and in stimulating the 

 interest and cooperation of scientific men in all parts of 

 the world. 



The first is to the leading physician in Santa Bar- 

 bara, whose acquaintance he had made in California. 



