CHAPTER VII. 



SECOND YEAR AT PENIKESE; LABORATORY WORK, 



MORE LECTURES, FAMILIAR DAILY SCENES, 



RECOLLECTIONS OF AGASSIZ, THEODORE 



LYMAN ON FISH CULTURE. 



Just one week upon the island, and though we have 

 had plenty to do the time has passed quickly and 

 pleasantly enough. There are, of course, a variety 

 of employments, and no one is confined exclusively 

 to any one thing all the time. You will see some in 

 the laboratory busily employed in the dissection of 

 fishes or other animals. They carefully trace, from 

 origin to terminus, each organ however minute 

 and accurately determine its relation to the other 

 organs and to the surrounding parts of the animals. 

 Then the nerve systems are followed through their 

 various courses to their seat, the brain, which is laid 

 open and shown in all its perfectness. Finally, the 

 veinous and arterial blood systems, injected (to show 

 their finer terminal portions) or not, followed with 

 slowness and with the utmost precision, teach the 

 student lessons which they can never forget. On 

 shelves, in our laboratory, will be found carefully se- 

 lected and prepared specimens of these dissections, 

 and the digestive organs of various species, all neatly 

 tied and suspended in alcohol. Only one week upon 

 the island yet we have laid out work enough for a 

 year's hard labor already, but we came here to 

 work! 



Others you will find at work upon some minute, 

 and often microscopic, dissections of the common 

 clam or mussel. Here our injections do a most 

 beautiful work. Different coloring materials are 

 mixed with gelatine, and, while yet warm and in a, 



