I 



LOUIS AGASSIZ: 



HIS LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



CHAPTER I. 



1807-1827: to ^t. 20. 



Birthplace. — Influence of his Mother. — Early Love of Nat- 

 ural History. — Boyish Occupations. — Domestic Educa- 

 tion. — First School. — Vacations. — Commercial Life re- 

 nounced. — College of Lausanne. — Choice of Profession. 



— Medical School of Zurich. — Life and Studies there. — 

 University of Heidelberg. — Studies interrupted by Illness. 



— Return to Switzerland. — Occupations during Convales- 

 cence. 



Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was born 

 May 28, 1807, at the village of Motier, on the 

 Lake of Morat. His father, Louis Rodolphe 

 Agassiz, was a clergyman ; his mother, Rose 

 Mayor, was the daughter of a physician whose 

 home was at Cudrefin, on the shore of the 

 Lake of Neuchatel. 



The parsonages in Switzerland are fre- 

 quently pretty and picturesque. That of Mo- 

 tier, looking upon the lake and sheltered by 

 a hill which commands a view over the whole 



VOL. I. 1 



