INSUFFICIENT MATERIAL. 247 



easy. I therefore claim indulgence for such 

 of my identifications as a later examination, 

 made at leisure, may modify, and for descrip- 

 tions which sometimes bear the stamp of the 

 precipitation with which they have been pre- 

 pared." 



It was, perhaps, this experience of Agassiz's 

 earlier life which made him so anxious to es- 

 tablish a museum of comparative zoology in 

 this country, — a museum so abundant and 

 comprehensive in material, that the student 

 should not only find all classes of the animal 

 kingdom represented within its walls, but pre- 

 served also in such numbers as to allow the 

 sacrifice of many specimens for purposes of 

 comparison and study. He was resolved that 

 no student should stand there baffled at the 

 door of knowledge, as he had often done him- 

 self, when shown the one precious specimen, 

 which could not be removed, or even examined 

 on the spot, because unique. 



