THE INCORPORATORS 107 



Previous to the accomplishment of this work, Agassiz had 

 taken the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of 

 Erlangen in 1829, and Doctor of Medicine at Munich in 1830. 

 While continuing his preparations for the publication of a 

 natural history of the fresh-water fishes of Europe and a treatise 

 on fossil fishes, Agassiz visited Vienna and Paris, where he 

 examined the collections in the museums, and received help from 

 various sources, as well as offers of attractive positions. He 

 became acquainted with Fitzinger in Vienna and in Paris 

 Humboldt introduced him to Cuvier, who generously placed in 

 his hands the whole of the material which he himself had in- 

 tended to use as the basis of a work on fossil fishes. By the advice 

 of Humboldt, Agassiz refused the various offers of positions 

 that were made to him, but at last in the autumn of 1832 was 

 appointed to the recently-established chair of natural history 

 in the College of Neuchatel, where for 14 years he labored 

 assiduously and published extensively. His " Recherches sur 

 les Poissons Fossiles," and his " Systeme Glaciaire," " those of 

 his works which have made the deepest impress on progressing 

 science," were written during this period. Always enthusiastic, 

 he carried out his ideals in the publication of his books, and 

 though often in pecuniary difficulties, aid came to him from 

 many sources on account of his reputation for accurate scholar- 

 ship and faithful devotion to research. 



Other important works published by Agassiz while at Neu- 

 chatel were a prodromus of the echinoderms and a treatise on the 

 fossil echinoderms of Switzerland, Critical studies of fossil 

 Mollusks, " Iconography of the tertiary shells believed to be 

 identical with living ones," the " Nomenclator Zoologicus," and 

 the " Bibliotheca Zoologica et Geologica." 



In 1836 Agassiz's attention was directed to the subject of 

 glaciers by his friend Jean de Charpentier, and he spent some 

 months with him at Bex, near the mouth of the Rhone. As a 

 result of his studies and reflections, he conceived the idea of an 

 universal glacial epoch at the end of the Tertiary Age. He pre- 

 sented this before the Helvetic Society of Natural Science at 



