PROFESSOR WILDER 



criticisms upon the part of my acute and un- 

 prejudiced friend shocked me as a reprehensible 

 compound of heresy and lese-majesty. 



The last course that I heard from Agassiz in 

 Cambridge began on October 23, 1867, and 

 closed on January 11, 1868. It was memorable 

 for him and for me. At the outset he an- 

 nounced that some progress had been made in 

 the University toward the adoption of an 

 elective system for the students, and that he 

 proposed to apply the principle to his own 

 instruction, and should devote the entire course 

 of twenty-one lectures to the Selachians (sharks 

 and rays), a group in which he had been deeply 

 interested for many years, and upon which he 

 was then preparing a volmne. This limitation 

 to a favorite topic inspired him to unusual 

 energy and eloquence. My notes are quite 

 full, but I now wish the lectures had been re- 

 ported verbatim. This course was signalized 

 also by two special innovations, viz.: the ex- 

 hibition of living fish, and the free use of 

 museum specimens. That, so far as possible, 

 all biologic instruction should be objective was 

 with Agassiz an educational dogma, and upon 



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