318 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



so well as here, where the Academy of Fine Arts 

 brings together so many draughtsmen, could I have 

 the same facility for completing a similar work ; 

 and as it is an entirely new branch, in which no 

 one has as yet done anything of importance, I feel 

 sure of success ; the more so because Cuvier, who 

 alone could do it (for the single reason that every 

 one else has till now neglected the fishes), is not 

 engaged upon it. Add to this that just now there 

 is a real need of this work for the determination of 

 the different geological formations." And then he 

 urges Auguste to intercede with his uncle at Neu- 

 chfitel for one hundred louis. " At this very time, 

 when he was keeping two or three artists on his 

 slender means," says his wife, "he made his own 

 breakfast in his room, and dined for a few pence 

 a day at the cheapest eating-houses. But where 

 science was concerned the only economy he rec- 

 ognized, either in youth or old age, was that of 

 an expenditure as bold as it was carefully con- 

 sidered." 



He was now at work finishing the "Brazilian 

 Fishes," and carrying forward the " Fresh- Water 

 Fishes " and the " Fossil Fishes." Besides these, 

 he read medical works till midnight, and wrote 

 seventy-four theses on anatomical, pathological, 

 surgical, and obstetrical subjects. 



He took his degree of medicine April 3, 1830. 

 He writes to his mother : " The whole ceremony 

 lasted nine days. At the close, while they consid- 

 ered my case, I was sent out of the room. On my 



