4 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



steadily as Ms mind developed. The 

 family profession on Mme. Agassiz's side 

 was that of medicine. Louis's grand- 

 father and uncle could probably assist 

 him in founding a practice ; and, as soon 

 as the boy's age and attainments made it 

 wise to trust the constancy of his scien- 

 tific tastes, his parents gave full consent 

 that he should study to become a physi- 

 cian. "With this in view, his school 

 course at Bienne was supplemented by 

 two years more at Lausanne ; and he was 

 then sent at seventeen years old to the 

 Medical School at Zurich. Here for the 

 first time he found scientific books 5 and 

 he and his brother Auguste used to copy 

 by hand the treatises on Natural His- 

 tory which they were much' too poor to 

 buy. 



Agassiz himself said later that the 

 inability to buy books, which then 

 seemed so great a misfortune, may have 

 been a blessing in disguise, because it 

 saved him from dependence on written 



