III. 



THESE impressionable university years 

 determined Agassiz's future life. He 

 went to Heidelberg with a strong taste 

 for natural history ; he left Munich de- 

 voted heart and soul to science, to give 

 his time and strength unreservedly to 

 her service until the end. What would 

 have happened, had he been constrained 

 to stay and try commercial life at Neu- 

 chAtel, we can hardly guess. 



At Heidelberg the boy had made his 

 first scientific friendships. At Munich, 

 while still a student, he accomplished 

 his first scientific work, the editing of 

 the Brazilian Fishes, for which material 

 had been collected by Professor Spix. 

 Professors Spix and Martius had been 

 sent by the king of Bavaria on a scien- 

 tific journey to Brazil ; and the rich col- 

 lections which they had amassed in the 

 years 1817-21 had been brought back to 

 Munich, where the scientific results were 



