486 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



out the first part of the quarto volume on the Fishes of the 

 Brazilian Expedition of Spix and Martius before he took 

 his degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and completed it before 

 he proceeded to that of Doctor in Medicine in 1830. The 

 work opened his way to fame, but brought no money. Still, 

 as Martius defrayed all the expenses, the net result com- 

 pared quite favorably with that of later publications. More- 

 over, out of it possibly issued his own voyage to Brazil in 

 later years, under auspices such as his early patron never 

 dreamed of. 



This early work also made him known to Cuvier ; so that 

 when he went to Paris, a year afterwards, to continue his 

 medical and scientific studies, — the one, as he deemed, from 

 necessity, the other from choice, — he was received as a fellow- 

 savant. Yet at first with a certain reserve, probably no more 

 than was natural in view of the relative age and position of 

 the two men ; but Agassiz, writing to his sister, says : " This 

 extreme but formal politeness chills you instead of putting 

 you at your ease ; it lacks cordiality, and to tell the truth, I 

 would gladly go away if I were not held fast by the wealth of 

 material of which I can avail myself." But only a month 

 later he writes — this time to his uncle — that, while he was 

 anxious lest he " might not be allowed to examine, and still 

 less to describe, the fossil fishes and their skeletons in the 

 Museum, . . . knowing that Cuvier intended to write a work 

 on this subject," and might naturally wish to reserve the ma- 

 terials for his own use, and when the young naturalist, as he 

 showed his own sketches and notes to the veteran, was faintly 

 venturing to hope that, on seeing his work so far advanced, 

 he might perhaps be invited to share in a joint publication, 

 Cuvier relieved his anxiety and more than fulfilled his half- 

 formed desires. 



" He desired his secretary to bring him a certain portfolio of 

 drawings. He showed me the contents : they were drawings 

 of fossil fishes, and notes which he had taken in the British 

 Museum and elsewhere. After looking it through with me, 

 he said he had seen with satisfaction the manner in which I 

 had treated this subject ; that I had, indeed, anticipated him, 



