the great men whose mortal presence has passed away from us within 

 the year. The illustrious names of Maury, Liebig, and Agassiz, will at 

 once occur to the mind at these words. To Matthew F. Maury, more 

 than to any other individual, we are indebted for what is known of the 

 Physical Geography of the Sea. He is the American star of the constel- 

 lation to which Ritter and Humboldt belonged. The distinguished John 

 Stuart Mill, born in the same year (1806), and recently deceased, will be 

 remembered in this connection for his labors on Political Economy. Pro- 

 fessor Joseph Czermak, of the University of Leipsic, whose researches into 

 Hypnotism in Animals have greatly interested the scientific world, died 

 last September. Earlier in the year, America lost one of her most eminent 

 Botanists in the person of Professor John Torrey, whose reputation has 

 been established for the past fifty years in this country, and in all countries 

 where Botany is studied. Baron Liebig, universally celebrated for his 

 labors in Organic Chemistry — a department which owes almost its very 

 existence to him — died on the 27th of last April. The scientifig basis of 

 Agriculture has been furnished mostly by his writings. He was — like the 

 other great men who died during the past year — born near the beginning 

 of the present century, in 1803, and was four j'ears the senior of Agassiz. 

 Both he and Agassiz owed much to the favor of Alexander von Humboldt 

 in early life. 



Side by side with the great names of Linnseus, Cuvier, and Humboldt, 

 the name of Agassiz is destined to shine. Educated at the universities 

 of Erlangen, Heidelberg, and Munich — having studied Anatomy and 

 Physiology under Tiedemann, Zoology under Leuckert, and Botany un- 

 der BischofF — he formed intimate friendships with such great men as Oken 

 the Zoologist, Martins the Botanist, and Schelling the Philosopher. He 

 interchanged views with Oken on classification and studied embryonic de- 

 velopment of Animals with Dollinger. He enjoyed the respect and esteem 

 of Humboldt and Cuvier, the latter being so much delighted with his knowl- 

 edge of fishes that he offered to give up to him all the materials he had 

 collected for a work of his own on the subject. In 1833 it was the liberality 

 of Humboldt that enabled him to publish his great work on Fossil Fishes. 

 To him belongs the credit of being a pioneer in the discovery of the move- 

 ment of Glaciers. But the chief portion of the biography of Agassiz belongs 

 to the United States. In the autumn of 1846 he arrived in Boston, and the 

 following year a Professorship was offered him in the newly-founded scien- 

 tific school at Harvard. His numerous lectures and writings, his wide corre- 

 spondence and unremitting observations in the field of Zoology, have made 

 him the best known of scientific men. His great work — undertaken in 1857 

 — " Contributions to the Natural History of the United States," remains a 

 fragment; but there are hundreds of his disciples scattered all over the land 

 who have availed themselves, step by step, of all his latest results, so that 

 his views will be more prolific of books hereafter than ever before. His 

 journey to Brazil in 1S65, and explorations of the lower Amazon, resulted 

 in the discovery of upwards of 1,800 new species of Fishes. With him has 



