604 
NATURE 
[JANUARY 29, 1914 
of universal application, nor, indeed, possessed 
of general validity. 
Alexander Agassiz was drawn into his life-long 
occupation with zoological science by his love for 
his father, and a determination that the Harvard 
Museum commenced by that father should be 
carried through and become, as his father had 
intended, as great or greater than the greatest 
zoological museum in Europe. He frequently said 
that he did not care for museum work himself. 
He preferred to study fresh living material. But 
a determination once made by Alexander Agassiz, 
and based upon the strongest and most beautiful 
feature in his character—his filial devotion—was 
an irresistible force. The Museum of Comparative 
Zoology is now what he determined it should be— 
marvellous for its rich collections, its spacious 
galleries and laboratories and its splendid organ- 
isation and equipment in staff and facilities for 
investigation. On a tablet in the entrance hall 
is inscribed ‘“Ludovici Agassiz Patri  filius 
Alexander.” 
Alexander Agassiz had not studied as his father 
had done—medicine. His zoology did not rest 
upon a physiological basis. 1 cannot but think 
that the cast of mind, which dealing with definite 
physical problems enabled him to overcome all 
obstacles and to organise the Michigan copper 
mines with such triumphant success, would have 
led him to even greater achievements in the field 
of experimental science than those which were 
the outcome of his magnanimous devotion to the 
work and development of the museum begun by 
his father. 
A few more personal details remain to be told, 
and I have finished. Like many other great men 
who have found a large part of their life’s interest 
on the ocean, he suffered frequently from sea-sick- 
ness, but never let it interfere with his purpose. 
He was a man of quick temper, and, as he showed 
in’ childhood, resented injustice and arrogant 
domination. An instance of this virtue is related 
by his son, telling how in his later life, on one of 
his visits to Berlin, he was insulted in a restaurant 
by two German officers, one of whom, after some 
altercation, started to draw his sword: But before 
he could get it out of the scabbard, Agassiz 
knocked him down with a chair; The matter was 
taken up by the American Embassy, with the up- 
shot that the officer was forced to apologise. 
A great grief came to Alexander Agassiz only 
four years after he had established the Michigan 
copper mine and assured for himself a magnificent 
fortune. _ In 1873, when he was thirty-eight years 
old, he lost in the space of eight days both his father 
and his young wife. The life-long sorrow increased 
NO. 2309, VOL. 92] 
the natural reserve of his character. 
He wrote - 
some months later to Huxley :— ; 
| 
“Bew young men have reached my age and . 
attained, as it were, all their ambition might 
desire; and yet the one thing which I crave for 
and which I want to keep me interested in what 
is going on is wanting. How gladly would I ex- 
change all that I have for what I have lost.” 
And as late as 1891 he writes :— 
“T have been in all that I have undertaken most 
successful from the world’s point of view, but from 
mine—it has lost its charm long ago.” 
Yet there were many happy days in store for 
him. His wife left him three young sons who 
grew up to be the companions and devoted 
admirers of their father. They are remarkable 
men, worthy bearers of their illustrious name. 
One of them has produced the admirable book 
which has been the subject of this article. But 
there is no zoologist among them. 
Let me conclude with a citation of a piece of 
wisdom from a letter on educational problems 
written by Alexander Agassiz to his friend Charles 
Eliot Norton :— 
““The sooner the educators of the country recog- 
nise the fact that at sixteen to eighteen a boy’s. 
brain will do some things and not others, the 
better; and furthermore that all brains are not 
alike, and never will be, and cannot up to that 
time be developed alike, nor in the same direction.” 
Weighty words so determined and 
successful a man! 
Alexander Agassiz died quietly in his sleep on” 
Easter Sunday, March 27, 1910, at sea, on his 
way home from Egypt, where he had passed the 
winter. The ship (the Adriatic) was four days out, 
and he had spent the evening chatting in the 
smoking room witha few friends. He lies beside 
the wife of his youth, whom he had buried thirty- 
six years before in Forest Hills. y 
E. Ray LANKESTER. 
from 
SCHOOL GARDENING. 
(1) Principles and Practice of School Gardening. 
By A. Logan. Pp. xv+ 313. (London: Mae- 
millan and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 3s. 6d. 
(2) Educational School Gardening and Handwork. 
By G. W. S. Brewer. With an introduction by 
the Rt. Hon. Henry Hobhouse. Pp. xi+192. 
(Cambridge: University Press, 1913.) Price 
2s. 6d. net. 
(1) HE author points out that nature-study, 
as usually carried on in elementary 
schools, is purely observational, and that, at 
twelve years of age, the pupil’s interest in the 
acquisition of information by this means begins to 
