August 27, 1896J 



NA TURE 



387 



interesting paper on " Alytes obstetricans." An amusing 

 anecdote finds its place here. One day Desor, while 

 dictating to a young famulus a sentence, said, in 

 order to surprise him: "This specimen is distin- 

 guished from others (other fishes) by this characteristic, 

 that it has the head where the others have the tail." 

 The fitinulus never winced. The copy went to the 

 printing-house, and the proofs came in due time. But 

 the wonder is that, while Desor, ^'ogt, and Agassiz — 

 deus ipse- -\\tr\\. over the proofs and corrected them, none 

 noticed the absurd sentence, and it is only after fifty 

 copies had been printed off that Desor remembered his 

 "little joke," and stopped the proceedings. Let writers 

 be lenient towards printers and proof-readers ; such is 

 the moral of this story. 



.\t the same time, Agassiz, aroused to the interest of 

 glacial studies by \'enetz and Jean de Charpentier, began 

 his historical fight against Elie de Beaumont and von 

 Buch, and, in order to settle the matter, decided to 

 investigate glaciers thoroughly. Thus originated the 

 Hotel des Xcuchatelois expedition, when Agassiz, Desor, 

 and \'ogt settled on the .-^ar glacier, and made a sort of 

 cabin under a huge boulder which had fallen from the 

 Schreckhorn, and upon which the names of the party 

 were scratched, still legible, in part, a kvr years ago. 

 Two summers were spent there in great activity ; the 

 "Agassiz factory," as not over-respectful Vogt used to 

 call the association, being under its highest pressure. 

 The Xeuchatel period had its outcome — as far as \'ogt 

 alone is concerned — in the publication of " Im Gebirg 

 und auf den Gletschern," studies on the fauna of red 

 snow, and a severe discussion with von Buch. The 

 latter was not convinced, but bore no grudge towards 

 the young " Mutz " (" Mutz " is Bernese patois for bear, a 

 surname given to ^'ogt by his friends) for his attacks, 

 and even allowed that "aus dem kerl wird noch etwas 

 werden." 



\'ogt and .\gassiz were not to agree very long. To 

 ascertain the exact cause of their estrangement would 

 prove perhaps difficult. Ernst Haeckel has been very 

 clear and positive on one point, however, and he de- 

 nounces Agassiz as having been "the most active and 

 clever cha'alier d'indusirie who e\er worked in the field 

 of natural history," " clever " being taken in its none too 

 favourable sense. 



Agassiz seems to have practised Ich nehm es init 

 on a large scale, taking an unfair advantage of his 

 younger co-operators, and not gi\ ing them the credit 

 which was due to them for their share of the work. Carl 

 \'ogt and Desor accordingly retired, and the scientific 

 partnership of the Hotel des Neuchatelois was dissolved. 

 This was in 1844. Paris could hardly fail to attract 

 \'ogt, and thither he directed his steps. His friends, or 

 masters, were Ehrenberg, the re\olutionist Bakounine, 

 von Baer, Quetelet, Arago, Milne-Edwards, Leverrier, de 

 Jussieu, and many others of equal fame. Three years 

 were spent then, at hard work. \'ogt published his in- 

 vestigations on the development of gasteropods, and his 

 " Lehrbuch der Geologie und Petrefactenkunde." The 

 latter, but little known in England or in France, was 

 much appreciated in Germany, and much read ; many 

 editions were brought out, always kept au couraiit. The 

 last is dated 1879. In Paris also he wrote his celebrated 



NO. 1400, vor,. 54] 



" Physiologische Briefe," of which Russian, German 

 French, and Italian versions are extant. The book was 

 as loudly praised as heartily denounced. A year ago, 

 still, a Catholic writer compared Vogt to a "murderer"' 

 for having written it, and so clearly spoken out his 

 materialistic creed. There is no doubt as to Vogt's 

 sincerity, but doubt may be entertained as to the neces- 

 sity of some pages in his otherwise very interesting and 

 spirited book. " The philosopher must station himself 

 in the middle," said Goethe. Vogt was by nature extreme. 

 On the other hand, it must be confessed that the much- 

 abused sentence, " Thought is about in the same relation 

 to brain, as bile to liver, or urine to kidney," is one that 

 no physiologist can refuse to endorse, as long as he stands 

 only on the solid ground of facts as at present ascertained. 



To the same period of life belongs " Ocean und Mittel- 

 nieer," a descriptive narrative of excursions to the sea- 

 shore, mingled with scientific facts. During his summer 

 vacations, Vogt travelled on the Mediterranean coast, and 

 while the picturesque scenery and pleasant climate of the 

 sun-bathed shores strongly appealed to the intense feeling 

 of the lover of nature, the naturalist was attracted by the 

 rich and varied fauna ; he therefore decided, hie et nunc, 

 to pursue his investigations ; Nice was even better than 

 Paris. Here was performed most of the work which 

 ended in the publication of many papers on Cephalopods 

 (with Verany), on Siphonophora, and Ascidians. In 1846, 

 kind Liebig, who had kept an attentive eye on his former 

 pupil's doings, wrote to offer him a position. The Giessen 

 University was to have a chair of Zoology ; would he 

 come and fill it ? Certainly, answered Vogt. But there 

 were difficulties. The Government was — for reasons of 

 old, already told — no friend to the republican " Mutz," 

 whose " Physiologische Briefe " were to many a per- 

 manent scandal ; and Liebig's proposal would have been 

 rejected, had it not been for old von Buch's and Hum- 

 boldt's personal intervention. Agassiz also helped actively, 

 and in 1847 Carl Vogt, the police-tracked student of 

 1837, entered Giessen as Professor of Zoology. It would 

 seem that the iva7iderjahre were now over, and that the 

 hot-headed young man was to settle down quietly in his 

 chair, to grow fat and bald, and conservative, and optim- 

 istically smile upon the world, sitting down and doing 

 nothing, or little. Such is often the case ; but with Vogt, 

 otherwise. 



His first act was a scandal to the peaceful community 

 of Giessen : he refused to shave, as university professors 

 were required to. And then, 1848 was approaching ; the 

 storm was brewing, and how could Vogt not be attracted 

 by the prospective trouble.' A member of the dissolved 

 Vorparlament — all this story cannot be abridged, so it is 

 simply omitted — Carl Vogt was re-elected as antagonistic 

 to the Conservative Government, and during a few days 

 he was one of the Rcichs-regcnts — part of an emperor. 

 But the republicans were crushed by superior forces, and 

 the revolution was checked. Vogt had to take leave — 

 his chair was handed over to Rudolph Leuckart — and he 

 sought a refuge in Switzerland, and shortly after in Nice. 

 Politics were, for the time being, dismissed, and zoology 

 again carried the day. At least, Bilder aus dem Thier- 

 leben, and papers on different invertebrata of the coast, 

 went to show so much, followed by Untersuchungen 

 iiher Thieistaaltit ; but even here, X'ogt managed to 



