No. 3. — Alexander Agassiz: His Life and Scientific Work 

 By Sir John Murray. 1 



Alexander Agassiz, our distinguished alumnus and my friend, 

 died at sea in mid-ocean on board the S. S. "Adriatic" on Easter 

 Morning, the 27th March, 1910. When this information was re- 

 ceived in England by wireless message, it was believed that some 

 mistake had been made, for only a few days previously he had parted 

 with scientific friends in London apparently in most excellent health. 

 The sad news was too speedily confirmed. A few days later I had 

 occasion to speak before an assemblage of scientific men and ocean- 

 ographers, and I said his death was a great loss to American science, 

 to the science of oceanography, and to all people who take an interest 

 in the progress of natural knowledge. On this occasion I propose 

 to show that this statement was fully justified, and that a truly great 

 man passed from the world when Alexander Agassiz died. 



Alexander Agassiz was the only son of the famous naturalist, 

 Louis Agassiz, by his first wife, Cecile Braun, and was born at Neucha- 

 tel in Switzerland on the 17th December, 1835. His school days were 

 spent at his birthplace and at the Burger School at Freiburg, in Baden, 

 Germany, where his maternal uncle was a professor in the University, 

 where his mother and sisters then resided, and where he .also came 

 under the influence of a great biologist, Professor Theo. von Siebold. 

 Here were laid the foundations of an education in the French and 

 German languages and in science, which proved a great advantage 

 in his future career. His mother was an artist, and we have hints 

 that her temperament was very different from the placid uniformity 

 which is said to have been characteristic of his father. The father 

 and son are said by Dr. Walcott, who knew them both well, to have 

 apparently belonged to absolutely different types. 2 When I some- 



1 Memorial Address delivered in Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, Mass.. March 22, 

 1911, at the request of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. 



2 Boston Evening Transcript, April 6, 1910. 



