NATURE 



149 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1879 



BOSTON AXD HARVARD 



TO the common remark that nowhere in the United 

 States does an Englishman feel himself so much at 

 home as in Boston ; a student of science may add that no- 

 where else does he meet with so much to remind him of 

 the intellectual activity and enthusiasm for science that 

 mark the great centres of life in the old country. Boston 

 can boast of one or two of the oldest and most active 

 scientific societies in America, which for generations 

 have gathered together and sustained an able succession 

 of workers. In the neighbouring venerable Harvard 

 it enjoys a perennial fountain whence it may draw for 

 ever fresh stores of inspiration and encouragement. This 

 influence of the University is everywhere apparent. 

 Among those who take a lead in promoting science by 

 discovery and exposition among the Boston citizens, 

 Harvard men occupy always a foremost place. A stranger, 

 however, with leisure and opportunity to note some of the 

 more salient features in the scientific life of Massachusets 

 soon comes to realise the pervading influence of one man. 

 He sees it in the ordinary cultivated society of Boston, 

 he meets with it at every turn in Harvard, he finds it 

 uniting as a common bond of sympathy the younger 

 scientific men of the state. The name of Louis Agassiz 

 has become a household word in the community, and, 

 among the scientific workers, sounds as a rallying cry to 

 unite them for common sympathy and support. Great as 

 were Agassiz's solid contributions to the literature of 

 science, they form a monument to his genius not perhaps 

 more honourable or enduring than the impetus which his 

 example and ceaseless enthusiasm gave to the progress of 

 science in his adopted country. To have written the im- 

 mortal " Recherches surles Poissons fossiles" and to have 

 founded so vigorous a school of science at Harvard com- 

 bine to give him a high place in the temple of fame. 



It is delightful to hear in general conversation in Boston 

 spontaneous recognitions of Agassiz's eminent services. 

 Many stories are current of his indomitable courage in 

 carrying out schemes for the advancement of his favourite 

 studies, of his consummate address, which enabled him 

 to win over into active assistance men who were disposed 

 to be indifferent if not hostile. One interesting anecdote 

 is told of a dinner party at which he was present, when 

 Mr. Ticknor gave an account of an early meeting of the 

 British Association. At the Geological Section there had 

 been a paper on fossil fishes, and, said Mr. Ticknor, one 

 speaker who evidently knew the subject profound ly, pro- 

 ceeded to show the audience the characters of the types 

 of ancient fishes, and remarked that he had no doubt a 

 specimen would yet be discovered exhibiting a certain 

 structure, which he illustrated by a drawing on the board. 

 Murchison, who was in the chair, thereupon pulled out 

 from a drawer a specimen which had just come up from 

 Scotland and had not yet been exhibited. It completely 

 bore out the prognostication. Agassiz had been listening 

 to the tale with undisguised interest, and when Mr. 

 Ticknor turned round and pointing to him said, " There 

 is the man," he started up flushed with excitement and 

 exclaimed, "It was the proudest moment of my life." 

 Such anecdotes affectionately preserved show how he 

 Vol. xxi. — No. 529 



lives in the memory of the community he strove so 

 earnestly to benefit. The little misunderstandings which 

 are always sure to arise in the pathway of a man absorbed 

 in one great aim are now forgiven and forgotten. Men 

 remember that it was not for himself but for the cause of 

 science that he solicited and strove. 



Among the younger men of science the influence of the 

 teaching and example of Agassiz has been profound. It 

 is not that they have adopted his views or even that they 

 have cho-en his branch of science. On the contrary 

 many of them have espoused evolutionary doctrines 

 against which he protested, and have taken to sciences 

 remote in subject from his. But he infused into them a 

 genuine love and enthusiasm for scientific progress. By 

 this common sentiment they are united in a bond of 

 sympathy which cannot but be very helpful to their own 

 studies and to the advancement of science. One of the 

 most interesting tokens of this community of feeling is 

 the establishment of a club or society which has no namr, 

 no office-bearers, and no laws, but which has for its object 

 the reunion of its members for social intercourse at stated 

 intervals. It began its existence in a meeting of two or 

 three of Agassiz's students, and now it has drawn into its 

 circle most of the scientific zeal and ability of the younger 

 men of the district. Nor is it wholly confined to the 

 younger generation. At one of the simple but most 

 excellent and jocund dinners of the club the writer of this 

 notice found the genial and universally beloved veteran 

 in botany, Dr. Asa Gray, as well as that long-tried explorer 

 of the deep sea, Count Pourtales. 



Noramongthebenefits bequeathed to Harvard by Agassiz 

 can we forbear an allusion to his son. With enthusiasm not 

 inferior to that of his father and with an ample fortune for 

 the furtherance of his views, the present distinguished 

 keeper of the Museum of Comparative Zoology is gather- 

 ing together at Harvard the most extensive and valuable 

 collection of recent invertebrate zoology in the world. 

 So far as exhibition space will admit, a large and varied 

 series of specimens is displayed. Some departments are 

 marvellously rich. The dredgings by Prof. A. Agassiz 

 and Count Pourtales have supplied a large suite of living 

 corals, some of them undistinguishable from Tertiary 

 Mediterranean species. In one of the rooms is an alto- 

 gether unique collection of crinoids from the Carboni- 

 ferous Limestone of Burlington. A European accustomed 

 to the usually fragmentary' condition of palaeozoic cchi- 

 noder nata can hardly at first believe that these ex- 

 quisite specimens of many species and genera, with every 

 plate and joint in position, come from so ancient a forma- 

 tion. As at Yale, cellars are crowded with treasures 

 awaiting examination and display. The work-rooms 

 attach d to the Museum are likewise full of [material in 

 all stages of investigation, and bearing witness to the 

 amount and value of the original research carried on here 

 by Prof. Agassiz, Count Pourtales, and their assistants. 

 The only regret a visitor can justly express is that the 

 plan of the building has not secured a larger amount of 

 I light. The windows at the sides form the only 

 entrance for light, and they are not large or numerous 

 i 1 or the size of the rooms. Would it not be pos- 

 sible, in the contemplated additions to the Museum, so 

 to modify the plan as to secure, at least for the exhibition 

 galleries and floors, some amount of light from the roof ? 



