876 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 858 



and were absent from Boston for fully a 

 year. This was a period of convalescence 

 and of great pleasure and enjoyment; it 

 was also a period of great activity and 

 hard work. His first visit was to Wyville 

 Thomson, who was then professor at Bel- 

 fast, in Ireland. Years previously they 

 had been in correspondence about the dis- 

 tribution and development of echinoderms, 

 and Agassiz was, of course, anxious to see 

 him and to learn aU about the Lightning 

 and Porcupine expeditions, in which 

 Wyville Thomson had taken part, and con- 

 cerning which he had just published a 

 statement of results. The subsequent cor- 

 respondence shows that this, as well as 

 another visit towards the end of 1870, gave 

 the greatest satisfaction to both naturalists 

 as well as to their wives. Agassiz then 

 proceeded to visit and examine the echini 

 collections in nearly every museum in 

 Europe. The great majority of the orig- 

 inal type specimens described by the prin- 

 cipal writers on the subject during the 

 nineteeth century thus passed through his 

 hands and were critically compared with 

 specimens from the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology in Cambridge and from the 

 recent deep-sea expeditions. A few ex- 

 tracts from his own letters will best indi- 

 cate his progress, occupations and impres- 

 sions during this visit to Europe. 



Wyville Thomson had written to Agassiz 

 after his visit to Belfast that he had lost 

 or mislaid some deep-sea specimen, and 

 Agassiz, jocularly, replied from London, 

 assuring him that he had "taken nothing 

 away from Ireland except a bad cold." 



From Copenhagen he writes to Wyville 

 Thomson: "What a pleasant place this is! 

 My wife wishes me to send her kindest 

 regards to Mrs. Thomson and yourself. 

 I am here after a most successful trip 

 through Germany, and am on my way to 

 Stockholm. By the time I get through, 



we shall have been in every place where 

 there is anything to be seen in the way of 

 type echinoderms. I am getting on fa- 

 mously as far as the material for the 

 echini catalogue is concerned. In Berlin 

 I saw many nice things from Japan. I am 

 just finishing the echinoids here with_ 

 Liitken, who is a most charming fel- 

 low. ..." 



From Switzerland (Leuk, August 8, 

 1870) he writes: "I have done now with 

 my examination of the Echini collections, 

 having now seen them all, and I hope I 

 shall not be prevented from getting out 

 my catalogue very rapidly after my return 

 home. ' ' 



From Lausanne (August 23, 1870) he 

 again writes to Wyville Thomson: "We 

 have just come back from a charming trip 

 to the mountains, had pleasant weather the 

 whole time, besides doing us aU a great 

 deal of good. I am happy to say I am now 

 picking up fast, and if I keep up at the 

 present rate trust to be perfectly well this 

 fall when I go home. We hope to be in 

 London last part of October. We sail 8th 

 November, and I shall manage if possible 

 to take a run to Belfast and see what you 

 have got (that is from the Porcupine ex- 

 pedition.) ... I hope you will have the 

 best of luck on your new trip, and find 

 something more astounding than Rhizo- 

 crinus, Pourtalesia or Calveria. Mrs. 

 Agassiz wishes me to thank you very much 

 for your kind invitation, and to send her 

 kindest remembrances to yourself and Mrs. 

 Thomson." 



Here are some extracts from his letters 

 immediately after his arrival at home: 



"We had a capital passage; except two 

 days when it was rough, it was quite pleas- 

 ant, the whole not lasting more than a lit- 

 tle over eight days from Queenstown, 

 which for the season was admirable. I 

 found father much better than I had hoped 



