August 2, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



177 



assume the responsibilities of such an insti- 

 tution. This collection of Professor Hall's 

 was for sale and its possession would be of 

 inestimable value to anew institution. 



The second and presumptively more ef- 

 fective influence shaping the thought of our 

 citizens in this direction was the enthusiasm 

 over the work and lectures of the great 

 Swiss naturalist, Louis Agassiz. Agassiz's 

 own success in securing the cooperation of 

 the Massachusetts State Legislature to cre- 

 ate the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Cambridge was a pioneer effort along lines 

 followed quite closely hy the American 

 Museum of Natural History. It was in- 

 deed upon the inauguration of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology that the second 

 group, as Marcou has observed, of Agassiz's 

 pupils, was formed, a group that dissemi- 

 nated over the entire United States a new 

 love for natural science, and formed in 

 themselves a radiant center of genius and 

 industry. 



Louis Agassiz, the Swiss naturalist who 

 had declined the flattering and profitable 

 offers of the French government to fill a 

 position of superintendence over the Mu- 

 seum of Natural History or Jardin des 

 Plantes in Paris, also the chair of paleon- 

 tology in the State University of Switzer- 

 land, had established himself in the af- 

 fections of America. His lectures were 

 revelations, and the public of New York, as 

 of almost every other great city, had been 

 awakened to a new sense of appreciation of 

 the study of nature. A series of distin- 

 guished men had imbibed from his con- 

 tagious enthusiasm for nature, and had 

 elevated the fame and established the per- 

 manence of American science ; amongst 

 these were Allen, Scudder, Yerrill, Putnam, 

 St. John, Morse, Emerton, Hyatt, Shaler, 

 Ordway, Stimpson, Niles, Lyman, Clark, 

 Mills, Packard, Ball, Mann, Uhler. 



Agassiz's association with Bache, Gray, 

 Morton, Leidy, Baird, Wymau, Pourtales, 



Lesquereaux, Rogers, Conrad, Guj^ot, Mar- 

 cou, in the higher scientific circles of Amer- 

 ica, and his intimac}' with Emerson, Whit- 

 tier, Longfellow, Felton, Lowell, Holmes, 

 Binney, Hoar, Ticknor, Howe, Sumner, in 

 the social regenc}'' of Boston, had created 

 for him a personal preeminence quite unique 

 in the United States. Certainly Agassiz's 

 relations with all his pupils had not been 

 invariably honorable to himself, but even 

 the famous ' Salem Secession ' with its re- 

 sulting publication of The American Nat- 

 iiralist only served to give a wider promi- 

 nence to his peculiar and fascinating en- 

 thusiasm. 



And in 1860 Agassiz's long- cherished 

 scheme of founding a great museum ma- 

 terialized in a conspicuous inauguration of 

 the building of the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology in Cambridge. The Governor 

 and his staff and a great concourse of peo- 

 ple, with the faculty of Harvard College, 

 were present, and the event, dwarfed in- 

 deed by the imminence of a terrible con- 

 flict, distinctly foreshadowed the develop- 

 ment and expansion of the museum idea 

 in the large cities of the Union. 



Amongst those earl}^ engaged in the duties 

 of this museum was Albert S. Bickmore, a 

 young man then, who, in a succeeding year, 

 entered the service, and being detailed to 

 duty near the seashore, seized the occasion 

 to revive his studies of sea-life by making 

 a collection of the coast shells of North 

 Carolina. Professor Bickmore had noted 

 with interest Agassiz's supple combination 

 of tact, eloquence and personal charm in 

 securing the effective alliance of the Com- 

 monwealth of Massachusetts, and his adapt- 

 ability to the methods of private importu- 

 nity. Through these combined agencies 

 the Legislature of Massachusetts had 

 granted $100,000, the citizens of Boston 

 raised $71,000, Mr. Francis C. Gray left 

 850,000, and a sentiment of generous appre- 

 ciation for the purposes of the museum had 



