48 Obituary — Professor Agassiz. 



equal magnitude was the preparation of a " Bibliographia Zoologise 

 et GeologiEe," intended to furnish a similarly classified catalogue of 

 works published on these subjects. This list, originally prepared 

 by Agassiz for his own reference, enlarged but very imperfectly 

 edited, was published in England by the Eay Society between 1848 

 and 1854. 



As if these labours, together with the duties of his professorship, 

 were not sufficient occupation, Agassiz during this period also 

 devoted much of his attention to the phenomena of glaciers and of 

 glacial action, especially the nature of the movement of glaciers, and 

 the traces of the former existence of such ice-rivers in places where 

 nothing of the kind is now to be seen. He had, of course, fine 

 opportunities of studying these phenomena in his native Alps, but 

 he also visited this country and searched for traces of glacial action 

 in the north of England, and in Scotland and Ireland. His re- 

 searches and those of the late J. D. Forbes undoubtedly furnished 

 the foundation for the views now generally received as to the nature 

 and action of glaciers. We may safely say that the '-'Etudes sur 

 les Glaciers," published by Agassiz in 1840, formed a most brilliant 

 contribution to the literature of a subject until then involved in 

 much obscurity, and that it gave him a European reputation in a line 

 of research in which he was previously almost unknown. 



In 1846 Agassiz was invited to go to the United States of America, 

 and in 1847 he was appointed Professor of Zoology and Geology in 

 the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remained 

 until his death. In 1861 the Copley medal was awarded to him by 

 the Eoyal Society, and he held honorary degrees from several 

 universities. 



His greatest literary work after his naturalization in America is 

 his " Contributions to the Natural History of the United States," of 

 which the reprinted " Essay on Classification " has had a great 

 influence on zoology. 



He published also in 1868 the results of the "Thayer Expedition," 

 entitled " Journey in Brazil." 



Among his smaller works we may mention his " Essay on the 

 Study of Natural History," and bis " Comparative Embryology," 

 as of much value for educational purposes. In his general views 

 Agassiz was strongly anti-Darwinian. 



During his residence of twenty-seven years in the United States, 

 Agassiz devoted himself heart and soul to his professorial duties, 

 and mainly by his influence and popularity succeeded in attaching 

 to the institution to which he belonged a most valuable museum 

 of zoology and comparative anatomy, the results of the investi- 

 gations carried on in which have already furnished many important 

 memoirs. By his strenuous exertions he has raised in the United 

 States a school of naturalists, many of whom, in the quality of the 

 work done bj' them, quite equal their brethren on this side of the 

 Atlantic, and from this point of view, at any rate, the States owe a 

 heavy debt of gratitude to their great adopted citizen who has just 

 departed.— TAe Glohe, Dec. 16, 1873. 



