THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vou. XXXII, March, 1898. No. 375. 
LOUIS AGASSIZ. 
Two extensive accounts of the life of Louis Agassiz have 
already been written, one from the hands of Mrs. Agassiz, the 
revered president of Radcliffe College, the other by his life- 
long friend Jules Marcou. We have no intention of preparing 
a third, nor do we expect to throw new light upon the subject. 
We only offer an outline of his life merely as an introduction 
to the following articles, which deal with some of the special 
Studies of the great naturalist. 
Louis Jean Rudolf Agassiz, descendant from a long line of 
ministers, was born at the little village of Motier, Switzerland, 
between the lakes of Neuchatel and Morat, May 28, 1807. 
In his early years he showed great fondness for the water and 
for the animals to be found in it, as well as for athletic sports ; 
and when the time came for him to make the decision as to his 
life work, he turned aside from the ministry and from a busi- 
ness career and went to Ziirich to study medicine. The school 
at Ziirich at that time was nothing like that of to-day, for 
then the present university was not founded. So from Ziirich 
he turned to Heidelberg, where he made acquaintances and 
friends,— the Schimpers and Brauns, who were to play no 
small part in his future development, some of these friendships 
persisting throughout his life. Here at Heidelberg he obtained 
