786 The American Naturalist. [September, 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Louis Agassiz: His Life and Work; by Chas. Frederick 
Holder, M. D! In this volume we have an appreciative history of 
Agassiz, in which the characteristics of the man, and the nature and 
progress of his work are most happily woven together. His ambitions, 
while still under the parental roof in Neuchatel, are recounted, and 
his biographer shows how early tbe dominant bias of a man's life may 
appear. We are told how his persevering devotion to his favorite pur- 
suit did not prevent him from preparing for the practice of the medical 
profession, as a means of livelihood ; and how, later, the opportunity 
of studying and reporting on the fishes brought home by Von Martius 
from Brazil, determined his future course. Every naturalist has been 
introduced to his life work in the science by especial facilities enjoyed 
for the study of some particular group. To Agassiz this group was 
the fishes, and his first works after that on the fishes of Brazil, were 
those on the fresh-water fishes of Europe, and the Fossil Fishes. But 
his highly appreciative mind was directed to all the problems offered 
by nature to human thought, and he quickly saw the importance which 
attached to the study of the Swiss glaciers. "The far-reaching results 
of this work are now common knowledge; as it contains the key to the 
superficial geology of the temperate regions of the earth. The appli- 
cation of the glacial phenomena in geology is Agassiz's greatest achieve- 
ment. 
The history of Agassiz's work in the United States is interestingly 
told, and the narration of the Brazilian expedition is charming. The 
volume closes with a reprint of some of the memorials which expressed 
the feelings of naturalists at the time of his death, and with a bibli- 
ography. 
The work is handsomely illustrated, largely from photographs made 
during the Brazilian expedition. It is a pity that better figures of the 
Brazilian fishes and turtles could not have been copied, as those in this 
book are mostly bad. 
The personal characteristics of Agassiz are pleasantly described, and 
for this reason among others the book will be a valued souvenir to the 
friends who knew him. The author dwells especially on his great mer- 
!8vo, pp. 327, illustrated. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York and London, 
1893. 
DAE 
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