﻿In Memoriam — Louis Agassiz. 



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he entered the names of the animals as they occurred in his 

 studies. 



Agassiz is perhaps more popularly known through his studies of 

 the glaciers. He first announced his Glacial Theory in 1837, an d 

 published his "Etudes sur les Glaciers," in 1840, followed in 1847 

 by his " Systeme Glaciaire. " In collecting the facts relating to 

 this subject, he spent eight summers upon the glaciers of Mont 

 Blanc, the Bernese Oberland, and principally upon the glacier of 

 Aar, 8,000 feet above the level of the sea, and twelve miles from 

 any human habitation. What a heroic instance of zeal and devo- 

 tion to a scientific problem ! 



Behold the great man who had been feted in the gay capitals of 

 Europe ; who had been the recipient of all the honor that could be 

 conferred by learned societies ; the devoted friend of the wisest men 

 of the age — wandering, alpenstock in hand, above the clouds, amid 

 Alpine snows and glaciers, beneath the fierce glare of the noon- 

 day sun, under the cold glitter of the stars by night, with the 

 thunder of the rushing torrent far below, and the faint, sweet echo 

 of the alpen horn to remind him of the world beneath — exposed to 

 many physical discomforts and hardships, while living in a hut of 

 stone, during eight entire summers — and for what? — to prove the 

 simple idea originating with the chamois hunter, that the immense 

 bowlders scattered over the valleys beneath, were transported 

 thence by glacial agency. But out of this simple idea the master- 

 mind evolved the wonderful phenomena of glacial action. 



In 1848, the Ray Society of London published his "Bibliogra- 

 phia Zoologiae et Geologiae," containing a list of the authors and 

 their works mentioned in his " Nomenclator Zoologicus," with 

 notices of all the periodicals devoted to zoology and geology. 



"Special and technical as most of these works appear," says Prof. 

 Felton, "an attentive student will perceive that each was undertaken 

 with reference to some general question, and made a test of the 

 value and soundness of some general principle. Everywhere we 

 discover in his works a tendency to the most extensive generaliza- 

 tions, while in every instance the knowledge of the facts, a careful 

 study of the most minute relations of his subjects, has been his 

 constant aim in all his investigations." 



