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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



In 1846, Agassiz was sent on a special scientific mission to the 

 United States, by the King of Prussia, and at the suggestion of 

 Humboldt, to study the natural history and geology of this country, 

 and, incidentally, to deliver a course of lectures in Boston, in com- 

 pliance with an invitation extended by Mr. John A. Lowell. These 

 lectures on a general review of the animal kingdom, and a subse- 

 quent course on the glaciers and the phenomena connected with 

 their former great extension, were attended by audiences of 1,500 

 to 2,000 interested and delighted listeners, embracing the most 

 eminent in science and letters of the cultured society of Boston and 

 vicinity. He visited many parts of the United States, North and 

 South, investigating and comparing its animal fauna, actual and 

 fossil, examining and studying its geological features. In the fol- 

 lowing year, Prof. Bache, Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Sur- 

 vey, offered him the facilities afforded by the Coast Survey, to aid 

 in his researches. "The offer was so liberal," says Prof. Felton, 

 "and of such vast importance, in a scientific point of view, that 

 Agassiz could hardly credit his good fortune; and upon being as- 

 sured that he might, without difficulty, visit at will every point of 

 the coast in the well-equipped Coast Survey vessels, from Maine to 

 Texas, and along the whole western coast, he exclaimed that this 

 would decide him to remain to the end of his days in the United 

 States. " 



He immediately availed himself of the liberal offer, and obtained 

 an honorable discharge from his obligations to his Government; the 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, in granting his request, saying: "We 

 well know, that wherever you take up your abode, your time will 

 be employed for the best advantage of science." 



The arrival of Agassiz in this country produced a new epoch in 

 the history of zoology — the epoch of morphological and embryo- 

 logical zoology, or the developmental study of animals. Previous 

 to this time, American naturalists had confined themselves, prin- 

 cipally, to a study of systematic zoology. After his arrival, "Ameri- 

 can students who were attracted by his fame, were instructed in 

 the methods of Cuvier, Von Baer, Dollinger and Agassiz himself, 

 and zoology was studied from the side of histology and embryology, 



