﻿In Memoriam — Louis Agassiz. 



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among European students to come to America for the completion 

 of their education that there always has been among our students 

 to avail themselves of the advantages of European universities and 

 schools . . . My idea in regard to the collections, is to furnish 

 you with what money will not buy you when I am gone ; with 

 specimens which will be invaluable, because they can not be pro- 

 cured elsewhere. I receive no compensation whatever for the 

 salaries of my assistants, but pay them out of my own pocket." 



In 1869 Agassiz broke down under his untiring zeal and gigantic 

 labors, but rallied again, and in 1872 conducted an exploring expe- 

 dition on the Coast Survey steamer "Hassler," along the Atlantic 

 and Pacific Coast, from Boston to San Francisco. Upon his return 

 he gave his entire time to the practical development of his plans for 

 the arrangement of his vast collections in the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology. 



His last days were devoted to the cause of education, in the es- 

 tablishment of a summer school of practical natural history, at 

 Penikese Island, in Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts, where teachers 

 might themselves be taught, and where naturalists might learn to 

 read nature. The island, with an area of a hundred acres, with 

 its improvements and buildings, the country-seat of Mr. John An- 

 derson, of New York, were donated by him, together with a free 

 cash gift of $50,000, for a permanent summer school. Only a few 

 months before the death of Agassiz, the following delightful epi- 

 sode occurred at this school. I am sorry that I can not recall the 

 name of the writer: 



"On Saturday, the 26th of July (1873), while one of the students 

 in the laboratory of the Anderson School, at Penikese Island, was 

 dissecting a skate, he found in the body of the fish an egg. Now 

 this may seem a matter of very small consequence, especially it he 

 has walked along the beach and noticed how frequently the curious 

 shell which incloses this egg may be seen. It certainly seemed 

 quite an indifferent matter to the student, and, when he took his 

 tray up to the professor to exhibit his discovery, he had very little 

 idea of the sensation he was about to cause. An exclamation from 

 Dr. Wilder, to whom it was first shown, brought forward Prof. 

 Agassiz, and the excessive astonishment and satisfaction which he 



