44 



co:mparative zoology. 



[Jan. 



and partially built, and for the completion of which he has left full direc- 

 tions. Completed, it would be a perpetual fountain of knowledge, and a 

 monument quick with his spirit. 



" Museum,"' a word that commonly suggests little more than a collec- 

 tion of curious objects, is scarcely an appropriate name for the memorial 

 that Agassiz ought to have. The Museum he labored for is a presenta- 

 tion of the animal kingdom, — fossil and living, — arranged so as to pict- 

 ure the creative thought. The study of such a subject is the highest to 

 which the human mind can aspire. 



At the end of the nineteenth century, no nation, least of all the Amer- 

 ican, may dare to lag in science ; for science is only another word for 

 knowledge, and knowledge is the source of power, and of whatever con- 

 tributes to power. All knowledge springs from one root ; and the sap 

 matured in the root flows through every twig of the tree : what is elabo- 

 rated in the leaf in its turn nourishes the roots Few distinctions are so 

 groundless as the popular one between " practical " and " scientific." 



Three or four generations since, learned men wondered why the rub- 

 bing of sealing-wax should make it pick up scraps of paper ; what light- 

 ning was ; and why the muscles of a frog's leg should twitch without 

 apparent cause. What, to-day, has resulted from the study of these 

 observations? The electrotype of the printer, the plated-ware on our 

 tables, the telegraph across the Atlantic, the determination of longitude, 

 the knowledge of the nervous system, — these, and a hundred other 

 things, so important to our modern civilization, have resulted from the 

 abstract studies of Yolta, Franklin, and Faraday. 



Not long ago the silk-worms, a main source of wealth to Southern 

 France and to Lombardy, were dying ; nobody knew why. Prof. Corna- 

 lia said : " The worms are destroyed by a mouldy growth on their bodies. 

 The spores, or germs, may be seen by the microscope in the blood of the 

 parent moth. Here is the remedy : each moth's eggs must be collected 

 separately; then the blood of the moth must be examined, and all eggs 

 of unhealthy parents must be destroyed." So the microscopists saved 

 the silk-growers of Italy and France. 



Every workman must have his tools : the tools of a zoologist are col- 

 lections of natural objects systematically arranged. Such an arrange- 

 ment means the exhibition of the animal creation in its natural order. 

 This is one of the prime difficulties of science, which taxes the powers 

 of the greatest genius. So difficult is it, indeed, that no two leaders of 

 zoology have ever exactly agreed in their views ; and it is only by com- 

 paring these views that the student can judge for himself. Of what 

 incalculable value would collections be, if such had been arranged by 

 Linnaeus in Sweden, by Oken in Germany, by Cuvier in France ! But 

 such museums do not exist. Even the great collections of Cuvier are 

 mingled with those of his opponents, like a book culled from the works 

 i)f many authors. In this country we may have such a museum, if we 

 fhoose. The celebrated System of Nature of Linneeus can be studied 

 i>nly in books. We may and should have Agassiz's System of Nature 

 illustrated by the specimens which his own hands have set in order. It 

 is for our people to say whether they will neglect this magnificent oppor- 



