38 



Louis Agassiz. 



Director of the Munich Museum gave an additional 

 zest to the study. It is most interesting to note in 

 his letters to his family the honest determination to 

 obtain his degree of M.D., though it was always 

 secondary, in point of fact, to his zoological studies. 

 Agassiz's means were extremely slender, yet he 

 found a way to employ two artists, paying them out 

 of his modest allowance. Frequently after paying 

 them he dined himself at the cheapest caf^ he could 

 find, expending but a few cents for his repast. 



During all these struggles Agassiz was always the 

 same manly, good-natured, studious youth, with an 

 ambition that never flagged or diverged from the 

 one object to which it was directed. That a young 

 man of his years could produce so much work is 

 almost incomprehensible, yet nothing was neglected, 

 and we find him moving along in two general lines — 

 one leading to the profession of medicine, the other 

 to that of the scientist. His scientific work, as we 

 have seen, attracted the attention of scientists every- 

 where and is best known, as he ultimately made 

 that his choice ; yet had Agassiz chosen the field of 

 medicine he undoubtedly would have become dis- 

 tinguished, as his work in that direction as a student 

 was phenomenal, over seventy-five theses on ana- 

 tomical, surgical, obstetrical, pathological, and other 

 subjects having been written by him, showing a 

 remarkable amount of research, thought, and investi- 

 gation. 



A short time previous to graduation Agassiz 

 submitted his books on fresh-water and fossil fishes 

 to a publisher, Mr. Cotta of Stuttgart, making a 



