CHAPTER VII. 



CLIMBING THE LADDER. 



Struggles of a Young Doctor — Work upon the Fossil Fishes — Look- 

 ing toward Paris — Arrival in that City — Cuvier — Meets Hum- 

 boldt — A Strange Dream — Death of Cuvier. 



GASSIZ was now twenty- 

 three years of age, a 

 Doctor of Medicine and 

 of Philosophy, a man of 

 science, with a name al- 

 ready known throughout 

 Europe, the author of a 

 volume on fishes, and an- 

 other book in press, for 

 which he received a liberal 

 fee, and with this prestige 

 we find him passing out of 

 the university and return- 

 ing to his home to enter upon the actual struggle of 

 life. He established himself with his artist, Mr. Din- 

 kel, in Concise where his parents had removed, and 

 laboured hard for nearly a year, endeavouring to 

 establish a practice while continuing the work on 

 fossil fishes, the desire for untrammelled work in pure 

 science growing stronger and stronger. His ambition 



40 



