44 



Louis Agassiz. 



He was now working upon a fossil fish which is 

 known to-day as Cyclopoma spinosiim^ and to be 

 seen in Reclierches sur les Poissons Fossiles, vol. iv., 

 tab. I, pp. 20, 21. For a long time it puzzled him, 

 and he put a more than ordinary amount of work 

 upon it ; but one night, after having laboured over the 

 problem, he awoke feeling that he had seen the 

 characteristics of the fish which he had been so long 

 vainly endeavouring to determine. He sat up in 

 bed, wonderingly trying to recall the dream ; but it 

 passed away, leaving merely a strong impression. 

 The following night the dream was repeated, but 

 eluded him again. On the third night he prepared 

 for the recurrence of this singular psychological 

 phenomenon, by placing paper and pencil by the 

 bedside. Again the nocturnal mental picture was 

 presented, and, half awake, the young naturalist 

 traced in the darkness, as well as he could, what he 

 considered an improbable outline of the fish. The 

 day following he took his sketch to the Jardin des 

 Plantes, and by using the midnight and mysterious 

 sketch as a guide he cut away the stone and found 

 identical characteristics hitherto unknown hidden 

 away, making his work of classification an easy one. 



Agassiz now lost his good friend Cuvier, whose 

 last words to the young student was the warning, 

 Be careful, and remember that work kills'' The 

 day following the warning, Cuvier fell, on his way 

 to the Chamber of Deputies, stricken with paralysis, 

 and France lost its greatest naturalist. 



