Agassiz and Humboldt. 



47 



Neuchatel, stating that a professorship of natural 

 history was open and that the very small sum of 

 eighty louis had been guaranteed for three years by 

 certain persons, in the hope of securing the services 

 of Agassiz who was now looked upon by them as an 

 eminent man of science. 



Agassiz's desire to obtain a professorship is men- 

 tioned in the following letter"^ to M. Louis Coulon : 



** Paris, March 27, 1832. 

 . . . When I had the pleasure of seeing you 

 last summer, I several times expressed my strong de- 

 sire to establish myself near you, and my intention 

 of taking some steps toward obtaining the professor- 

 ship of natural history to be founded in your Ly- 

 ceum. The matter must be more advanced now 

 than it was last year, and you would oblige me 

 greatly by giving me some information concerning 

 it. I have spoken of my project to M. de Humboldt, 

 whom I often see, and who kindly interests himself 

 about my prospects and helps me with his advice. 

 He thinks that under the circumstances, and espec- 

 ially in my position, measures should be taken in 

 advance. There is another point of great import- 

 ance for me about which I wished also to speak to 

 you. Though you have seen but a small part of it, 

 you nevertheless know that in my different journeys, 

 partly through my relations with other naturalists, 

 partly by exchange, I have made a very fair collec- 

 tion of natural history, especially rich in just those 



* Letters of Agassiz to Louis Coulon, Mem. Soc. Phys. , Geneve, 

 1874, xxiii., 472. 



