I04 



Louis Agassiz. 



building on the college grounds. The college al- 

 lowed four hundred dollars per annum for their care, 

 but this was totally insufficient, and Agassiz ex- 

 hausted his private resources in attempting to have 

 them properly preserved ; finally his efforts were 

 appreciated, certain wealthy men coming to the front 

 with ten or twelve thousand dollars with which the 

 collection was purchased for Cambridge University. 



Agassiz resigned his professorship at Charleston in 

 1853 account of ill health, and during the follow- 

 ing year, which he spent at Harvard, he received 

 an urgent invitation from the university of Zurich. 

 But he had become Americanised, and could not 

 be tempted from his allegiance to the land of his 

 adoption. Again at Cambridge, he made a study of 

 the fishes of all the great rivers and lakes, provided 

 sea captains with cans of alcohol, when they started 

 on their voyages, for the chance specimens which 

 might be picked up, and all over the country, among 

 all classes, formed friends who became, to a more or 

 less extent, his disciples and aiders, and specimens of 

 all kinds poured into the new hall of science which 

 Harvard had built for the scientist. 



In 1855, Agassiz with his wife established a school 

 for young ladies, which soon became one of the 

 institutions of Boston. The idea did not originate 

 with the scientist, but was one of the many plans 

 formulated by his wife and children to aid him. 

 The following from the circular of the school shows 

 that Agassiz took an active part in it, and there are 

 many in Boston to-day who look back with tender 

 recollections to the pleasant hours spent in the 



