The Agassiz Memorials. 225 



processes. No indeterminate solutions can be 

 admitted ; for their presence indicates the necessity 

 for more tangible facts. 



It was the realisation of this requirement for labour 

 in specialties in natural history and its cognate 

 branches, that impressed Agassiz with the necessity 

 of a museum that should be complete in its abso- 

 lutest sense ; and to accomplish this he undertook 

 his exploration on the Amazon, his voyage round 

 Cape Horn, and had projected a voyage this coming 

 May though the labyrinth of waters extending from 

 Puget Sound to the Chilkaht River in Alaska. 



On the Pacific Coast we are full of faith that such 

 a museum will be gathered by the Academy, and 

 that, from the ample means of her benefactors, origi- 

 nal researches in special branches of science will be 

 systematically carried on, and the results be regularly 

 made known in series of lectures. For general infor- 

 mation, this method has had no abler exponent than 

 Agassiz ; in fact, he was the father of the method of 

 popularising science by lectures of the highest order 

 by the investigators themselves. In the present 

 flush of scientific lecturers we are too apt to forget 

 that when he, many years since, commenced giving 

 his series of lectures on natural history, fossil fishes, 

 the glaciers, etc., freed from the usual flood of cold 

 technicalities, he was looked upon as an innovator, 

 and as degrading science. Fortunately, his concep- 

 tion of its value was the true one. A deep and abid- 

 ing yearning for fresh, living information has been 

 diffused, and, one by one, even the learned men of 

 Europe have yielded to the pressure, and given of 



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