140 



NATUBAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



PENIKESE — A Reminiscence. 



By One of its Pupils. 



Copyright secured 1895. 

 Our dredging was carried on between times, so that, 

 during the heat of the day, we were upon the water. 

 Upon our return Professor Packard would tell us 

 about the crustaceous animals and the insects that 

 we had captured; Professor Morse would take up the 

 subject of the shells and molluscous animals pro- 

 curred; were there specimens to be examined through 

 the microscope, Professor Bicknell's time was occup- 

 ied, day and night. Then Professor Jordan describ- 

 ed to us marine algology; Guyot, physical geography; 

 Brewer, ornithology and oology; Hawkins, extinct 

 mammalians; and Mr. Roetter taught us to draw 

 them all. Then a dozen other gentlemen talked to 

 us upon a dozen other subjects, so that our note 

 books and our heads, I might well say our hearts too, 

 were full ! full ! full of animals and the animal king- 

 dom and Professor Agassiz, who knew all that there 

 was to know about them both. Well do we now 

 look back upon Penikese as the leading scientific 

 school ever, before or since, in existence. Many be- 

 lieve that it will never be excelled in its character, or 

 in the ability of its corps of instructors. This may 

 be going far, — yet it is as certain that its stimulus 

 and influence will be felt in scientific education for 

 years, it may be for centuries to come. 



Professor Agassiz had expressed the wish, that the 

 school at Penikese should be "associated with the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology in such a way as to 

 share at once and forever in any advantages to be de- 

 rived from an institution so kindred in its objects and 

 aims." He thought, and perhaps very wisely aad 

 truly, that "the two establishments," could "work to- 

 gether to the greatest advantage of both." The lat- 

 ter institution is today a monument alive to fame, — 

 the fame of one man. A man whose chief aim and 

 accomplishment was to work and to teacli others to 

 work. In his instruction he says: "I must make 

 hard work a condition of a continued connection with 

 the school. " The nature of this "hard work" was 

 "to prepare those who shall attend to observe for 

 themselves." More fully, it was, "to study nature." 

 He says: "We should make nature our text-book;and 

 finally, disparaging text-books as generally mere 

 compilations of useless and untrue materials, he as- 

 serts, again and again, that "we invariably return to 

 the study of the things themselves, whenever we 

 wish to make any real progress." nobly did he prac- 

 tice his own teachings. 



Athough the name of Agassiz will be handed down 

 in history as the leader of scientific thought in the 

 nineteenth century, it is yet certain that the Master 

 of Penikese was neither afraid nor ashamed to ac- 

 knowledge that to another was due the idea of estab- 

 lishing a school, after the manner in which his own 

 classes were taught, but on a larger scale. In a let- 

 ter to Mr. Anderson he says: "I have long cherish- 

 ed the thought of a summer school like the one pro- 

 posed, and I have at various times in my life tried it 

 with small classes, and for a few days or weeks at a 

 time. The idea of establishing one at Nantucket, on 

 a larger scale, was suggested by a young friend, Pro- 

 fessor N. S. Shaler, who had a special taste for and 

 no little experience in this kind of teaching;" but gen- 

 erosity was a failing with Professor Agassiz. He 

 showed it again in relation to the name of the propos- 

 ed school, when he wrote to Mr. Anderson: "As to 

 its name, I hope you will allow the school to be nam- 

 ed for you;" and, "my name it cannot bear with any 



propriety;" and still again, "To name it after you is, 

 therefore, the simple and appropriate way of settling 

 the question." Mr. Anderson, with equal generosity 

 wrote: "I learn from Mr. Girod that you have ex- 

 pressed a wish to mark your appreciation of my gift 

 of Penikese for the purpose of the institution, by 

 naming the latter after me. I feel necessarily deep- 

 ly flattered by this offer, and can only say in refer- 

 ence to it that I leave that part of the question entire- 

 ly in your hands, simply suggesting whether an insti- 

 tution, the initiation of which has been wholly the 

 result of your own industry, and which must depend 

 for success mainly on your own labors, should not 

 more aptly receive its designation from a name which 

 has become almost a household word wherever sci- 

 ence is known and appreciated, — that of Louis Agas- 

 siz." Thus in a contest of generosity will two names 

 be handed to posterity. 



Let me here say a few words, and a few words 

 only, of the donor of Penikese Island: Mr. John An- 

 derson of New York, who generously gave the island 

 for the school, and seconded his gift by a donation of 

 fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for its erection and 

 maintenance. This school, it will be -remembered, 

 has been styled both "The Agassiz School of Natural 

 History at Penikese" and "The Anderson School of 

 Natural History at Penikese." The former, from its 

 founder; and the latter, from its donor; but there 

 seems to me no necessity for either injustice or con- 

 fusion in the matter, whichever of these titles are 

 made use of, provided it be borne in mind that the 

 Anderson School was simply a financial and substan- 

 tial realization, upon a larger scale, of the Agassiz 

 School of Nautucket. In the winter previous to the 

 opening of Penikese the Agassiz School had been 

 conceived, arranged for and advertised, from the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, 

 Mass., (December, 14 1872) as a "Course of Instruc- 

 tion in Natural History to be delivered by the seaside, 

 in Nantucket, during the Summer Months, chiefly de- 

 signed for Teachers who propose to introduce the 

 Study into their Schools, and for Students preparing 

 to become Teachers." No fair minded person will, 

 then, for aninstant, regard it as an injustice to either 

 of the noble men to recognize the school by either or 

 both of these titles; for it comprised both. I regard 

 Mr. Anderson's motive in making the whole donation 

 as purely and wholly philanthropic. A simple, short 

 paragraph, clipped some years later, from a news- 

 paper, whose date even is unknown to me, reads: 

 "Mr. John Anderson, the founder of the Agassiz 

 College, at Penikese Island, died at Paris, France, 

 on Thursday, aged 69 years." Alas, that as I write, 

 Anderson, Agassiz and Penikese, exist save as a 

 memory — yet, as such, they will last, with me at 

 least, forever and again forevcrl 



As in the establishment of Penikese was recognized 

 as a new departure in scientific education, to provide 

 for its future, and that the public might at once fully 

 understand its proposed scope, Professor Agassiz 

 advertised: 



"The applications for admission to the Anderson 

 School of Natural History are so numerous that it 

 has been decided that the successful pupils of a pro- 

 ceeding year should have the first claim to admission 

 the following season; next, the principals and pro- 

 fessors of colleges and of high and normal schools; 

 next, teachers in other public institutions; and, finally, 

 teachers in private schools. Beginners cannot be ad- 

 mitted until after the applications .of these several 

 {To be continued.) 



