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48 of the fifth size, are far from being developed 6 at the first epoch, 6 at 
the second, 12 at the third, and so on. The number 12 has been produced 
at first by passing successively by the inferior numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12.” 
These and several other facts have been proved, says the author, with “ an 
absolute certainty,” for he has had the young polyp from the time when it 
was swimming about as an embryonic globe without any divisions what- 
ever. 
Jjec lX Professor Louis John Podolph Agassiz . — It is with the deepest 
regret that we have to announce the death of Professor Agassiz, the news 
of which has just reached us (December 15th). He was a Swiss by birth 
and education, and much of his great work was done in his European home. 
It was not till 1846 that he left Europe for America, where he has been 
almost ever since. He was assuredly one of the few leading men in the 
science of Zoology, although he was a believer in several distinct species of 
men, and a disbeliever in Darwin’s grand theory of evolution. Of his 
various works it is unnecessary to speak, for, with the exception of his 
11 Tour of Lake Superior” and “A Journey in Brazil,” almost all his great 
efforts with the pen have been made in Europe. He was bom May 28th, 
1807, in the parish of Mottier, between the Lakes of Neufchatel and Morat. 
In the autumn of 1871 he joined an exploring expedition to the South 
Atlantic and Pacific shores of the Continent, which was his last expedition. 
A careful exploration was made of the celebrated Sargasso-sea, and a nest- 
building fish was discovered in that vast bed of oceanic vegetation ; and 
other important contributions were made to natural science. Agassiz 
received fewer distinctions from European Societies and Universities than 
many less distinguished men of science. The Academy of Sciences at 
Paris awarded him their prize, however, and offered him a scientific pro- 
fessorship, which he declined. He also received the Cross of the Legion of 
Honour. His natural simplicity of character made him very generally 
beloved ; and one of Longfellow’s poems describes him, amid all the know- 
ledge he had gained of Nature, still at heart a child. 
