Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/451

Rh an extraordinary fact, and it applies at present to the whole vast region of the West Indies, thus from 1877 until 1898 the region of the Tortugas, Florida, was noted for the variety and richness of its floating life, but since that time the pelagic animals have become rarer year by year until at present the region is almost a desert sea.

In August, 1907, he presided over the meeting of the seventh International Zoological Congress at Boston, and his presidential address is an account of the publications which had resulted from his many expeditions, and the reports of those to whom he had sent collections. These include the most noted specialists in all of the highly civilized countries of the world.

In the winter and early spring of 1908 he visited the equatorial lake regions of Central Africa, the expedition being mainly a pleasure trip.

Between 1907 and 1909 he published five papers upon Pacific echini with Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark as joint author, and other papers of this series are still to appear.

In common with all students of pure science in our country, Alexander Agassiz was far more highly appreciated abroad than he was at home, for in our country practical applications and the invention of mechanical devices compass nearly all that the general public cares for science, and indeed our republic is without means to confer honors upon its scientific men. Thus while he was an honorary member of all of the great scientific societies of Europe and had been recognized officially by the republic of France and the German emperor, only one American university (his alma mater) conferred upon him an honorary degree. In 1898 he was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor of France and in 1902 a Knight of the Order of Merit of Prussia. He was a foreign associate of the Academy of Science of the Institute of France, the only American associates of that time being Agassiz and Newcomb. He was foreign honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, foreign member of the Royal, Linnean and Zoological societies of London, honorary member of the Eoyal Microscopical Society of London, and honorary member of the academies of Berlin, Prague, Göttingen, Leipzig, Munich, Manchester, Vienna, Upsala, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Liège, Moscow, Rome, Bologna, Geneva, Mexico, etc.

He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1885 and from St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1901, Ph.D. from Bologna in 1888 and honorary Sc.D. from Cambridge in 1887.

In 1878 he was awarded the Prix Serres by the Paris Academy, being the first foreigner to be thus honored, and in 1909 he received the Victoria research medal of the Royal Society of London.

After the publication of the results of the Maldive and eastern Pacific expeditions, one great and final task lay before him. This was to present a summary of the results of his twenty-five years of study