Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/61

AGASSIZ.AGASSIZ. in 1829. Agassiz was barely twenty-two years of age, and had just received the degree of Ph.D. from the university of Erlangen, when this his first published work brought him into prominence and won for him the recognition and commendation of the chief naturalists of the old world. He received his degree of M.D. from the university of Munich, April, 1830, the dean in conferring it remarking: "The faculty have been very much pleased with your answers; they congratulate themselves on being able to give the diploma to a young man who has already acquired so honorable a reputation." The subject of his graduating thesis was, "The Superiority of Woman over Man." He had already begun his "Fresh Water Fishes," and in December, 1829, he commenced collecting material for a work on fossil fishes, for which purpose he visited the collections in the imperial museum in Vienna, reaching his father's house at Concise on the 30th of December, 1830. Here he passed nearly a year, with his artist, M. Dinkel, preparing plates and letterpress for "Fossil Fishes." At the close of the year 1831, he was enabled through the generosity of friends and relatives to go to Paris. Here he met Cuvier, to whom he dedicated his "Brazilian Fishes." The great naturalist, after questioning him as to the scope of his projected work on fossil fishes, and seeing the collection of accurate and artistic drawings which Agassiz had prepared, not only permitted him to use his private laboratory, but relinquished his own intention of publishing a volume on the same subject, and placed at Agassiz's disposal his collected material, notes, and drawings. Agassiz held this as the happiest moment of his life, and he set to work with renewed vigor to show the master, who had thus honored him, that his confidence had not been misplaced. Two or three weeks later Cuvier's sudden death added to the sacredness of this trust which had been committed to the youthful scientist. In March, 1832, his funds being exhausted, he was urged by his parents to leave Paris, and all his bright prospects might have suffered a total eclipse, had not Von Humboldt, hearing accidentally of his predicament, insisted in the most delicate manner on loaning him a thousand francs to tide him over the crisis.

In November, 1832, Agassiz accepted an appointment as professor of natural history in the college at Neuchâtel, at a salary of about $400, declining brilliant offers in Paris because of the leisure for private study that this position afforded him. His reputation attracted to the college a large number of students, and Neuchâtel became the cynosure of all scientific eyes. The presence of Agassiz was at once stimulating to the intellectual life of the little town. With the two Louis de Coulon, father and son, he founded the societé des sciences naturelles, of which he was the first secretary, and in conjunction with the Coulons also arranged a provisional museum of natural history in the orphan's home. He was hardly established in his chair at Neuchâtel, when he was offered that of zoölogy at Heidelberg as successor to Leuckart; this appointment, although the emoluments were more than double the amount accruing from the Neuchâtel position, he declined. A serious calamity at this time threatened Agassiz; his eyesight became seriously impaired, and he was obliged to live in a darkened room and to desist from writing for several months, which precautions effected a cure. In 1833 he married Cecile Braun, sister of his friend Alexander Braun, and established his household at Neuchâtel. Trained to scientific drawing by her brothers, his wife was of the greatest assistance to Agassiz, some of the most beautiful plates in "Fossil" and "Fresh-Water Fishes" being drawn by her. In 1833 appeared the first number of his "Récherches sur les Poissons Fossiles," a work comprising five quarto volumes, which took ten years for its completion. The first number was received with enthusiasm by the scientists, whose regard had long been attracted to Agassiz. He received Feb. 4, 1834, at the hands of Mr. Charles Lyell, the Wollaston prize of the geological society of London, a sum of £31. 10s, which was awarded as a recognition of the value of his lately-issued volume. Buckland, Murchison, Lyell, and other English scientists were pressing in their invitations to Agassiz to visit England, which he did in August, 1834, was received with cordial enthusiasm, and made some fruitful palæontological investigations during his short stay. He was awarded the sum of one hundred guineas, voted by the British association for the advancement of science for the "facilitating of the researches upon the fossil fishes of England," a gift which, at the instance of Lockhart, Sedgwick and Murchison, was repeated in the following year, when he attended the meeting of the association in Dublin. Guided by Professor Buckland he visited every public and private collection in the country, being treated with the greatest generosity by the English naturalists, who loaned to him two thousand specimens of fossil fishes selected from sixty collections, which he was allowed to take to London and classify and arrange in a room at Somerset House placed at his disposal by the geological society. Two friends he made at this time, whose valuable assistance and co-operation were at his command during the rest of his life — Sir Philip Egerton and the Earl of Enniskillen, who placed at his disposal the most precious specimens of their noted collections of fossil fishes (now owned by the British museum). He made a second visit to England in 1835, and in 1836 was awarded the