Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/63

AGASSIZ.AGASSIZ. Prussia, accepted the chair of natural history proffered him by the founder. Agassiz burst like a full-orbed sun upon the little coterie of American scientists, who at the time needed a leader, not only dazzling them, but holding their attention and winning their hearts. His example of originating and putting into execution new projects soon revolutionized, not only the college with which he was connected, but other institutions of learning in America, and his vivifying influence awakened a universal interest in science. Harvard college was without either laboratory or collection to assist him in his class-room work, and an old bath-house was the very humble beginning whence sprang the Cambridge museum of comparative zoölogy, an enduring monument to the memory of him who was the moving spirit in its establishment. During 1848 he prepared, in conjunction with Dr. A.A. Gould, "Principles of Zoölogy," for the use of schools and colleges; in 1850 he published "Lake Superior; its Physical Characteristics"; from 1851 to 1854, he held the chair of comparative anatomy and zoölogy in the medical college at Charleston, S.C.; and in 1851, at the request of Supt. Bache, made a survey of the Florida reefs and keys. In the spring of 1852 the Prix Cuvier was awarded to him for "Poissons Fossiles." The year 1854 saw the completion of a work begun in conjunction with H.E. Strickland, the "Bibliographia Zoölogiae et Geologiae." In 1857 the first volume of "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States" was published. The fifth and last volume being left by him incomplete, was edited by his son.

In August, 1857, Agassiz was offered the chair of palæontology in the museum of natural history in Paris, which he refused. Later he was decorated with the cross of the legion of honor. In 1859 the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Cambridge was founded, and he was given the post of permanent curator. He urged the foundation of a national academy of science, and was actively instrumental in 1863 in its organization and incorporation. His sympathies during the civil war were with his adopted country, which he attested by being naturalized when the disruption of the union seemed imminent. In 1861 he was awarded the Copley medal, the highest honor at the disposal of the royal society. In 1863 he made his most extensive lecturing tour, fearing that the growth of the museum might be stunted by lack of funds. In 1865 he visited Brazil primarily for the benefit of his health, but the generosity of Nathaniel Thayer made it possible for him to take a staff of assistants to pursue his scientific researches. His return enriched the museum with large collections, and Literature with "A Journey in Brazil." In 1868 he was appointed non-resident professor of natural history at Cornell university. In 1871 he participated in a trip of observation in the coast survey ship Hassler around Cape Horn, and then along the Pacific coast, and returned with valuable collections of mollusks, reptiles, and fishes, and new evidence of the truth of the glacial theory. In 1873 he spoke eloquently to the legislature, on its annual visit to the museum of comparative zoölogy, of the needs of a summer school, and within a week John Anderson of New York, who had read the speech in a newspaper, presented to him, as a site for the school, the Island of Penikese in Buzzard's Bay, with the buildings thereon, and an endowment of $50,000 dollars for the equipment of the school, which was named by Agassiz "The Anderson school of Natural History." Professor Agassiz, who was growing enfeebled, remained the whole of the last summer of his life at Penikese. He had been elected a member of nearly all the scientific societies of the world, was given the degree of LL.D. by Edinburg and Dublin universities, before he had attained his 30th year, and in 1836 was made a fellow of the royal society of London, and a member of the French academy of science. Though he himself materially aided Darwin in arriving at evolutionism, he obstinately refused to accept the admirably marshalled facts on which the "Origin of Species" was based. To Agassiz the organic world presented stages of dominant types created according to a definite, preconceived plan, and so distinct from each other that, however close the gradations of forms constituting the types might be, no evolutionary progress from one to the other could ever be possible. Of this series of types he regarded man, by reason of his cosmopolitanism, as the final term. Among his publications are: "Natural History of the Fresh-Water Fishes of Europe" (1839-'40); "Études sur les Glaciers" (1840); "Fossil Fishes of the Devonian System" (1844); "Fishes of the London Clay" (1845); "Nomenclator Zoölogicus" (1842-'46); "Principals of Zoölogy" (with Dr. A.A. Gould, 1848); "Lake Superior: Its Physical Characteristics" (1850); "Bibliographia Zoölogiæ et Geologiæ" (with H.E. Strickland, 4 vols., 1848-54); "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States" (5 vols.); "The Structure of Animal Life" (1852); "Methods of Study in Natural History" (1863), and "Geological Studies" (2d series, 1866-'76). His second wife, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, daughter of Thomas G. Cary, of Boston, who was president of Radcliffe college in 1898, desired to share his studies, and aided her distinguished husband in preparing his "A Journey in Brazil," and in connection with his son, Alexander Agassiz, wrote "Seaside Studies in Natural History," and "Marine Animals of Massachusetts." She also edited