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Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence

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LOUIS AGASSIZ

HIS LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.



EDITED BY

ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ.




PREFACE.

I am aware that this book has neither the fullness of personal
narrative, nor the closeness of scientific analysis, which its too
comprehensive title might lead the reader to expect. A word of
explanation is therefore needed. I thought little at first of the
general public, when I began to weave together in narrative form
the facts, letters, and journals contained in this volume. My chief
object was to prevent the dispersion and final loss of scattered
papers which had an unquestionable family value. But, as my work
grew upon my hands, I began to feel that the story of an
intellectual life, which was marked by such rare coherence and
unity of aim, might have a wider interest and usefulness; might,
perhaps, serve as a stimulus and an encouragement to others. For
this reason, and also because I am inclined to believe that the
European portion of the life of Louis Agassiz is little known in
his adopted country, while its American period must be unfamiliar
to many in his native land, I have determined to publish the
material here collected.

The book labors under the disadvantage of being in great part a
translation. The correspondence for the first part was almost
wholly in French and German, so that the choice lay between a
patch-work of several languages or the unity of one, burdened as it
must be with the change of version. I have accepted what seemed to
me the least of these difficulties.

Besides the assistance of my immediate family, including the
revision of the text by my son Alexander Agassiz, I have been
indebted to my friends Dr. and Mrs. Hagen and to the late Professor
Guyot for advice on special points. As will be seen from the list
of illustrations, I have also to thank Mrs. John W. Elliot for her
valuable aid in that part of the work.

On the other side of the water I have had most faithful and
efficient collaborators. Mr. Auguste Agassiz, who survived his
brother Louis several years, and took the greatest interest in
preserving whatever concerned his scientific career, confided to my
hands many papers and documents belonging to his brother's earlier
life. After his death, his cousin and brother-in-law, Mr. Auguste
Mayor, of Neuchatel, continued the same affectionate service.
Without their aid I could not have completed the narrative as it
now stands.

The friend last named also selected from the glacier of the Aar, at
the request of Alexander Agassiz, the boulder which now marks his
father's grave. With unwearied patience Mr. Mayor passed hours of
toilsome search among the blocks of the moraine near the site of
the old "Hotel des Neuchatelois," and chose at last a stone so
monumental in form that not a touch of the hammer was needed to fit
it for its purpose. In conclusion I allow myself the pleasure of
recording here my gratitude to him and to all who have aided me in
my work.

ELIZABETH C. AGASSIZ.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, June 11, 1885.



CONTENTS.

CHAPTER 1.

1807-1827: TO AGE 20.

Birthplace.--Influence of his Mother.--Early Love of Natural
History.--Boyish Occupations.--Domestic Education.--First School.
--Vacations.--Commercial Life renounced.--College of Lausanne.
--Choice of Profession.--Medical School of Zurich.--Life and
Studies there.--University of Heidelberg.--Studies interrupted by
Illness.--Return to Switzerland.--Occupations during Convalescence.

CHAPTER 2.

1827-1828: AGE 20-21.

Arrival in Munich.--Lectures.--Relations with the Professors.
--Schelling, Martius, Oken, Dollinger.--Relations with
Fellow-Students.--The Little Academy.--Plans for Traveling.--Advice
from his Parents.--Vacation Journey.--Tri-Centennial Durer Festival
at Nuremberg.

CHAPTER 3.

1828-1829: AGE 21-22.

First Important Work in Natural History.--Spix's Brazilian Fishes.
--Second Vacation Trip.--Sketch of Work during University Year.
--Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Dinkel.--Home Letters.--Hope of
joining Humboldt's Asiatic Expedition.--Diploma of Philosophy.
--Completion of First Part of the Spix Fishes.--Letter concerning
it from Cuvier.

CHAPTER 4.

1829-1830: AGE 22-23.

Scientific Meeting at Heidelberg.--Visit at Home.--Illness and
Death of his Grandfather.--Return to Munich.--Plans for Future
Scientific Publications.--Takes his Degree of Medicine.--Visit to
Vienna.--Return to Munich.--Home Letters.--Last Days at Munich.
--Autobiographical Review of School and University Life.

CHAPTER 5.

1830-1832: AGE 23-25.

Year at Home.--Leaves Home for Paris.--Delays on the Road.
--Cholera.--Arrival in Paris.--First Visit to Cuvier.--Cuvier's
Kindness.--His Death.--Poverty in Paris.--Home Letters concerning
Embarrassments and about his Work.--Singular Dream.

CHAPTER 6.

1832: AGE 25.

Unexpected Relief from Difficulties.--Correspondence with Humboldt.
--Excursion to the Coast of Normandy.--First Sight of the Sea.
--Correspondence concerning Professorship at Neuchatel.--Birthday
Fete.--Invitation to Chair of Natural History at Neuchatel.
--Acceptance.--Letter to Humboldt.

CHAPTER 7.

1832-1834: AGE 25-27.

Enters upon his Professorship at Neuchatel.--First Lecture.
--Success as a Teacher.--Love of Teaching.--Influence upon the
Scientific Life of Neuchatel.--Proposal from University of
Heidelberg.--Proposal declined.--Threatened Blindness.
--Correspondence with Humboldt.--Marriage.--Invitation from
Charpentier.--Invitation to visit England.--Wollaston Prize.--First
Number of "Poissons Fossiles."--Review of the Work.

CHAPTER 8.

1834-1837: AGE 27-30.

First Visit to England.--Reception by Scientific Men.--Work on
Fossil Fishes there.--Liberality of English Naturalists.--First
Relations with American Science.--Farther Correspondence with
Humboldt.--Second Visit to England.--Continuation of "Fossil
Fishes."--Other Scientific Publications.--Attention drawn to
Glacial Phenomena.--Summer at Bex with Charpentier.--Sale of
Original Drawings for "Fossil Fishes."--Meeting of Helvetic
Society.--Address on Ice-Period.--Letters from Humboldt and Von
Buch.

CHAPTER 9.

1837-1839: AGE 30-32.

Invitation to Professorships at Geneva and Lausanne.--Death of his
Father.--Establishment of Lithographic Press at Neuchatel.
--Researches upon Structure of Mollusks.--Internal Casts of Shells.
--Glacial Explorations.--Views of Buckland.--Relations with Arnold
Guyot.--Their Work together in the Alps.--Letter to Sir Philip
Egerton concerning Glacial Work.--Summer of 1839.--Publication of
"Etudes sur les Glaciers."

CHAPTER 10.

1840-1842: AGE 33-35.

Summer Station on the Glacier of the Aar.--Hotel des Neuchatelois.
--Members of the Party.--Work on the Glacier.--Ascent of the
Strahleck and the Siedelhorn.--Visit to England.--Search for
Glacial Remains in Great Britain.--Roads of Glen Roy.--Views of
English Naturalists concerning Agassiz's Glacial Theory.--Letter
from Humboldt.--Winter Visit to Glacier.--Summer of 1841 on the
Glacier.--Descent into the Glacier.--Ascent of the Jungfrau.

CHAPTER 11.

1842-1843: AGE 35-36.

Zoological Work uninterrupted by Glacial Researches.--Various
Publications.--"Nomenclator Zoologicus."--"Bibliographia Zoologiae
et Geologiae."--Correspondence with English Naturalists.
--Correspondence with Humboldt.--Glacial Campaign of 1842.
--Correspondence with Prince de Canino concerning Journey to United
States.--Fossil Fishes from the Old Red Sandstone.--Glacial
Campaign of 1843.--Death of Leuthold, the Guide.

CHAPTER 12.

1843-1846: AGE 36-39.

Completion of Fossil Fishes.--Followed by Fossil Fishes of the Old
Red Sandstone.--Review of the Later Work.--Identification of Fishes
by the Skull.--Renewed Correspondence with Prince Canino about
Journey to the United States.--Change of Plan owing to the Interest
of the King of Prussia in the Expedition.--Correspondence between
Professor Sedgwick and Agassiz on Development Theory.--Final
Scientific Work in Neuchatel and Paris.--Publication of "Systeme
Glaciaire."--Short Stay in England.--Farewell Letter from Humboldt.
--Sails for United States.

CHAPTER 13.

1846: AGE 39.

Arrival at Boston.--Previous Correspondence with Charles Lyell and
Mr. John A. Lowell concerning Lectures at the Lowell Institute.
--Relations with Mr. Lowell.--First Course of Lectures.--Character
of Audience.--Home Letter giving an Account of his first Journey in
the United States.--Impressions of Scientific Men, Scientific
Institutions and Collections.

CHAPTER 14.

1846-1847: AGE 39-40.

Course of Lectures in Boston on Glaciers.--Correspondence with
Scientific Friends in Europe.--House in East Boston.--Household and
Housekeeping.--Illness.--Letter to Elie de Beaumont.--Letter to
James D. Dana.

CHAPTER 15.

1847-1850: AGE 40-43.

Excursions on Coast Survey Steamer.--Relations with Dr. Bache, the
Superintendent of the Coast Survey.--Political Disturbances in
Switzerland.--Change of Relations with Prussia.--Scientific School
established in Cambridge.--Chair of Natural History offered to
Agassiz.--Acceptance.--Removal to Cambridge.--Literary and
Scientific Associations there and in Boston.--Household in
Cambridge.--Beginning of Museum.--Journey to Lake Superior.--"
Report, with Narration."--"Principles of Zoology," by Agassiz and
Gould.--Letters from European Friends respecting these
Publications.--Letter from Hugh Miller.--Second Marriage.--Arrival
of his Children in America.

CHAPTER 16.

1850-1852: AGE 43-45.

Proposition from Dr. Bache.--Exploration of Florida Reefs.--Letter
to Humboldt concerning Work in America.--Appointment to
Professorship of Medical College in Charleston, S.C.--Life at the
South.--Views concerning Races of Men.--Prix Cuvier.

CHAPTER 17.

1852-1855: AGE 45-48.

Return to Cambridge.--Anxiety about Collections.--Purchase of
Collections.--Second Winter in Charleston.--Illness.--Letter to
James D. Dana concerning Geographical Distribution and Geological
Succession of Animals.--Resignation of Charleston Professorship.
--Propositions from Zurich.--Letter to Oswald Heer.--Decision to
remain in Cambridge.--Letters to James D. Dana, S.S. Haldeman, and
Others respecting Collections illustrative of the Distribution of
Fishes, Shells, etc., in our Rivers.--Establishment of School for
Girls.

CHAPTER 18.

1855-1860: AGE 48-53.

"Contributions to Natural History of the United States."
--Remarkable Subscription.--Review of the Work.--Its Reception in
Europe and America.--Letters from Humboldt and Owen concerning it.
--Birthday.--Longfellow's Verses.--Laboratory at Nahant.
--Invitation to the Museum of Natural History in Paris.--Founding
of Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge.--Summer Vacation in
Europe.

CHAPTER 19.

1860-1863: AGE 53-56.

Return to Cambridge.--Removal of Collection to New Museum Building.
--Distribution of Work.--Relations with his Students.--Breaking out
of the War between North and South.--Interest of Agassiz in the
Preservation of the Union.--Commencement of Museum Publications.
--Reception of Third and Fourth Volumes of "Contributions."--Copley
Medal.--General Correspondence.--Lecturing Tour in the West.
--Circular Letter concerning Anthropological Collections.--Letter
to Mr. Ticknor concerning Geographical Distribution of Fishes in
Spain.

CHAPTER 20.

1863-1864: AGE 56-57.

Correspondence with Dr. S.G. Howe.--Bearing of the War on the
Position of the Negro Race.--Affection for Harvard College.
--Interest in her General Progress.--Correspondence with Emerson
concerning Harvard.--Glacial Phenomena in Maine.

CHAPTER 21.

1865-1868: AGE 58-61.

Letter to his Mother announcing Journey to Brazil.--Sketch of
Journey.--Kindness of the Emperor.--Liberality of the Brazilian
Government.--Correspondence with Charles Sumner.--Letter to his
Mother at Close of Brazil Journey.--Letter from Martius concerning
Journey in Brazil.--Return to Cambridge.--Lectures in Boston and
New York.--Summer at Nahant.--Letter to Professor Peirce on the
Survey of Boston Harbor.--Death of his Mother.--Illness.
--Correspondence with Oswald Heer.--Summer Journey in the West.
--Cornell University.--Letter from Longfellow.

CHAPTER 22.

1868-1871: AGE 61-64.

New Subscription to Museum.--Additional Buildings.--Arrangement of
New Collections.--Dredging Expedition on Board the Bibb.--Address
at the Humboldt Centennial.--Attack on the Brain.--Suspension of
Work.--Working Force at the Museum.--New Accessions.--Letter from
Professor Sedgwick.--Letter from Professor Deshayes.--Restored
Health.--Hassler Voyage proposed.--Acceptance.--Scientific
Preparation for the Voyage.

CHAPTER 23.

1871-1872: AGE 64-65.

Sailing of the Hassler.--Sargassum Fields.--Dredging at Barbados.
--From the West Indies to Rio de Janeiro.--Monte Video.
--Quarantine.--Glacial Traces in the Bay of Monte Video.--The Gulf
of Mathias.--Dredging off Gulf of St. George.--Dredging off Cape
Virgens.--Possession Bay.--Salt Pool.--Moraine.--Sandy Point.
--Cruise through the Straits.--Scenery.--Wind Storm.--Borja Bay.
--Glacier Bay.--Visit to the Glacier.--Chorocua Bay.

CHAPTER 24.

1872: AGE 65.

Picnic in Sholl Bay.--Fuegians.--Smythe's Channel.--Comparison of
Glacial Features with those of the Strait of Magellan.--Ancud.
--Port of San Pedro.--Bay of Concepcion.--Three Weeks in
Talcahuana.--Collections.--Geology.--Land Journey to Santiago.
--Scenes along the Road.--Report on Glacial Features to Mr. Peirce.
--Arrival at Santiago.--Election as Foreign Associate of the
Institute of France.--Valparaiso.--The Galapagos.--Geological and
Zoological Features.--Arrival at San Francisco.

CHAPTER 25.

1872-1873: AGE 65-66.

Return to Cambridge.--Summer School proposed.--Interest of Agassiz.
--Gift of Mr. Anderson.--Prospectus of Penikese School.
--Difficulties.--Opening of School.--Summer Work.--Close of School.
--Last Course of Lectures at Museum.--Lecture before Board of
Agriculture.--Illness.--Death.--Place of Burial.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. PORTRAIT OF LOUIS AGASSIZ AT THE AGE OF NINETEEN; copied by Mrs.
John W. Elliot from a pastel drawing by Cecile Braun.

2. THE STONE BASIN AT MOTIER; drawn by Mrs. Elliot from a
photograph.

3. THE LABORATORY AT NAHANT; from a drawing by Mrs. Elliot.

4. THE BIRTHPLACE OF LOUIS AGASSIZ; from a photograph.

5. HOTEL DES NEUCHATELOIS; copied by Mrs. Elliot from an oil sketch
made on the spot by J. Burkhardt.

6. PORTRAIT OF JACOB LEUTHOLD; from a portrait by Burkhardt.

7. SECOND STATION ON THE AAR GLACIER; Copied by Mrs. Elliot from a
sketch in oil by J. Burkhardt.

8. PORTRAIT OF LOUIS AGASSIZ AT THE AGE OF FIFTY-FIVE; originally
published in "Nature".

9. COTTAGE AT NAHANT; from a photograph.

10. MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY; from a photograph.

11. PORTRAIT BUST OF AGASSIZ BY POWERS AT THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE
ZOOLOGY; from a photograph.

12. VIEW OF PENIKESE; from a photograph.

***

LOUIS AGASSIZ.

PART 1. IN EUROPE.


CHAPTER 1.

1807-1827: TO AGE 20.

Birthplace.
Influence of his Mother.
Early Love of Natural History.
Boyish Occupations.
Domestic Education.
First School.
Vacations.
Commercial Life renounced.
College of Lausanne.
Choice of Profession.
Medical School of Zurich.
Life and Studies there.
University of Heidelberg.
Studies interrupted by Illness.
Return to Switzerland.
Occupations during Convalescence.

JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE AGASSIZ was born May 28, 1807, at the village
of Motier, on the Lake of Morat. His father, Louis Rodolphe
Agassiz, was a clergyman; his mother, Rose Mayor, was the daughter
of a physician whose home was at Cudrefin, on the shore of the Lake
of Neuchatel.

The parsonages in Switzerland are frequently pretty and
picturesque. That of Motier, looking upon the lake and sheltered by
a hill which commands a view over the whole chain of the Bernese
Alps, was especially so. It possessed a vineyard large enough to
add something in good years to the small salary of the pastor; an
orchard containing, among other trees, an apricot famed the country
around for the unblemished beauty of its abundant fruit; a good
vegetable garden, and a delicious spring of water flowing always
fresh and pure into a great stone basin behind the house. That
stone basin was Agassiz's first aquarium; there he had his first
collection of fishes.* (* After his death a touching tribute was
paid to his memory by the inhabitants of his birthplace. With
appropriate ceremonies, a marble slab was placed above the door of
the parsonage of Motier, with this inscription, "J. Louis Agassiz,
celebre naturaliste, est ne dans cette maison, le 28 Mai, 1807.")

It does not appear that he had any precocious predilection for
study, and his parents, who for the first ten years of his life
were his only teachers, were too wise to stimulate his mind beyond
the ordinary attainments of his age. having lost her first four
children in infancy, his mother watched with trembling solicitude
over his early years. It was perhaps for this reason that she was
drawn so closely to her boy, and understood that his love of
nature, and especially of all living things, was an intellectual
tendency, and not simply a child's disposition to find friends and
playmates in the animals about him. In later years her sympathy
gave her the key to the work of his manhood, as it had done to the
sports of his childhood. She remained his most intimate friend to
the last hour of her life, and he survived her but six years.

Louis's love of natural history showed itself almost from infancy.
When a very little fellow he had, beside his collection of fishes,
all sorts of pets: birds, field-mice, hares, rabbits, guinea-pigs,
etc., whose families he reared with the greatest care. Guided by
his knowledge of the haunts and habits of fishes, he and his
brother Auguste became the most adroit of young fishermen,--using
processes all their own and quite independent of hook, line, or
net. Their hunting grounds were the holes and crevices beneath the
stones or in the water-washed walls of the lake shore. No such
shelter was safe from their curious fingers, and they acquired such
dexterity that when bathing they could seize the fish even in the
open water, attracting them by little arts to which the fish
submitted as to a kind of fascination. Such amusements are no doubt
the delight of many a lad living in the country, nor would they be
worth recording except as illustrating the unity of Agassiz's
intellectual development from beginning to end. His pet animals
suggested questions, to answer which was the task of his life; and
his intimate study of the fresh-water fishes of Europe, later the
subject of one of his important works, began with his first
collection from the Lake of Morat.

As a boy he amused himself also with all kinds of handicrafts on a
small scale. The carpenter, the cobbler, the tailor, were then as
much developed in him as the naturalist. In Swiss villages it was
the habit in those days for the trades-people to go from house to
house in their different vocations. The shoemaker came two or three
times a year with all his materials, and made shoes for the whole
family by the day; the tailor came to fit them for garments which
he made in the house; the cooper arrived before the vintage, to
repair old barrels and hogsheads or to make new ones, and to
replace their worn-out hoops; in short, to fit up the cellar for
the coming season. Agassiz seems to have profited by these lessons
as much as by those he learned from his father; and when a very
little fellow, he could cut and put together a well-fitting pair of
shoes for his sisters' dolls, was no bad tailor, and could make a
miniature barrel that was perfectly water-tight. He remembered
these trivial facts as a valuable part of his incidental education.
He said he owed much of his dexterity in manipulation, to the
training of eye and hand gained in these childish plays.

Though fond of quiet, in-door occupation, he was an active, daring
boy. One winter day when about seven years of age, he was skating
with his little brother Auguste, two years younger than himself,
and a number of other boys, near the shore of the lake. They were
talking of a great fair held that day at the town of Morat, on the
opposite side of the lake, to which M. Agassiz had gone in the
morning, not crossing upon the ice, however, but driving around the
shore. The temptation was too strong for Louis, and he proposed to
Auguste that they should skate across, join their father at the
fair, and come home with him in the afternoon. They started
accordingly. The other boys remained on their skating ground till
twelve o'clock, the usual dinner hour, when they returned to the
village. Mme. Agassiz was watching for her boys, thinking them
rather late, and on inquiring for them among the troop of urchins
coming down the village street she learned on what errand they had
gone. Her anxiety may be imagined. The lake was not less than two
miles across, and she was by no means sure that the ice was safe.
She hurried to an upper window with a spy-glass to see if she could
descry them anywhere. At the moment she caught sight of them,
already far on their journey, Louis had laid himself down across a
fissure in the ice, thus making a bridge for his little brother,
who was creeping over his back. Their mother directed a workman, an
excellent skater, to follow them as swiftly as possible. He
overtook them just as they had gained the shore, but it did not
occur to him that they could return otherwise than they had come,
and he skated back with them across the lake. Weary, hungry, and
disappointed, the boys reached the house without having seen the
fair or enjoyed the drive home with their father in the afternoon.

When he was ten years old, Agassiz was sent to the college for boys
at Bienne, thus exchanging the easy rule of domestic instruction
for the more serious studies of a public school. He found himself
on a level with his class, however, for his father was an admirable
teacher. Indeed it would seem that Agassiz's own passion for
teaching, as well as his love of young people and his sympathy with
intellectual aspiration everywhere, was an inheritance. Wherever
his father was settled as pastor, at Motier, at Orbe, and later at
Concise, his influence was felt in the schools as much as in the
pulpit. A piece of silver remains, a much prized heir-loom in the
family, given to him by the municipality of Orbe in acknowledgment
of his services in the schools.

The rules of the school at Bienne were rather strict, but the life
led by the boys was hardy and invigorating, and they played as
heartily as they worked. Remembering his own school-life, Agassiz
often asked himself whether it was difference of climate or of
method, which makes the public school life in the United States so
much more trying to the health of children than the one under which
he was brought up. The boys and girls in our public schools are
said to be overworked with a session of five hours, and an
additional hour or two of study at home. At the College of Bienne
there were nine hours of study, and the boys were healthy and
happy. Perhaps the secret might be found in the frequent
interruption, two or three hours of study alternating with an
interval for play or rest. Agassiz always retained a pleasant
impression of the school and its teachers. Mr. Rickly, the
director, he regarded with an affectionate respect, which ripened
into friendship in maturer years.

The vacations were, of course, hailed with delight, and as Motier
was but twenty miles distant from Bienne, Agassiz and his younger
brother Auguste, who joined him at school a year later, were in the
habit of making the journey on foot. The lives of these brothers
were so closely interwoven in their youth that for many years the
story of one includes the story of the other. They had everything
in common, and with their little savings they used to buy books,
chosen by Louis, the foundation, as it proved, of his future
library.

Long before dawn on the first day of vacation the two bright,
active boys would be on their homeward way, as happy as holiday
could make them, especially if they were returning for the summer
harvest or the autumn vintage. The latter was then, as now, a
season of festivity. In these more modern days something of its
primitive picturesqueness may have been lost; but when Agassiz was
a boy, all the ordinary occupations were given up for this
important annual business, in which work and play were so happily
combined. On the appointed day the working people might be seen
trooping in from neighboring cantons, where there were no
vineyards, to offer themselves for the vintage. They either camped
out at night, sleeping in the open air, or found shelter in the
stables and outhouses. During the grape gathering the floor of the
barn and shed at the parsonage of Motier was often covered in the
evening with tired laborers, both men and women. Of course, when
the weather was fine, these were festival days for the children. A
bushel basket, heaped high with white and amber bunches, stood in
the hall, or in the living room of the family, and young and old
were free to help themselves as they came and went. Then there were
the frolics in the vineyard, the sweet cup of must (unfermented
juice of the grape), and, the ball on the last evening at the close
of the merry-making.

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