AGASSIZ, JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE 73) , Swiss-American naturalist, geologist and teacher, was born on May 20, 1807, the son of the Protestant pastor of Motier, on the shore of Lake Morat, Switzerland. His father was the last of a long line of clergymen, the first of the series having been driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His mother, Rose Mayor, was a gifted woman from whom especially he inherited his love of animals and plants. In boyhood he spent four years at the gymnasium in Bienne and later attended the academy at Lausanne. He then entered, successively, the univer sities of Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich. On completion of his academic courses, Agassiz took at Erlangen the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and at Munich that of Doctor of Medicine.
Although as a youth he gave some interested attention to the ways of the brook fish of western Switzerland, his permanent and lifelong interest in ichthyology arose from his being chosen to study the fishes of Brazil. In 1819 and 182o two eminent natur alists of Munich, J. B. Spix and C. P. J. von Martius, had made an extensive tour in Brazil, bringing back a large collection of fishes, mostly from the Amazon river. The classification of these species was begun by Spix ; he died in 1826, however, and the whole collection was then turned over by Martius to Agassiz. The work was completed and published in 1829, as Selecta Genera et Species Piscium. This splendid accomplishment was a monument to youthful industry and enthusiasm, the author being at that time only 2 2 years old. The study of fish-f orms became henceforth the prominent feature of Agassiz's scientific research. In 183o he issued a prospectus of a History of the Fresh Water Fishes of Central Europe, a valuable contribution printed in parts from 1839 to 1842.
The year 1832 proved the most significant in Agassiz's early career, because it took him first to Paris, then the centre of general scientific as well as medical research, and afterwards to Neuchatel where he spent many years of amazingly fruitful effort. While in Paris he lived the life of an impecunious student of the quartier latin, supporting himself, helped at times by the kindly interest of friends, such as Humboldt, who soon secured for him a professorship at Neuchatel, and Cuvier, the most eminent ich thyologist of his time. At Paris his scientific activities largely centred in the Natural History museum of the great park now known as the Jardin des Plantes.
Already Agassiz had become interested in the rich stores of the extinct fishes of Europe, especially those of Glarus in Switzer land and of Monte Bolca near Verona, of which only a few at that time had been critically studied. As early as 1829, Agassiz planned a comprehensive and critical study of these remains. To this end he gathered material wherever possible. His epoch making work, Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles, appeared in parts from 1833 to 1844. In it the number of named fossil fishes was raised to nearly i,000, and the ancient seas were made to live again through disclosure of their inhabitants. The great im portance of this foundation work rests on the impulse given to the study of extinct life itself. Turning his attention to other extinct animals found with the fishes, Agassiz published in 4o two quarto volumes on the fossil echinoderms of Switzerland, and later (184o-45) his Etudes Critiques sur les Mollusques Fossiles.
From 1832 to 1846 he served as professor of natural history in the University of Neuchatel, where may still be found evident traces of the activity and enthusiasm of its youngest and most eager teacher. In Neuchatel he acted for a time as his own pub lisher, his private residence even becoming a hive of activities. Numerous young men were co-workers with him, dividing be tween themselves the scanty returns from his lectures and publi cations. He now began his Nomenclator Zoologicus, a catalogue, with references, of all the names applied to genera of animals from the beginning of scientific nomenclature, a date since fixed at Jan. I, 1758. "This," said Agassiz, "is a work of patience. It is a barrier against the Babel of confusion which threatens to over whelm the domain of zoological synonomy." The practical value of the compilation can hardly be overestimated.
In 1836 Agassiz began a new line of studies, that of the move ments and effects of the glaciers of Switzerland. Several writers had expressed the opinion that these rivers of ice had once been much more extensive, and that the erratic boulders scattered over the region and up to the summit of the Jura mountains, were carried by moving glaciers. On the ice of the Aar glacier he built a hut, the "Hotel des Neuchatelois," from which he and his asso ciates traced the structure and movements of the ice. In 1840 he published his Etudes sur les glaciers, in some regards the most important of all his works. In it he was able to show that at a period geologically recent Switzerland was covered by one vast ice-sheet. His final conclusion was that "great sheets of ice, re sembling those now existing in Greenland, once covered all the countries in which unstratified gravel (boulder drift) is found." In 1846 Agassiz was led to visit the United States for the general purpose of studies in natural history and geology, but im mediately to give a course of lectures in the Lowell institute in Boston. These were followed by another series in Charleston, and afterwards by lectures both popular and technical in various cities, his brilliant and engaging personality at once winning all hearts. In 1848 he accepted a professorship of zoology at Har vard university, and from that time on became more and more enthusiastically American. Indeed, half his scientific career, and that not the least important, was lived in this country. "He came in a spirit of adventure and curiosity; he stayed because he loved a land where he could think and act as he pleased; a land where nature is rich but tools and workmen are few, and traditions none." In America his chief volumes of scientific research were the following: Lake Superior (185o) Contributions to the Natural History of the United States (1857-1863, in several quarto vol umes, the most notable being on the embryology of turtles) ; and the Essay on Classification, a brilliant production, which, however, failed to grasp the trend of modern zoology. Besides these exten sive contributions appeared a multitude of short papers on natural history and especially on the fishes of America. His two excursions of highest importance were, first, to Brazil in 1865, and second, to California in 1871, the latter trip involving both shores of South America. A Journey in Brazil by Mrs. Agassiz and himself, published in 1868, gives a very interesting account of their experiences on the earlier voyage. His most important paper on American fishes dealt with the remarkable group of viviparous surf-fishes of California.
During many years, also, Agassiz was deeply absorbed in his cherished plan of developing at Harvard university a comprehen sive museum of research in zoology. This institution, which was established in 1859 and ultimately grew into the present splendid museum of comparative zoology, enjoyed his fostering care dur ing the rest of his lifetime. In America Agassiz's industry and devotion to scientific pursuits were as strongly marked as in Europe, but two other traits here assumed a much greater im portance. As a teacher of science he was extraordinarily skilful, certainly the ablest America has ever known. In addition he was personally devoted to his students, who were in the highest sense co-workers with him—"the best friend that student ever had." His warmth of feeling moreover went out equally to colleagues and neighbours. It was said that "one had less need of an overcoat in passing Agassiz's house than any other in Cam bridge." Such qualities, endeared him to all, while his amazing command of lucid and picturesque English impressed every listener. He was also as much at home before an audience of labourers or farmers as with the most erudite leaders of research.
Agassiz's method as teacher was to give contact rather than in formation. He discouraged the use of books except in detailed research. Among his favourite expressions were "If you study nature in books, when you go out-of-doors you cannot find her." "It's not text-books we want, but students. The book of nature is always open." "Strive to interpret what really exists." The result of his instruction at Harvard was a complete revolution in natural history study in America. The purpose came to be not a category of facts taken from others, but the ability, through contact, to gather the needed facts. As a result of his activities every notable teacher of natural history in the United States for the second half of the i 9th century was at some time a pupil of Agassiz or of one of his students.
In the interests of better teaching and of scientific enthusiasm, he organized in the summer of 1873 the Anderson school at Peni kese, an island in Buzzard's bay. The details of this remarkable venture, brief in actual period but having a profound effect on science teaching and the precursor of all American summer schools and establishments for marine research, cannot be given here. But "the school of all schools which has had the greatest in fluence on science teaching in America was held in an old barn on an uninhabited island, 18 miles from the shore ; it lasted but three months; it had virtually but one teacher. It existed in the personal presence of Agassiz. When he died, it vanished." (David Starr Jordan, Agassiz at Penikese.) As Agassiz was beyond question one of the ablest, wisest and best informed of the biologists of his day, it is often asked why his attitude towards Darwinism was, throughout all his lifetime, cold and unsympathetic. It seems possible that his position was determined in part by a misunderstanding, but more particularly by his philosophy of biology. He seemed to regard Darwinism as a theory of continued progress instead of one of divergence, tempered by the weeding out of unadapted individuals. He failed to recognize the importance of separation and segregation in the development of new specific forms. He once said that in his studies of fossils he "was on the verge of anticipating Darwin ism," but was withheld by the discovery that "we had the higher fishes first." In a sense this was true, for the brain development of the sharks is higher, as a whole, than that of the bony fishes. But the latter are far more specialized in fitness for aquatic life. More important to Agassiz was the fact that in his philosophy each species of animal or plant was in itself "a thought of God." Their homologies or fundamental unities were "associations of ideas in the Divine Mind." He had an intensely religious mind, although he was totally out of sympathy with sects and creeds and the outer shell of Christianity.
In physical appearance Agassiz was a striking figure, nearly six feet tall, compactly built, with noble head and broad hand some face, usually illuminated by an especially charming smile. This last, however, would suddenly turn into a frown in the pres ence of careless or trivial work or pretence on the part of a student. He married twice. His first wife, Cecile Braun, was the sister of an eminent botanist. In 185o, after his first wife's death, Agassiz married Elizabeth Cabot Cary, of Boston, well known as a writer and as a promoter of the education of women.
Agassiz died on Dec. 12, 1873. He was buried in Mt. Auburn at Cambridge, and by his grave stands a boulder from the moraine of the Lauteraar. At his death, Theodore Lyman, one of his students, wrote, "We buried him from the chapel that stands among the college elms. The students laid a wreath of laurel on his bier and their manly voices sang a requiem. For he had been a student all his life long, and when he died he was younger than any of them." BIBLIOGRAPHY.-T. Lyman, "Recollections of Agassiz" in The AtBibliography.-T. Lyman, "Recollections of Agassiz" in The At- lantic Monthly, vol. xxxiii. (1874) ; E. C. Agassiz, Louis Agassiz, his Life and Correspondence ( 1885) ; C. F. Holder, Louis Agassiz, his Life and Work, with bibs. (1893), in Leaders of Science (1891, etc.) ; J. Marcou, Life, Letters and Works of Louis Agassiz (1896) ; D. S. Jordan, "Agassiz at. Penikese" in Science Sketches (1896) ; D. S. Jordan and J. K. Jordan, "Louis Agassiz" in American Biography (1928) ; L. Cooper, Louis Agassiz as a Teacher (1917) . See also Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "On the Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz" (1857), in The Poetical Works of Longfellow (Oxford complete copyright ed. 1904) ;- and John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Prayer of Agassiz" (first publ. in The Tribune Popular Science, Boston, 1874), in Whittier's Complete Poetical Works (authorized copyright ed. 1g1i).