AGASSIZ, Louis, American naturalist: b. 28 May 1807 at Motier, Canton Fribourgg, Switzerland; d. 14 Dec. 1873. From childhood he showed a strong bent toward zoology and, after a preparatory training at Lausanne, studied medicine and natural history at Zurich, Heidel berg and Munich, taking a degree in philosophy at Heidelberg and graduating in medicine at Munich, 1830. After this he went to Paris and worked under Cuvier until 1832, when he was called to Neuchatel as professor of natural history, and remained there until 1846, when invited to give a series of lectures in the Lowell Institute course at Boston. The suc cess of these lectures and his desire to study the natural history and geology of America de termined his permanent removal to the United States; in 1848 he was given the chair of nat ural history in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. With the interval of three years (1851-54) as professor in the med ical college at Charleston, S. C., he continued his connection with Harvard until his death. His enthusiasm, eloquence and clearness of thought made him a pre-eminent teacher, but in his later years he was relieved from the regular duties of the school.
His first great work, (Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles> (5 vols., 311 plates, 1833-42) was accomplished during his professorship at Neuchatel. This was followed by (Fossil Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone of the British Isles,' written after making several visits to England, and by the 'Nomenclatoris ZoOlogicus Index) (Soliduri, 1842-46), which, revised and brought up to date by Scudder, was reissued in 1882 as Bulletin No. 19 of the United States National Museum. During this same period he had stud ied both living and fossil echinoderms and had spent many summers in observing glacial action. The most eminent European biologists, botan ists and geologists were among his friends, and he came to America with the hope not only of advancing science by his own researches, but of waking a deeper interest than American students had yet shown in the natural sciencesl. His first wife had died in Europe; he remar ried in America and became so engrossed with the work he had undertaken as to refuse the most flattering offers of positions in Europe.
In constant demand and traveling widely as a lecturer as long as his health permitted, he was nevertheless constantly forwarding his original work. In 1848 he made a geological and bio logical survey of the northern and eastern shores of Lake Superior; in 1850-51 he studied the coral reefs of Florida; later he visited Brazil and the coasts of California.
His zeal was untiring, even after his health failed; besides working through all his later life on his great series,
Among his more important American pub lications are: 'Methods of Study in Natural History,)