Alexander Agassiz

“ MARINE LABORATORY OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION, TORTUGAS, FLA.
ALEXANDER EMMANUEL RODOLPHE AGASSIZ, only son of Louis Agassiz, was born at Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on December 17, 1835.
The great English statistician Galton found that men who attain eminence in science are nearly always sons of remarkable women, and Alexander Agassiz was no exception to this rule. His mother was Cecile Braun, the daughter of the postmaster general of the Grand Duchy of Baden, who was a geologist of note and the possessor of the largest collection of minerals in Germany. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Professor Agassiz served as an overseer of Harvard university, and was a fellow until 1885. His society membership embraced the American association for the advancement of science, the National academy of science and the American academy of arts and sciences, of which last he was president in 1898. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honor of France in 1896. In 1898 he gave to Harvard university his valuable West Indian, Central and South American zoölogical collections. On May 7, 1902, he was appointed the director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. ”

“ It is not easy to make citations from a book of such uniform interest; but his student-life at Heidelberg, and afterward at Munich, as gathered from various passages in this history, has a peculiar fascination. In one of the first acquaintances made by him at this time, Agassiz found a life-long friend—
and in after-years a brother. Professor Tiedemann, by whom he had been so kindly received, recommended him to seek the acquaintance of young Alexander Braun, an ardent student and especial lover of botany. ”

“ At Heidelberg, like Humboldt, Agassiz needed a congenial friend, and found one in Alexander Braun, of Carlsruhe, an ardent lover of botany, afterward Director of the Botanical Gardens in Berlin. He wrote to his parents concerning Agassiz, "a rare comet on the Heidelberg horizon.... Not only do we collect and learn to observe all manner of things, but we have also an opportunity of exchanging our views on scientific matters in general. I learn a great deal from him, for he is much more at home in zoölogy than I am. ”

“ In October, 1833, Agassiz's marriage to Cecile Braun, the sister of his life-long friend, Alexander Braun, took place. He brought his wife home to a small apartment in Neuchatel, where they began their housekeeping after the simplest fashion, with such economy as their very limited means enforced. Her rare artistic talent, hitherto devoted to her brother's botanical pursuits, now found a new field. Trained to accuracy in drawing objects of Natural History, she had an artist's eye for form and color. Some of the best drawings in the Fossil Fishes and the Fresh-Water Fishes are from her hand. ”

“ If there was however any lack of stimulus in the lecture rooms, the young friends made good the deficiency by their own indefatigable and intelligent study of nature, seeking to satisfy their craving for knowledge by every means within their reach.* (* The material for this account of the student life of the two friends at Heidelberg and of their teachers was chiefly furnished by Alexander Braun himself at the close of his own life, after the death of Agassiz. The later sketches of the Professors at Munich in 1832 were drawn in great part from the same source.) ”

“ I hear but rarely from our excellent friend Alexander Braun. He does not resist the approach of old age so well as you, my dear friend. You are still the active naturalist, fresh and well preserved, to judge by your photograph. Thank you for it; I send mine in return. My wife still holds in warm remembrance the days when you, a bright, pleasant young fellow, used to come and see us,—what a long stretch of time lies between. Much is changed about me. Of former friends only Kobell and Vogel remain; Zuccarini, Wagner, Oken, Schelling, Sieber, Fuchs, Walther,—all these have gone home. ”

“ After all, two people working together can accomplish far more than either one can do alone. In order, for instance, to utilize the interval spent in the time-consuming and mechanical work of preparing specimens, pinning insects and the like, we have agreed that while one is so employed the other shall read aloud. In this way we shall go through various works on physiology, anatomy, and zoology.
Next to Alexander Braun, Agassiz's most congenial companion at Heidelberg was Karl Schimper, a friend of Braun, and like him a young botanist of brilliant promise. ”

“ Agassiz, Alexander.
Agassiz, Auguste.
Agassiz, Cecile Braun. talent as an artist.
Agassiz, Elizabeth Cary.
Agassiz, Louis. as a teacher. popular reading. becomes pastor at Concise. death.
Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe. birthplace. first aquarium. early education. love of natural history. boyish studies and amusements. taste for handicraft; its after use. adventure with his brother on the ice. goes to Bienne. college of Bienne. vacations. own sketch of plans of study at fourteen. school and college note-books. distaste for commercial life. goes to Lausanne. to the medical school at Zurich. ”

“ Auguste Agassiz to Louis Agassiz. M. Agassiz to Louis Agassiz. Madame Agassiz to Louis Agassiz. A.D. Bache to Louis Agassiz. Alexander Braun to Louis Agassiz. Leopold von Buch to Agassiz. Dr. Buckland to Agassiz. L. Coulon to Agassiz. Cuvier to Agassiz. Charles Darwin to Agassiz. A. de la Rive to Agassiz. G.P. Deshayes to Agassiz. Egerton to Agassiz. R.W. Emerson to Agassiz. Edward Forbes to Agassiz. Oswald Heer to Agassiz. Dr. Howe to Agassiz. A. von Humboldt to Agassiz A. von Humboldt to Agassiz (extract) . H.W. Longfellow to Agassiz. Sir Charles Lyell to Agassiz. Lady Lyell to Agassiz. ”

“ Agassiz was a man of strong personality. He had great enthusiasm and impulsiveness, and the whole fervor and intensity of his nature was spent in the single-minded pursuit of science. Not content with what he could himself know, and do, and enjoy, he was powerfully impelled to make others the sharers of his knowledge, his activity, and his pleasures. ”

“ Incompetent as we are to give him his due rank among the great naturalists of the world, we think he excelled every naturalist who has gone before him in striking at the soul and individuality of all animals below man. It is impossible to convey in words the peculiar feeling which Agassiz had on this matter. Doubtless this large and genial genius is now satisfied. We cannot penetrate beyond the veil. ”

“ Agassiz places a high estimate on the intelligence as well as the kind spirit of his adopted countrymen. "There is not a class of learned men here," he says, "distinct from the other cultivated members of the community. ”

“ And it is to him alone that credit is due for the money that was thus raised, at a cost to science of priceless hours of his own all-too-limited time and energy.
The intellect of Agassiz was gigantic, and yet he combined with his mighty forces an unfailing patience with dull or ignorant people. His craving for knowledge was equaled only by his ability in imparting it to others. Nothing that he achieved was for himself: his all was attained that he might give it to the world. “Good teachers are not commonly original investigators ”

“ His first studies at home were directed by his mother, who was a woman of high endowments and rare culture. At the age of ten years he and his younger brother were sent to the gymnasium at Biel, in the neighboring canton of Bern; here he acquired the ancient and modern languages, which later became so valuable to him in his biological investigations. Very early in life Agassiz showed a fondness for natural science, and in his boyhood days he began collecting specimens. His leisure time at the gymnasium was similarly occupied, and his first collection of fishes dates from this period. ”

“ It seems probable that the genial companionship of Agassiz, who united with his scientific genius, learning, and renown, most delightful social qualities, gave him a kinder feeling to men of science and their pursuits than he had entertained before that great master came among us. ”

“ No doubt pressure does influence the distribution of life in the ocean; but it would seem, from subsequent observations, that the boundaries assigned by Forbes were far too narrow, and that the structure of many marine animals [Pg 151] enables them to live under a weight, the one hundredth part of which would be fatal to any terrestrial animal.
For some years Forbes's theory was very generally accepted, and the results of Darwin's and Dana's investigations, showing that corals could not live beyond a depth of fifteen fathoms, seemed to confirm it. ”

“ Agassiz under the flagstaff on the summit of the island, overlooking the western sea, to watch the glories of the dying day, whiling away the hour with song and familiar converse—all these memories and many more crowd upon us for notice, but we forbear.
Alas! that the golden hopes raised by such brilliant beginning should so soon be blasted. Agassiz died during the succeeding December. No man was ever more generally, more tenderly, or more profoundly mourned. By none was his loss felt with more poignant grief than by those who were with him at Penikese. ”

“ After seeing Ralph Waldo Emerson I spent one glorious day at Nahant with Agassiz. He took us to his laboratory, where we saw jelly-fishes galore and heard his wise, witty talk, which instructed the American people — North, South, East, and West. If ever a man made nature give up her secrets, that man was Agassiz. ”

“ In these earliest lectures he sounded the note of which his last public utterance was the dying cadence. For, as this biography rightly intimates, his scientific life was singularly entire and homogeneous—if not uninfluenced, yet quite unchanged, by the transitions which have marked the period. In a small circle of naturalists, almost the first that was assembled to greet him on his coming to this country, and of which the writer is the sole survivor, when Agassiz was inquired of as to his conception of "species," he sententiously replied: "A species is a thought of the Creator." ”

“ Agassiz's scientific character remains to be noticed. Science was to him not merely the knowledge of animals, rocks, and glaciers, but it was a method of thought, rising into the proportions of a philosophy, and embracing the interests of humanity. By the vulgar-minded he was looked upon as a very wonderful man, whose genius spent itself upon crabs and their kindred, and who would give the world for a new fish. ”

“ This was in the summer of 1873, and Agassiz died the December following.
On the isle of Penikese,
Ringed about by sapphire seas,
Fanned by breezes salt and cool,
Stood the Master with his school.
Over sails that not in vain
Wooed the west-wind's steady strain,
Line of coast that low and far
Stretched its undulating bar,
Wings aslant along the rim
Of the waves they stooped to skim,
Rock and isle and glistening bay,
Fell the beautiful white day.
Said the Master to the youth
"We have come in search of truth,
Trying with uncertain key
Door by door of mystery ”

“ Life in Boston and in the clear atmosphere of the University must have been highly stimulating to a man of Agassiz’s sensitive susceptibilities. Emerson, Holmes, Hawthorne, Motley, and Longfellow were his companions, and a group of brilliant younger minds surrounded him in his work.
From abroad now came honors the larger part of which Agassiz saw fit to decline. In 1852 the Prix Cuvier was awarded to him in recognition of his work on fossil fishes. ”

“ Attainments will be greater, and discovery and accomplishments will surpass themselves as we go on, but to be, as Emerson was, is absolute and complete existence.
Agassiz was, of all our company, the acknowledged master; loved by all, even to the unlettered woodsmen, who ran to meet his service as to no other of the company; by all the members of it reverenced as not even Emerson was; the largest in personality and in universality of knowledge of all the men I have ever known. No one who did not know him personally can conceive the hold he had on everybody who came into relations with him. ”

“ He retained this professorship until his removal to America. While occupying this position, he extended his studies on fossil fishes, did valuable work on echinoderms, and made important contributions on the action of glaciers. To him is due primarily the knowledge of a general glacial epoch.
Agassiz had a wonderful power of attracting people and making them devoted to his interests. In his student days he not only got other students to join in with him in forming clubs for scientific study, but induced artists to work for him for almost nothing. ”

“ Agassiz, before venturing upon the course he has adopted, to dissociate himself from a University to which so many of the youth of the country have been sent without any thought on the part of their parents that they were to be exposed there to influences which they would dread above all others. There is no right to offer, except to men, capable of its thorough apprehension, any new or questionable or unsettled doctrine. ”