AGASSIZ, Louis (1807-73). An American naturalist, born at Motier. in the fanton of Fri- bourg. Switzerland. His father was a cleraynian and iiis mother a woman of education and taste. Following a decided bent toward zoology, de- veloped from childliood and fostered by li is "school preparation at Lausanne. he studied medicine and natura>lJiistory at Zurich and Heidelberg, where he formed a lifelong and influential friendship with the botanist Alexander Braun. He studied also at Erlangen and at ilunich, where he became acquainted with Jlartius and Spix, and when Spi.-i: died ( 1S2G ) , Agassiz prepared a description of his Brazilian fishes which at- tracted Cuvier's notice. After gi-aduating in medicine and taking a de,gi-ee in philosophy (18,'!0), Agassiz studied in Paris under Cuvier, whose ardent disciple he henceforth was. From 18.32 to 1846 Agassiz was professor of natu- ral history at Neuch.-itel, and there completed his first great work: Recherchefs s>ur les poissons fossiles (5 volumes, 311 plates, 1833-42). Sev- eral visits to England, beginning in 1834, en- larged his acquaintance and reputation, and gave material for his Fossil Fishes of the Old lied Himdstone of the British Isles. Xext he turned to echinoderms, which he studied in both living and fossil forms. Another product of his labors at this period was the XomeiicUiioris Zoijlogici Index (Soloduri. 1842-46). of which a practical revision, bringing the lists of genera up to 1882, was made by Seudder and published as Bul- letin Xo. 19, L'nited .States National Museum (Washington, 1882). From 1836 to 184.5 Agassiz spent his summers in examining the glaciers of the Alps, often in company with A. Guyot, and illuminated and confirmed previous generalizations in respect to a former glacial epoch. In 1846 Agassiz was invited to the United States to give a series of lectures in the Lowell Institute course at Bos- ton. These at once established his reputation as a lecturer, and led to his appointment, in 1848, as professor of natural history in the Law- rence Scientific School of Harvard University, which chair he held, except a brief interval at Charleston, S. C, until his death, although he relinquished teaching long before that event. Agassiz came to America untrammeled, and un- dertook the mission of teaching and advancing the cause of science in the United States with the utmost enthusiasm. His wife had died, but he presently remarried (see Ag.^s.siz, E. C.) , and Mrs. Agassiz established in their house in Cam- bridge a school for girls, with which Professor Agassiz was identified. He traveled widely and lectured in various cities, and in 1848 visited the Lake Superior region with a class of scientific students. This exploration was described in a narrative by Cabot, to which Agassiz contributed chapters on fishes. Similarly.'he undertook, in 1850-51, a study of the Florida coral reefs, the results of which were set forth in lectures and in articles contributed to the Atlantic Monthhi. and subsequently gathered into two popular books. Methods of l^tiidi/ in yafunil IJistorti, and Geological Sketches. He was everywhere and foremost a teacher, interpreting his facts and theories with such enthusiastic force and persuasive eloquence that he was in constant de- mand. A series of lectures which he delivered in Brooklyn in 1862 were epoch-making in this direction. They were republished in book form as The Structure of Animal Life (New York, ). ilanj- of his views were in advance of popular knowledge and opinion and contravened some established religious tenets; 3-et he rarely excited serious opposition, and no educational in- fluence of his time was so great as that exerted by him. He may be said to have realized at this period the ambition which he expressed in a letter to his father in 1829: "1 wish it may be said of Louis Agassiz that he was the first natu- ralist of his time, a good citizen and .... be- loved of those who knew him." In 1858, the plans were laid for the gi-eat Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass., now one of the most extensive and scien- tifically useful in the world ; and for many years his main efforts were directed to building it up. lie secured public appropriations and "private gifts for it by his personal influence, and kept himself poor by his unselfish labors and liberality toward it. He gathered about him there and trained a bodj' of men who liave made for Amer- ica a creditable record in biology — .lexander Agassiz, his son: J. A. Allen. H." .J. Clark, S. Carman, Alpheus Hvatt, D. S. Jordan, E. S Morse, A. S. Packard, F. W. Putnam, N. S. Shaler, A. E. Verrill, and others. In 1865 he visited Brazil with his wife and a body of assistants. The results of these re- searches he published in his book, A Journey in Bru::il (Boston, 1868). In 1872 he made a trip to California. In the summer of 1873 he held the first session of a summer school at the island of Penikese in Buzzard's Bay. This set an ex- ample that has led to the many summer schools and seaside laboratories since established in all parts of the country. During all these years he was prosecuting a continuous work on a gi-eat scale, entitled Contributions to the Xatural His- tory of the United States, of which four magni- ficent quarto volumes were published, the first. An Essay on Cliissifiention, in 1857. the others (monographs of American turtles and acalephs) soon after. The doctrine taught in these was a liberal advance upon the "s]iec1al creation" views previously in vogue; yet when the Darwinian school of evolutionists arose they found in Agassiz a most earnest opponent, and it was a gieat grief to him to see that his scientific dis- ciples were almost, without exception, becoming adherents to the new ideas. To stem this tide of scientific heresy. Professor Agassiz prepared and delivered in Cambridge, in the spring of 1873, a coarse of six lectures, which attracted very wide attention. This was his final public work, for late in 1873 he was attacked by brain disease, and died <m December 14. He was buried with extraordinary honors in !Mount Auburn Cemetery. His monument is a boulder brought from the glacier of the Aar. where he had made his most enlightening studies of gla- cial phenomena. Consult: Agassiz, Life and Correspondence of Agassiz (Boston. 1886) ; Mar- cou. Life. Letters, and Worlcs of Agassiz (New York. 1896) : Ouyot. Memoir of L. Agassiz (Princeton. N. J.. 1883), and Oilman and other eulogists, Proceedings California Academy of Sciences, Volume IV., 1873-74 (San Francisco. 1874).
AGASSIZ, Mount. An extinct volcano in Arizona. 70 miles northeast of Prescott, and 10.000 feet above the sea level. Another peak of this name in Utah is 13.000 feet high.
AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. An organization
