himself, however, to make his visit as profitable as possible and diligently studied English on his long ocean trip. After arriving in America, he visited some of the chief cities of the country and met most of those who at that time were prominent students of natural history in America. He was especially attracted by the work of Dana of Yale and Samuel G. Morton of Philadelphia.
Before Agassiz came to America, his friend Charles Lyell had arranged that he might give a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute in Boston, thus giving him opportunity to supplement his income and at the same time to gain a public introduction. He was enthusiastically greeted.
Agassiz delivered courses of lectures similar to those given at the Lowell Institute in Boston, in Albany, New York, and in Charleston, South Carolina, and with similar success. At the request of the faculty of the College of Physicians in New York, Agassiz gave a series of twelve lectures during the fall of 1847, and from this time on he was constantly in demand by the lecture-loving American public.
In 1847 he was appointed to the chair of Zoology and Geology at the scientific school just established by Abbott Lawrence in connection with Harvard College. The salary attached to the chair, $1,500, was guaranteed by Mr. Lawrence "until such time as the fees of the students should be worth $3,000 to their professor," a time which never came. Agassiz's lectures, with the exception of the more technical lectures addressed to small classes, were always fully attended, but special students were naturally very few in a department of pure science. This was, however, counterbalanced in some degree by the clause in his contract which allowed him entire freedom for lectures elsewhere.
After his appointment, Agassiz removed to Cambridge, where he opened his first course in 1848.
Much of his time was devoted to obtaining funds for the Museum of Comparative Zoology and its organization. So great were his persuasive powers that he obtained generous grants from the state Legislature during war times. In all he raised by public and private subscription about $700,000 for the museum, an amount since greatly increased by gifts from his son, Alexander. Agassiz took part in several scientific expeditions, among them one to Florida, one to Brazil, and one by sea from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, fully utilizing opportunities thus afforded for obtaining material for his pet museum.
Not long after Agassiz came to America his first wife died and in 1850 he married Elizabeth C. Cary, sister-in-law of President Felton of Harvard University. Mrs. E. C. Agassiz was of the greatest help to her husband. To increase his resources she established a private school for girls in which Agassiz himself was one of the teachers. This proved a success and Agassiz was a great favorite with the pupils.
Agassiz was great as an investigator, as a director of research, and as the founder of a magnificent museum. He was preeminent as a teacher.
Of Agassiz's scientific contributions while in this country, the most important are:
"Lake Superior; its Physical Character, Vegetation and Animals, compared with Those of Other and Similar Regions," March, 1850; "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States." First two volumes issued in 1857, the third in 1860 and the fourth in 1862. There were to be ten volumes, but only four were issued. Agassiz intended the work to be written in a non-technical style and yet to be a scientific contribution. With the exception of the introductory essay on Classification, the articles contained in the four volumes are, however, highly technical in nature. The essay on Classification is valuable in that the subject is taken up from a view opposed to that of Darwin and the evolutionists. The technical papers are on the North American Testudinata, the Embryology of the Turtle, the Acalephs in general, Ctenophoræ, the Discophoræ, and the Hydroidæ. The four volumes owe much to the drawing and engraving of Sonrel, who wore out his eyes in the work, and of Burkhardt and Clark.
In addition to these works, Agassiz published a large number of articles of greater length, a list of which may be found in his Life by Marcou. The topics treated are scattered broadly in the fields of zoology and geology. Some papers are mere sketchy reviews, others are of great importance to science. Among the latter may be mentioned papers on corals and coral reefs, on the embryology of some of the invertebrates, and on the homologies of the radiates.
In the summer of 1851 he became professor of anatomy at the Medical College at Charleston, South Carolina. He had been giving popular lectures on biology for the income which it brought him, and was glad to substitute for these popular lectures in various parts of the
