Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), a pupil of Cuvier, and long an honored member of this association, attained eminence in the study of ancient as well as of recent life. His great work on Fossil Fishes[1] deserves to rank next to Cuvier's "Ossemens Fossiles." The latter contained mainly fossil mammals and reptiles, while the fishes were left without an historian till Agassiz began his investigations. His studies had admirably fitted him for the task, and his industry brought together a vast array of facts bearing on the subject. The value of this grand work consists not only in its faithful descriptions and plates, but also in the more profound results it contained. Agassiz first showed that there is a correspondence between the succession of fishes in the rocks and their embryonal development. This is now thought to be one of the strongest points in favor of evolution, although its discoverer interpreted the facts as bearing the other way.
Pander's memoirs on the fossil fishes of Russia form a worthy supplement to Agassiz's classic work. Brandt's publications are likewise of great value; and those of Lund, in Sweden, have an especial interest to Americans, in consequence of his researches in the caves of Brazil.
Croizet and Jobert's "Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles du Département du Puy-de-Dôme," published in 1828, contained valuable results in regard to fossil mammals. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire's researches on fossil reptiles, published in 1831, were an important advance. De Serres and De Christol's explorations in the caverns in the south of France, published between 1829 and 1839, were of much value. Schmerling's researches in the caverns of Belgium, published in 1833-'36, were especially important on account of the discovery of human remains mingled with those of extinct animals. Deslongchamp's memoirs on fossil reptiles, 1835, are still of great interest. Pictet's general treatise on paleontology was a valuable addition to the literature, and has done much to encourage the study of fossils.[2] De Blainville, in his grand work, "Ostéographie," issued in 1839-'56, brought together the remains of living and extinct vertebrates, forming a series of the greatest value for study. Aymard and Pomel's contributions to vertebrate paleontology are both of value. Gervais and Lartet added much to our knowledge of the subject, and Bravard and Hebert's memoirs are well known.
The brilliant discoveries of Cuvier in the Paris Basin excited great interest in England, and, when it was found that the same Tertiary strata existed in the south of England, careful search was made for vertebrate fossils. Remains of some of the same genera described by Cuvier were soon discovered, and other extinct animals new to science were found in various parts of the kingdom. König, to whom we owe
