The Mentor: American Naturalists, Vol. 7, Num. 9, Serial No. 181, June 15, 1919 — John Shaqi
The Mentor: American Naturalists, Vol. 7, Num. 9, Serial No. 181, June 15, 1919Ingersoll, Ernest
History
The Mentor: American Naturalists, Vol. 7, Num. 9, Serial No. 181, June 15, 1919
Ingersoll, Ernest
Natural history -- United States; Naturalists -- United States -- Biography
Returning from Paris, Agassiz lectured on natural history subjects in
his native country. His exceptional ability attracted the interest of
scientific men throughout Europe and he received many honors and
complimentary invitations. In 1833 he married the sister of his intimate
friend, Alexander Braun, the botanist. The art of his wife in drawing
and coloring illustrations for his volumes on fishes was of the greatest
assistance to him. In the years that immediately followed his marriage,
Agassiz became interested in glacial research and was an important
member of extended summer explorations in the Alps. His theories
relating to the structure of glaciers were incorporated in a book
entitled "_Système Glaciare_."
Having for some time desired to continue his researches in the United
States, it was with delight that he received in 1846 an invitation to
give a course of lectures in Boston. As a lecturer he met with such
brilliant success that he was subsequently appointed professor of
natural history at Harvard. From this time until his death in 1873,
Professor Agassiz was identified with the cause of science in the United
States. His work as a teacher was supplemented by repeated excursions to
various parts of the continent with the object of studying forests,
geological formations and zoology. Though he had views that were then in
opposition to popular opinion, it has been said that, "everywhere and
foremost a teacher, no educational influence of his time was so great as
that exerted by him."
The splendid Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Massachusetts,
is a lasting memorial to the ardor and devotion of Louis Agassiz. A son,
who bore his name, did much to perpetuate the aims of this institution,
besides being a distinguished investigator on his own account.
A few years after his arrival in America, his wife having died,
Professor Agassiz married Elizabeth Cabot Carey, a writer and teacher.
She accompanied the Agassiz expedition to Brazil in 1865, and was also a
member of the Hasler deep-sea dredging expedition in 1871-1872.
The last enterprise fathered by Agassiz was the summer school of natural
history that he established on the coast of Massachusetts a few months
before his death, at the age of sixty-six. His resting-place in Mount
Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, is marked by a boulder from the Swiss
glacier of the Aar where he pursued his first studies in glacial
science, and the pine trees about it were taken from Swiss soil. Thus,
writes Mrs. Agassiz, "the land of his birth and the land of his adoption
are united in his grave."
[Illustration: FROM THE ROUSE CRAYON PORTRAIT MADE IN 1834.
NOW IN THE CONCORD PUBLIC LIBRARY
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
FROM THE WALDEN EDITION OF THOREAU'S WRITINGS.
BY COURTESY OF HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY]
_AMERICAN NATURALISTS_ _Henry David Thoreau_
THREE
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