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AGASSIZ, JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE (1807-1893)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 368 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AGASSIZ, See also:JEAN See also:LOUIS RODOLPHE (1807-1893) , Swiss naturalist and geologist, was the son of the See also:Protestant pastor of the See also:parish of Motier, on the See also:north-eastern See also:shore of the See also:Lake of See also:Morat (Murten See), and not far from the eastern extremity of the Lake of See also:Neuchatel. Agassiz was See also:born at this retired See also:place on the 28th of May 1807. Educated first at See also:home, then spending four years at the gymnasium of See also:Bienne, he completed his elementary studies at the See also:academy of See also:Lausanne. Having adopted See also:medicine as his profession, he studied successively at the See also:universities of See also:Zurich, See also:Heidelberg and See also:Munich; and he availed himself of the advantages afforded by these universities for extending his knowledge of natural See also:history, especially of See also:botany. After completing his academical course, he took in 1829 his degree of See also:doctor of See also:philosophy at See also:Erlangen, and in 1830 that of doctor of medicine at Munich. Up to this See also:time he had paid no See also:special See also:attention to the study of See also:ichthyology, which soon afterwards became the See also:great occupation of his See also:life. Agassiz always declared that he was led into ichthyological pursuits through the following circumstances:—In 1819-1820, J. B. Spix and C. F. P. von See also:Martius were engaged in their celebrated Brazilian tour, and on their return to See also:Europe, amongst other collections of natural See also:objects they brought home an important set of the See also:freshwater fishes of See also:Brazil, and especially of the See also:Amazon See also:river. Spix, who died in 1826, did not live See also:long enough to See also:work out the history of these fishes; and Agassiz, though little more than a youth just liberated from his See also:academic studies, was selected by Prof.

Martius for this purpose. He at once threw himself into the work with that earnestness of spirit which characterized him to the end of his busy life, and the task of describing and figuring the Brazilian fishes was completed and published in 1829. This was followed by an elaborate re-See also:

search into the history of the fishes found in the Lake of Neuchatel. Enlarging his plans, he issued in 183o a See also:prospectus of a History of the Freshwater Fishes of Central Europe. It was only in 1839, however, that the first See also:part of this publication appeared, and it was completed in 1842. In 1832 he was appointed See also:professor of natural history in the university of Neuchatel. Having become a professed ichthyologist, it was impossible that the fossil fishes should fail to attract his attention. The See also:rich stores furnished by the slates of See also:Glarus and the limestones of See also:Monte Bolca were already well known; but very little had been accomplished in the way of scientific study of them. Agassiz, as See also:early as 1829, with his wonted See also:enthusiasm, planned the publication of the work which, more than any other, laid the See also:foundation of his See also:world-wide fame. Five volumes of his Recherches sur See also:les poissonsfossiles appeared at intervals from 1833 to 1843 [1844}. They were magnificently illustrated, chiefly through the labours of See also:Joseph Dinkel, an artist of remarkable See also:power in delineating natural objects. In gathering materials for this great work Agassiz visited the See also:principal museums in Europe, and See also:meeting See also:Cuvier in See also:Paris, he received much encouragement and assistance from him.

Agassiz found that his palaeontological labours rendered necessary a new basis of ichthyological See also:

classification. The fossils rarely exhibited any traces of the soft tissues of fishes. They consisted chiefly of the See also:teeth, scales and fins, even the bones being perfectly preserved in comparatively few instances. He therefore adopted his well-known classification, which divided fishes into four See also:groups-viz. Ganoids, Placoids, Cycloids and Ctenoids, based on the nature of the scales and other dermal appendages. While Agassiz did much to place the subject on a scientific basis, his classification has not been found to meet the requirements of See also:modern See also:research: As remarked by Dr A. See also:Smith. See also:Woodward, he sought to interpret the past structures by too rigorous a comparison with those of living forms. (See See also:Catalogue of Fossil Fishes in the See also:British Natural History Museum.) As the important descriptive work of Agassiz proceeded; it became obvious that it would over-tax his resources, unless assistance could be afforded. The British Association came to his aid, and the See also:earl of Ellesmere—then See also:Lord See also:Francis See also:Egerton-gave him yet more efficient help. The See also:original drawings made for the work, chiefly by Dinkel, amounted to 1290 in number. These were See also:purchased by the Earl, and presented by him to the See also:Geological Society of See also:London.

In 1836 the See also:

Wollaston See also:medal was awarded by the See also:council of that society to Agassiz for his work on fossil ichthyology; and in 1838 he was elected a See also:foreign member of the Royal Society. Meanwhile the invertebrate animals engaged his attention. In 1837 he issued the "Prodrome " of a monograph on the See also:recent and fossil Echinodermata, the first part of which appeared in 1838; in 1839-1840 he published two See also:quarto volumes on the fossil Echinoderms of See also:Switzerland; and in 1840-1845 he issued his Etudes critiques sur les mollusques fossiles. Subsequently to his'first visit to See also:England in 1834, the labours of See also:Hugh See also:Miller and other geologists brought to See also:light the remarkable fishes of the Old Red See also:Sandstone of the north-See also:east of See also:Scotland. The See also:strange forms of the Pterichthys, the Coccosteus and other genera were then made known to geologists for the first time. They naturally were of intense See also:interest to Agassiz, and formed the subject of a special monograph by him published in 1844-1845: Monographie See also:des poissons fossiles du Vieux Gres See also:Rouge, ou Systeme Devonien (Old Red Sandstone) des Iles Britanniques et de Russie. The See also:year 1836 witnessed the inauguration of a new investigation, which proved to be of the utmost importance to geological See also:science. Previously to this date de See also:Saussure, Venetz, See also:Charpentier and others had made the glaciers of the See also:Alps the subjects of special study, and Charpentier had even arrived at the conclusion that the erratic blocks of alpine rocks scattered over the slopes and summits of the See also:Jura mountains had been conveyed thither by glaciers. The question having attracted the attention of Agassiz, he not only made successive journeys to the alpine regions in See also:company with Charpentier, but he had a hut constructed upon one of the See also:Aar glaciers, which for a time he made his home, in See also:order to investigate thoroughly the structure and movements of the See also:ice. These labours resulted in the publication of his See also:grand work in two volumes entitled Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840. Therein he discussed the movements of the glaciers, their moraines, their See also:influence in grooving and rounding the rocks over which they travelled, and in producing the striations and roches moutonne es with which we are now so See also:familiar. He not only accepted Charpentier's See also:idea that some of the alpine glaciers had extended across the v.

`_de plains and valleys drained by the Aar and the See also:

Rhone, and thus landed parts of their remains upon the uplands of the Jura, but he went still farther. He concluded that, at a See also:period geologically recent, Switzerland had been another See also:Greenland; that instead of a few glaciers stretching across the areas referred to, one vast See also:sheet of ice, originating in the higher Alps, had extended over the entire valley of north-western Switzerland until it reached the See also:southern slopes of the Jura, which, though they checked and deflected its further See also:extension, did not prevent the ice from reaching in many places the See also:summit of the range. The publication of this work gave a fresh impetus to the study of glacial phenomena in all parts of the world. Thus familiarized with the phenomena attendant on the movements of recent glaciers, Agassiz was prepared for a See also:discovery which he made in 1840, in See also:conjunction with See also:William See also:Buckland. These two savants visited the mountains of Scotland together, and found in different localities clear See also:evidence of See also:ancient glacial See also:action. The discovery was announced to the Geological Society of London in successive communications from the two distinguished observers. The mountainous districts of England and See also:Wales and See also:Ireland were also considered to constitute centres for the See also:dispersion of glacial debris; and Agassiz remarked " that great sheets of ice, resembling those now existing in Greenland, once covered all the countries in which unstratified See also:gravel (See also:boulder See also:drift) is found; that this gravel was in See also:general produced by the trituration of the sheets of ice upon the subjacent See also:surface, &c." In 1842-1846 he issued his Nomenclator Zoologicus, a classified See also:List, with references, of all names employed in See also:zoology for genera and groups—a work of great labour and research. With the aid of a See also:grant of See also:money from the See also:king of See also:Prussia, Agassiz, in the autumn of 1846, crossed the See also:Atlantic, with the twofold See also:design of investigating the natural history and See also:geology of the See also:United States and delivering a course of lectures on zoology, by invitation from J. A. See also:Lowell, at the Lowell See also:Institute at See also:Boston; the tempting advantages, pecuniary and scientific, presented to him in the New World induced him to See also:settle in the United States, where he remained to the end of his life. He was appointed professor of zoology and geology in Harvard University, See also:Cambridge, U.S., in 1847. In 1852 he accepted a medical professorship of See also:comparative See also:anatomy at See also:Charlestown, but this he resigned in two years.

The See also:

transfer to a new See also:field and the association w'th fresh objects of interest gave his energies an increased stimulus. See also:Volume after volume now proceeded from his See also:pen: some of his writings were popular, but most of them dealt with the higher departments of scientific research. His work on Lake See also:Superior, and his four volumes of Contributions to the Natural History of the United States, 1857-1862, were of this latter See also:character. We must hot overlook the valuable service he rendered to science by the formation, for his own use, of a catalogue of scientific memoirs—an extraordinary work for a See also:man whose hands were already so full. This catalogue, edited and materially enlarged by the See also:late Hugh E. See also:Strickland, was published by the See also:Ray Society under the See also:title of Bibliographic Zoologiae et Geologiae, in 4 vols., 1848-1854. Nor must we forget that he was See also:building up another magnificent See also:monument of his See also:industry in the Museum of Natural History, which See also:rose under his fostering care, at Cambridge. But at length the great See also:strain on his See also:physical See also:powers began to tell. His early labours among the fishes of Brazil had often caused him to See also:cast a longing glance towards that See also:country, and he now resolved to combine the pursuit of See also:health with the gratification of his long-cherished desires. In See also:April 1865 he started for Brazil, with his wife and class of qualified assistants. An interesting See also:account of this expedition, entitled A See also:Journey in Brazil (1868), was published by Mrs Agassiz and himself after they returned home in See also:August 1866. In 1871 he made a second excursion, visiting the southern shores of the North See also:American See also:continent, both on its Atlantic and its Pacific See also:sea-boards.

He had for many years yearned after the See also:

establishment of a permanent school where zoological science could be pursued amidst the haunts of the living ,subjects of study. The last, and possibly the most influential, of the labours of his life was the establishment of such an institution, which he was enabled to effect through the liberality of Mr See also:John See also:Anderson, a See also:citizen of New See also:York. That See also:gentleman, in 1873, notonly handed over to Agassiz the See also:island of Penikese, in See also:Buzzard's See also:Bay, on the east See also:coast, but also presented him with $5o,000 wherewith permanently to endow it as a See also:practical school of natural science, especially devoted to the study of marine zoology. Unfortunately he did not long survive the establishment of this institution. The disease with which he had struggled for some years proved fatal on the 14th of See also:December 1873. He was buried at See also:Mount See also:Auburn. His monument is a boulder selected from the See also:moraine of the See also:glacier of the Aar near the site of the old Hbtel des Neuchatelois, not far from the spot where his hut once stood; and the See also:pine-trees which shelter his See also:grave were sent from his old home in Switzerland. His extensive knowledge of natural history makes it somewhat remarkable to find that from first to last he steadily rejected the See also:doctrine of See also:evolution, and affirmed his belief in See also:independent creations. When studying the superficial deposits of the Brazilian plains in 1865, his vivid See also:imagination covered even that wide tropical See also:area, as it had covered Switzerland before, with one vast glacier, extending from the See also:Andes to the sea. This view, however, has not been generally accepted. His daring conceptions were only equalled by the unwearied industry and genuine enthusiasm with which he worked them out; and if in details his labours were somewhat defective, it was only because he had ventured to See also:attempt what was too much for any one man to accomplish. It may be interesting to mention that the charming verses written by See also:Longfellow on " The fiftieth birthday of Agassiz " were read by the author at a See also:dinner given to Agassiz by the Saturday See also:Club in Cambridge, See also:Mass., in 1857.

Louis Agassiz was twice married, and by his first wife he had an only son, See also:

Alexander Agassiz (q.v.), born in 1835; in 185o, after her See also:death, he married his second wife, See also:Elizabeth See also:Cabot See also:Cary of Boston, Mass., afterwards well known as a writer and as an active See also:promoter of educational work in connexion with See also:Radcliffe See also:College (see an See also:article on Radcliffe College, by See also:Helen Leah See also:Reed in the New England See also:Magazine for See also:January 1895).

End of Article: AGASSIZ, JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE (1807-1893)

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