The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-01-01
The Late Prof. Agassiz,

The loss Of Agassiz will be deplored
throughout the United States as a ma
tional calamity. For twenty years
Americans have come to look upon
Agassiz as a countryman, as an orna-
ment to our national household, h and
the champion who chiefly entitled us TO
be represented among the few persis-
tent interrogators of nature whose
patient questioning had drawn out
clear and definite answer. The Ameri-
can Cyclopedia even describes him as
IAN American naturalist of French de-
scent"
Louis John Rudolph Agassiz was
born in the Canton of Fribourg, on the
Lake of Morat, May 90, 1907. The
father of Agassiz was a Protestant pas
tor, as, indeed, his forefathers for six
generations had been. His education
was conducted by his mother until he
was eleven years old, when he was sent
to attend the gymnasium of Bienne.
After four years Of Bienne he spent two
at the college Of Lausanne, and there
for two years botook himself to the
medical school of Zurich. For year
more he was at Heidelberg. In 1927,
in his twenty-frst year, he entered
Munich, and II WAS while lie Woo eti11
an undergraduate here that he was
chosen by Martius, the explorer of
Brazil, to complete the archaeological
report on that empire, left unfinished
by the death of Spix. Whether this
/ appointment determined his specially
or not, it is certain that for several
years he devoted himself to ichthyology.
Gotta, the publisher, recognized the
value of his materials for a Natural
History of the Fresh Water Fishes Of
Europe" and advanced him money to
complete it.
After taking the degrees Of doctor Of
medicine at Munich and doctor of phi
losophy at Erlangen, he went to live at
Vienna. AT the close of his Brazilian
studies he studied for seven years the
fossil fishes of Europe, and in 1882 be-
gan the publication, not concluded till
1874, Of the work upon that subject
which not only established his reputa-
ton as one of the first of investigators,
but also made known his claim to be
recognized as one Of the first Of natural
philosophers. For it was during the
preparation Of this monument Of patient
study that he was led to accept the doc
trine OF special and successive creation,
and TO reject except in limited sense
which by no means satisfies the de-
mands of the upholders Of that theory.
The controversy which seems at first
sight as barren as the dispute upon the
letters Of Phalaris, but which has de-
veloped into irrecoDcilable doctrines of
the existence of divine providence, the
nature of man, and the conduct of life.
and ramitied into every lyceum plat
form and every pulpit almost in Chris
tendon, was then just beginning. The
stand which Agassiz took in ii and
which he maintained with little modifi-
cation to the last, won Tor his first i'm
portant work an attention wider than 1t
could otherwise have gained, and il is
not veuturesome to infer that il was this
result of his studies rather than the
mere merit of the researches, which so
few are fit TO Judge, which commended
him first to the admiration and finally
t. the affectiOnate veneration of the
Americans and particularly Of the New
/ Englanders, among whom his later lot
was cast. At least it won him instant
and universal recognition among natu-
ralisfs.
He was made an LID. Of the uni
versities Of Dublin and Edinburgh, and
enrolled a citizen of both cities. Dur
ing the publication of his great work
he sent to press also several monographs
on subdivisions Of his subject or sub
jects ccgnate to it. His vacations for
ten years had been devoted to excur-
sions among the Alps, the result of
which was the publication, in fragment
airy parts, of his glacial theory. IL the
autumn Of 1916 he reached this country
with commission from the King Of
Prussia, provided for him by Humboldt,
to examine and report upon the natural
history and geology Of the United
States, and an invitation from Mr.. J. A.
Doweu to lyceum in Boston. The
next year he was offered all the facili-
ties which the Coast Survey service af-
forded of continuing his explorations,
and II was this offer which decided him
to remain in the United States. Jn this
year also he took the chair Of Zoology
and Geology IN the scientific school OF
Cambridge, then newly founded, and
his first vacation from the duties Of his
professorshlp produced his Lake Su-
perior. In 1852 he accepted a pro.
fessorship at Charleston, but the cOndi-
ton Of his health forced him TO return
to the North. Since 1868 he has been
a lecturer at Cornell. The results Of
his voyages to and up the Amazon in
1865, and around the Horn in 1871, are
already known by such as have cared to
study their records. This year the
island of Penekese was granted to him
to found a scientific school upon, and
his efforts to establish there a scientific
class, apart from and not auxiliary to
the ordinary course of liberal educa-
ton, have now been brought TO nothing
by his death, since his tuition fol
twenty years has not yet developed a
pupil capable, by the acknowledgment
of men Of science, to take his place.