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Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Born May 28, 1807 (1807-05-28)
Haut-Vully, Switzerland
Died December 14, 1873 (aged 66)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Fields Zoology

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28, 1807—December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-American zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists. Events 585 BC - A Solar eclipse occurs as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Year 1807 ( MDCCCVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Haut-Vully is a municipality in the district of See in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Events 1287 - St Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses killing over 50000 people Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Cambridge Massachusetts is a City in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Zoology (from Greek ζῷον, zoon, "animal" + λόγος, " Logos " "knowledge" is the branch of Events 585 BC - A Solar eclipse occurs as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Year 1807 ( MDCCCVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1287 - St Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses killing over 50000 people Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Zoology (from Greek ζῷον, zoon, "animal" + λόγος, " Logos " "knowledge" is the branch of Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal glace, "ice" or Latin glacies, "frost ice" and Greek λόγος A geologist is a contributor to the Science of Geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system Elizabeth Cabot Cary ( 5 December 1822 in Boston Massachusetts - 27 June 1907 in Arlington Heights Massachusetts was an American

Contents

Early life and education

Further information: Agassiz family

Louis Agassiz was born in Môtier (now part of Haut-Vully) in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. The Agassiz Family is a family of Swiss origin hailing from the small village of Agiez near Lake Neuchatel. Haut-Vully is a municipality in the district of See in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Educated first at home, then spending four years of secondary school in Bienne, he completed his elementary studies in Lausanne. Lausanne ( pronounced, Losanna is a city in Romandy, the French -speaking part of Switzerland, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva Having adopted medicine as his profession, he studied successively at the universities of Zürich, Heidelberg and Munich; while there he extended his knowledge of natural history, especially of botany. The University of Zurich ( German: Universität Zürich) located in the city of Zurich, is the largest University in Switzerland The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg ( University of Heidelberg, Ruperto Carola, Heidelberg University, or simply Heidelberg) is a The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München also known as LMU, is a University in Munich and with more Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods Botany, plant science(s, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of Biology and is the scientific study of plant Life In 1829 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Erlangen, and in 1830 that of doctor of medicine at Munich. For the game see 1829 (board game. Year 1829 ( MDCCCXXIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. History The university was founded in 1742 in Bayreuth by Frederick Margrave of Bayreuth, and moved to Erlangen in 1743 For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display Doctor of Medicine ( MD or MD, from the Latin Medicinæ Doctor meaning "Teacher of Medicine" is a doctoral Moving to Paris he fell under the tutelage of Alexander von Humboldt and Georges Cuvier, who launched him on his careers of geology and zoology respectively. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city (September 14 1769 &ndash May 6 1859 was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister philosopher and linguist Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier ( August 23 1769 &ndash May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist Until shortly before this time he had paid no special attention to the study of ichthyology, which soon afterwards became the great occupation of his life, if not the one for which he is most remembered in the modern day. Ichthyology (from Greek ἰχθυ ikhthu, "fish" and λόγος logos, "knowledge" is the branch of Zoology devoted to the study On the other hand, Agassiz was also openly a racist and an early supporter of Apartheid (s. List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that Hans Faessler, "Reisen in Schwarz-Weiss", Rotpunkt Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85869-0).

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Stanford President David Starr Jordan wrote, "Somebody—Dr. Angell, perhaps—remarked that 'Agassiz was great in the abstract but not in the concrete.'"
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Stanford President David Starr Jordan wrote, "Somebody—Dr. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in David Starr Jordan PhD LLD ( January 19, 1851 &ndash September 19, 1931) was a leading eugenicist, Ichthyologist Angell, perhaps—remarked that 'Agassiz was great in the abstract but not in the concrete. '"

Early work

In 1819-1820, Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius were engaged in an expedition to Brazil, and on their return to Europe, amongst other collections of natural objects they brought home an important set of the fresh water fish of Brazil, and especially of the Amazon River. Johann Baptist von Spix (February 9 1781 – March 14 1826 was a German naturalist. Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius ( April 17, 1794 &ndash December 13, 1868 Munich) was a German Botanist and |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Freshwater is a word that refers to bodies of water such as Ponds lakes rivers and streams containing low concentrations of dissolved Salts and other Total dissolved Fish are aquatic Vertebrate animals that are typically ectothermic (previously Cold-blooded) covered with scales, and equipped with two |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld The Amazon River (Rio Amazonas Río Amazonas of South America is the largest river in the world by volume with a total river flow greater than the next top ten largest rivers Spix, who died in 1826, did not live long enough to work out the history of these fish, and Agassiz (though fresh out of school) was selected by Martius for this purpose. For the game see 1826 (board game. Year 1826 ( MDCCCXXVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display He at once threw himself into the work with an enthusiasm which characterized him to the end of his busy life. The task of describing the Brazilian fish was completed and published in 1829. For the game see 1829 (board game. Year 1829 ( MDCCCXXIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display This was followed by research into the history of the fish found in Lake Neuchâtel. Lake Neuchâtel ( French: Lac de Neuchâtel; German: Neuenburgersee) is a Lake in Western Switzerland (French-speaking Enlarging his plans, in 1830 he issued a prospectus of a History of the Freshwater Fish of Central Europe. For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display It was only in 1839, however, that the first part of this publication appeared, and it was completed in 1842. Year 1839 ( MDCCCXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Year 1842 ( MDCCCXLII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common In 1832 he was appointed professor of natural history in the University of Neuchâtel. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian At a glance An annual budget of CHF 120 millions An annual research fund of CHF 40 millions The fossil fish there soon attracted his attention. FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for Telecommunications programs under the DOS Operating system. The fossil-rich stones furnished by the slates of Glarus and the limestones of Monte Bolca were known at the time, but very little had been accomplished in the way of scientific study of them. Slate is a fine-grained foliated homogeneous, Metamorphic rock derived from an original Shale -type Sedimentary rock composed of Clay Glarus (German) is the capital of the Canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Limestone is a Sedimentary rock composed largely of the Mineral Calcite ( Calcium carbonate: CaCO3 Bolca is a village in the Veneto, on the southern margin of the Italian Alps. Agassiz, as early as 1829, planned the publication of the work which, more than any other, laid the foundation of his world-wide fame. Five volumes of his Recherches sur les poissons fossiles ("Research on Fossil Fish") appeared at intervals from 1833 to 1843. Year 1833 ( MDCCCXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Year 1843 ( MDCCCXLIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common They were magnificently illustrated, chiefly by Joseph Dinkel. In gathering materials for this work Agassiz visited the principal museums in Europe, and meeting Cuvier in Paris, he received much encouragement and assistance from him. They had known him for seven years at the time.

Agassiz found that his palaeontological labours made necessary a new basis of ichthyological classification. The fossils rarely exhibited any traces of the soft tissues of fish. They consisted chiefly of the teeth, scales and fins, even the bones being perfectly preserved in comparatively few instances. He therefore adopted a classification which divided fish into four groups: 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, this classification has been superseded by later work.

As Agassiz's descriptive work proceeded, it became obvious that it would over-tax his resources unless financial assistance could be found. The British Association came to his aid, and the Earl of Ellesmere — then Lord Francis Egerton — gave him yet more efficient help. Earl of Ellesmere (pronounced " Ells -mere" of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Francis Egerton 1st Earl of Ellesmere KG PC ( 1 January 1800 &ndash 18 February 1857) was the second son of the 1st The 1,290 original drawings made for the work were purchased by the Earl, and presented by him to the Geological Society of London. The Geological Society of London is a Learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth" In 1836 the Wollaston Medal was awarded to Agassiz by the council of that society for his work on fossil ichthyology; and in 1838 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society. Year 1836 ( MDCCCXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Year 1838 ( MDCCCXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 Meanwhile invertebrate animals engaged his attention. An invertebrate is an Animal lacking a Vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal Species — all animals except those in the Chordate In 1837 he issued the "Prodrome" of a monograph on the recent and fossil Echinodermata, the first part of which appeared in 1838; in 1839-1840 he published two quarto volumes on the fossil Echinoderms of Switzerland; and in 1840-1845 he issued his Etudes critiques sur les mollusques fossiles ("Critical Studies on Fossil Mollusks"). Year 1837 ( MDCCCXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Echinoderms (Phylum Echinodermata) are a phylum of marine Animals (including Sea stars) Year 1838 ( MDCCCXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Year 1845 ( MDCCCXLV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Molluscs are animals belonging to the phylum Mollusca. There are around 250000 extant Species within the phylum with an estimated 70000

Before his first visit to England in 1834, the labours of Hugh Miller and other geologists brought to light the remarkable fish of the Old Red Sandstone of the northeast of Scotland. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Year 1834 ( MDCCCXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Hugh Miller (1802 &ndash 1856 was a self-taught Scottish Geologist and writer Folklorist and an Evangelical Christian. The Old Red Sandstone is a Rock formation of considerable importance to early Paleontology. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The strange forms of the Pterichthys, the Coccosteus and other genera were then made known to geologists for the first time. Pterichthyodes is a Genus of Placoderm fishes from the Devonian period now all extinct. Coccosteus ("Seed Bone" is an extinct genus of Arthrodire Placoderm. A genus (plural genera from Γένος Latin genus "descent family type gender" is a low-level Taxonomic They were of intense interest to Agassiz, and formed the subject of a special monograph by him published in 1844-1845: Monographie des poissons fossiles du Vieux Gres Rouge, ou Systeme Devonien (Old Red Sandstone) des Iles Britanniques et de Russie ("Monograph on Fossil Fish of the Old Red Sandstone, or Devonian System of the British Isles and of Russia"). Year 1844 ( MDCCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Year 1845 ( MDCCCXLV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

In the early stages of his career in Neuchatel, Agassiz also made a name for himself as a man who could run a scientific department well. Under his care, the University of Neuchâtel soon became a leading institution for scientific inquiry.

Proposal of an ice age

In 1837 Agassiz was the first to scientifically propose that the Earth had been subject to a past ice age. An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets [1]

Prior to this de Saussure, Venetz, Jean de Charpentier, Karl Friedrich Schimper and others had made the glaciers of the Alps the subjects of special study, and Charpentier as well as Schimper[1] had even arrived at the conclusion that the erratic blocks of alpine rocks scattered over the slopes and summits of the Jura Mountains had been moved there by glaciers. Horace-Bénédict de Saussure ( February 17, 1740 - January 22, 1799) was a Swiss aristocrat Physicist and Alpine traveller Ignaz Venetz (1788–1859 was a Swiss Engineer, naturalist, and Glaciologist. Jean de Charpentier or Johann von Charpentier ( December 8, 1786 &ndash December 12, 1855) was a German-Swiss Geologist Karl Friedrich Schimper ( 15 February 1803 &ndash 21 December 1867) was a German naturalist and Poet. "Glacial" and "Glaciation" redirect here For the geological periods see Glacial period. The Jura Mountains are a small Mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of The question having attracted the attention of Agassiz, he not only discussed it with Charpentier and Schimper and made successive journeys to the alpine regions in company with them, but he had a hut constructed upon one of the Aar glaciers, which for a time he made his home, in order to investigate the structure and movements of the ice. The Aar ( German Aare) a tributary of the Rhine, is the longest River that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. These labours resulted, in 1840, in the publication of his work in two volumes entitled Etudes sur les glaciers ("Study on Glaciers"). Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year [2] In it he discussed the movements of the glaciers, their moraines, their influence in grooving and rounding the rocks over which they travelled, and in producing the striations and roches moutonnees seen in Alpine-style landscapes. Moraine refers to any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris (soil and rock which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions such as those He not only accepted Charpentier's and Schimper's idea that some of the alpine glaciers had extended across the wide plains and valleys drained by the Aar and the Rhône, but he went still farther. The Rhone, or the Rhône is one of the major Rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France. He concluded that, in the relatively recent past, Switzerland had been another Greenland; that instead of a few glaciers stretching across the areas referred to, one vast sheet of ice, originating in the higher Alps, had extended over the entire valley of northwestern Switzerland until it reached the southern slopes of the Jura, which, though they checked and deflected its further extension, did not prevent the ice from reaching in many places the summit of the range. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat meaning "Land of the Greenlanders" Grønland is a self-governing Danish Province located between the 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 associated with the movements of recent glaciers, Agassiz was prepared for a discovery which he made in 1840, in conjunction with William Buckland. The Very Rev Dr William Buckland DD ( Axminster, 12 March, 1784 – Islip, 14 August, 1856) was an English The two visited the mountains of Scotland together, and found in different locations clear evidence of ancient glacial action. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The discovery was announced to the Geological Society of London in successive communications. The mountainous districts of England, Wales, and Ireland were also considered to constitute centres for the 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 gravel (boulder drift) is found; that this gravel was in general produced by the trituration of the sheets of ice upon the subjacent surface, etc. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world "

Relocation to the United States

In 1842-1846 he issued his Nomenclator Zoologicus, a classified list, with references, of all names employed in zoology for genera and groups — a work of great labour and research. Year 1842 ( MDCCCXLII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common For the game see 1846 (board game. Year 1846 ( MDCCCXLVI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display With the aid of a grant of money from the King of Prussia, Agassiz crossed the Atlantic in the autumn of 1846 with the twin purposes of investigating the natural history and geology of North America and delivering a course of lectures on zoology, by invitation from J. A. Lowell, at the Lowell Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Prussia ( Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Prūsija Prūsija Prusy Old Prussian: Prūsa) was most recently a historic state Hon John Amory Lowell (Nov 111798&ndashOct 31 1881 was an American businessman and Philanthropist from Boston Lowell Institute, an educational foundation in Boston Massachusetts, U The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The financial and scientific advantages presented to him in the United States induced him to settle there, where he remained to the end of his life. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the He was appointed professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University in 1847 where he founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1859 and served as the museum's first director until his death in 1873. Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common The Museum of Comparative Zoology is located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is one of three museums which collectively During his tenure at Harvard, he was, among many other things, an early student of the effect of the last Ice Age on North America.

Agassiz served as a non-resident lecturer at Cornell while also being on faculty at Harvard. [3] In 1852 he accepted a medical professorship of comparative anatomy at Charlestown, Massachusetts, but he resigned in two years. Year 1852 ( MDCCCLII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the Anatomy of Organisms It is closely related to Evolutionary biology and Phylogeny Charlestown is a part of the city of Boston, Massachusetts located on a peninsula north of Boston proper From this time his scientific studies dropped off, but he was a profound influence on the American branches of his two fields, teaching decades worth of future prominent scientists, including David Starr Jordan, Joel Asaph Allen, Joseph Le Conte, Ernest Ingersoll, Nathaniel Shaler, Samuel Hubbard Scudder, Alpheus Packard, and his son Alexander Agassiz, among others. David Starr Jordan PhD LLD ( January 19, 1851 &ndash September 19, 1931) was a leading eugenicist, Ichthyologist Joel Asaph Allen ( July 19, 1838 - August 29, 1921) was an American Zoologist and Ornithologist. Joseph Le Conte ( February 26 1823 - July 6 1901) was an American Geologist and professor at the University of Ernest Ingersoll ( March 13, 1852 &mdash November 13, 1946) was a renowned American naturalist, writer and explorer Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906 was an American Paleontologist and Geologist who wrote extensively on the Theological and scientific implications Samuel Hubbard Scudder was an American Entomologist and Palaeontologist. Alpheus Spring Packard, LLD ( February 19, 1839 – February 14, 1905) was an American Entomologist and Palaeontologist Alexander Emanuel Agassiz ( December 17, 1835 &ndash March 27, 1910) son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz He had a profound impact on the paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott. Charles Doolittle Walcott ( March 31 1850 &ndash February 9 1927) was an American Invertebrate Paleontologist In return his name appears attached to several species, as well as here and there throughout the American landscape, notably Lake Agassiz, the Pleistocene precursor to Lake Winnipeg and the Red River. Lake Agassiz was an immense Glacial lake located in the center of North America. The Pleistocene ('plaɪstəsin is the epoch from 18 million to 10000 years BP covering the world's recent period Lake Winnipeg is a very large ( Lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, about north of the city The Red River (rivière Rouge is a North American river Formed by the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States

During this time he grew in fame even in the public consciousness, becoming one of the best-known scientists in the world. By 1857 he was so well-loved that Longfellow wrote "The fiftieth birthday of Agassiz" in his honour. Click here for Indian Rebellion of 1857 Year 1857 ( MDCCCLVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the His own writing continued with four (of a planned ten) volumes of Natural History of the United States which were published from 1857 to 1862. Year 1862 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Monday During this time he also published a catalog of papers in his field, Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae, in four volumes between 1848 and 1854. Year 1848 ( MDCCCXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Year 1854 ( MDCCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year

Stricken by ill health in the 1860s, he resolved to return to the field partly for relaxation, and partly to take up his studies of Brazilian fishes once again. Events and trends Technology The First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA was completed in 1869 In April 1865 he led a party to Brazil[1]. Year 1865 ( MDCCCLXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Returning home in August 1866, an account of this expedition, entitled A Journey in Brazil, was published in 1868. Year 1866 ( MDCCCLXVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1868 ( MDCCCLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap In 1871 he made a second excursion, visiting the southern shores of North America, both on its Atlantic and its Pacific seaboards. Year 1871 ( MDCCCLXXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

Legacies

In 1863, Agassiz's daughter Ida married Henry Lee Higginson, later to be founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and benefactor to Harvard University and other schools. Henry Lee Higginson (November 18 1834 - November 14 1919 was a noted American businessman and philanthropist The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based at Symphony Hall in Boston Massachusetts, USA

In the last years of his life, Agassiz worked to establish a permanent school where zoological science could be pursued amid the living subjects of its study. In 1873, a private philanthropist (John Anderson) gave Agassiz the island of Penikese, in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts (south of New Bedford), and presented him with $50,000 to permanently endow it as a practical school of natural science, especially devoted to the study of marine zoology. Penikese Island lies off the coast of Massachusetts, United States, in Buzzards Bay. Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the state of Massachusetts. The John Anderson school collapsed soon after Agassiz's death, but is considered a precursor of the Marine Biological Laboratory, which is nearby. The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL is an international center for research and education in biology and ecology

Agassiz's grave: front
Agassiz's grave: front
Agassiz's grave: side
Agassiz's grave: side
Agassiz's grave: side
Agassiz's grave: side

Agassiz is remembered today for his theories on ice ages, and for his resistance to Charles Darwin's theories on evolution, which he kept up his entire life. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1873 and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Cambridge Massachusetts is a City in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery" or the first " Rural cemetery " Mount Auburn Cemetery is an Elysium where traditionally His monument is a boulder selected from the moraine of the glacier of the Aar near the site of the old Hotel des Neuchatelois, not far from the spot where his hut once stood; and the pine-trees that shelter his grave were sent from his old home in Switzerland.

The Cambridge elementary school north of Harvard University was named in his honor and the surrounding neighborhood became known as "Agassiz" as a result. The school's name was changed to the Maria L. Baldwin school on May 21, 2002, in honor of the African-American principal of the school who served from 1889 until 1922. The neighborhood, however, continues to be known as Agassiz. [2]

An ancient glacial lake that formed in the Great Lakes region of North America, Lake Agassiz, is named after him, as are Mount Agassiz in California's Palisades, Mount Agassiz, Utah, in the Uinta Mountains, and Agassiz Peak in Arizona. Lake Agassiz was an immense Glacial lake located in the center of North America. Mount Agassiz, at, is one of the twenty highest peaks of California The Palisades (or the Palisade Group) are a group of peaks in the central part of the Sierra Nevada range in the US state of California. Mount Agassiz is a peak in the Uinta Mountain Range. Its elevation is 12248 feet Agassiz Peak is the second highest mountain in US state of Arizona at. A crater on Mars and a promontorium on the Moon are also named in his honour.

Several animal species, such as Apistogramma agassizi (Agassiz's dwarf cichlid), Isocapnia agassizi (Agassiz snowfly), and Gopherus agassizii (desert tortoise). The desert tortoise ( Gopherus agassizii) is a Species of Tortoise native to the Mojave desert and Sonoran desert of the southwestern

In 2005 the EGU Division on Cryospheric Sciences established the Louis Agassiz Medal, awarded to individuals in recognition of their outstanding scientific contribution to the study of the cryosphere on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system. The European Geosciences Union (or EGU) is an interdisciplinary learned non-profit association open to individuals who are professionally engaged in or associated

He took part in a monthly gathering called the Saturday Club at the Omni Parker House, a meeting of Boston writers and intellectuals. The Omni Parker House Hotel is a Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Omni Hotels and named the Omni Parker House. He was therefore mentioned in a stanza of the Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. poem, "At the Saturday Club," where the author dreams he sees some of his friends who are no longer:

"There, at the table's further end I see
In his old place our Poet's vis-à-vis,
The great PROFESSOR, strong, broad-shouldered, square,
In life's rich noontide, joyous, debonair. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr, (August 29 1809 &ndash October 7 1894 was a Physician by profession but achieved fame as a Writer; he was one of the best
His social hour no leaden care alloys,
His laugh rings loud and mirthful as a boy's,--
That lusty laugh the Puritan forgot,--
What ear has heard it and remembers not?
How often, halting at some wide crevasse
Amid the windings of his Alpine pass,
High up the cliffs, the climbing mountaineer,
Listening the far-off avalanche to hear,
Silent, and leaning on his steel-shod staff,
Has heard that cheery voice, that ringing laugh,
From the rude cabin whose nomadic walls
Creep with the moving glacier as it crawls!

How does vast Nature lead her living train
In ordered sequence through that spacious brain,
As in the primal hour when Adam named
The new-born tribes that young creation claimed!--
How will her realm be darkened, losing thee,
Her darling, whom we call our AGASSIZ!"

Racial classification scheme and racism

Further information: Scientific racism

After Agassiz came to the United States he became a prolific writer in what has been later termed the genre of scientific racism. Scientific racism denotes the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews Scientific racism denotes the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews Agassiz was specifically a believer and advocate in polygenism, that races came from separate origins (specifically separate creations), were endowed with unequal attributes, and could be classified into specific climatic zones, in the same way he felt other animals and plants could be classified. Polygenism is a theory of human origins positing that the human races are of different lineages either from a scientific or a religious basis [4]

These included Western American Temperate (the indigenous peoples west of the Rockies); Eastern American Temperate (east of the Rockies); Tropical Asiatic (south of the Himalayas); Temperate Asiatic (east of the Urals and north of the Himalayas); South American Temperate (South America); New Holland (Australia); Arctic (Alaska and Arctic Canada); Cape of Good Hope (South Africa); and American Tropical (Central America and the West Indies).

Agassiz denied that species originated in single pairs, whether at a single location or at many. He argued instead multiple individuals in each species were created at the same time and then distributed throughout the continents where God meant for them to dwell. His lectures on polygenism were popular among the slaveholders in the South, for many this opinion legitimized the belief in a lower standard of the Negro. [5] Interestingly, his stance in this case was considered to be quite radical in its time, because it went against the more orthodox and standard reading of the Bible in his time which implied all human stock descended from a single couple (Adam and Eve), and in his defense Agassiz often used what now sounds like a very "modern" argument about the need for independence between science and religion; though Agassiz, unlike many polygeneticists, maintained his religious beliefs and was not anti-Biblical in general. Adam (אָדָם ʼĀḏām, "dust man mankind" آدم; Ge'ez: አዳ and Eve (חַוָּה Ḥawwā, "living [6]

Stephen Jay Gould has argued that Agassiz's theories sprang from an initial revulsion in his encounters with African-Americans upon moving to the United States. Stephen Jay Gould (September 10 1941 &ndash May 20 2002 was a prominent American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa [7] Agassiz's racism was by no means unique for his time or context, though his reading of it into a formalized and scientific context gave it a sense of legitimacy, and allowed it to be easily exported to other contexts.

In the context of ethnology and anthropology of the mid-19th century, Agassiz's polygenetic views became explicitly seen as opposing Darwin's views on race, which sought to show the common origin of all human races and the superficiality of racial differences. Darwin's second book on evolution, The Descent of Man, features extensive argumentation addressing the single origin of the races, at times explicitly opposing Agassiz's theories. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex is a book on Evolutionary theory by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first [8]

Agassiz's racial theories have, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, become seen as tarnishing to his scientific record, occasionally prompting the renaming of landmarks, schoolhouses, and other institutions which bear the name of Agassiz (many of which abound in Massachusetts). Opinions on these events are often torn, given his extensive scientific legacy in other areas. [9] On September 9, 2007 the Swiss Federal Council (Government) acknowledged the "racist thinking" of Agassiz but declined to rename the Agassizhorn summit. [10]

Works

Sources

References

  1. ^ a b E.P. Evans: The Authorship of the Glacial Theory, North American review. / Volume 145, Issue 368, July 1887. Accessed on February 25, 2008.
  2. ^ Louis Agassiz: Études sur les glaciers, Neuchâtel 1840. Digital book on Wikisource. Accessed on February 25, 2008.
  3. ^ "A History of Cornell" by Morris Bishop (1962), pg. 83.
  4. ^ Edward Lurie, "Louis Agassiz and the Races of Man," Isis 45, no. 3 (1954): 227-242.
  5. ^ John S. Haller, Jr. , "The Species Problem: Nineteenth-Century Concepts of Racial Inferiority in the Origin of Man Controversy", American Anthropologist 72, no. 6 (1970): 1319-1329.
  6. ^ For example, Louis Agassiz, "Diversity of Origin of the Human Races", Christian Examiner 49 (July 1850), 110-145.
  7. ^ Stephen Jay Gould, "Flaws in a Victorian Veil," Chapter 16 in The Panda's Thumb. The Panda's Thumb is the second volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould.
  8. ^ See esp. the chapter "Races of Man. "
  9. ^ See, i. e. , one story about the attempt to rename a schoolhouse: "Political Correctness Run Amok: School Students Dishonor a Genius of Science", Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 32 (Summer 2001): 74-75.
  10. ^ Louis Agassiz vom Sockel holen und dem Sklaven Renty die Würde zurückgeben. Die Bundesversammlung - Das Schweizer Parlament (2007-09-14). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 81 - Domitian becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus.

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