METHODS OF INSTRUCTION AND STUDY.
At Penikese books were discarded, except for occasional reference, and the several students were encouraged to study the objects for which they had opportunity or special inclination. Each was also encouraged to select for himself some particular line of investigation and devote himself to that alone, and to a great extent this was done. There were the botanists, who gave special attention to the seaweeds and other plants; the ornithologists, who did nothing but collect, dissect, and preserve specimens of birds; the microscopists, who studied the diatoms and foraminifera and other microscopic forms, and made microscopic sections of tissues. One gave his entire attention to radiate animals, another to mollusks, and still another gave special attention to the development of the eggs of the tern. In the study of animals, about the first lesson impressed was the necessity of mastering their structure by the free use of the dissecting knife. For some days the toads of the island furnished specimens for the dissecting table; a day or two was devoted to the study of the internal as well as external structure of the lobster, each student dissecting one or more specimens. Then sharks, skates, star-fish, jelly-fish, flounders, sea anemones, turtles, birds, and even insects went under review in the same careful manner.
A second lesson urged was the importance of studying the development of animals while in the egg or embryo state. Döllinger, the father of the now noted Dr. Döllinger, and in whose house Agassiz lived for four years, was the founder of this branch of scientific research, and gave Agassiz his first lessons in Embryology. Agassiz often alluded to him in terms of most tender recollection and regard. This man commenced his investigations in 1817, by opening three thousand eggs in various stages of development.
Prof. Agassiz, while preparing the drawings and material for his study of the embryology of the turtle, published in the second volume of his “Contributions to the Natural History of America,” opened and examined many thousand turtles’ eggs. He frequently and earnestly urged attention to this, as an almost uncultivated field of research, and yet of vast importance in the solution of problems.
The eggs of the tern alluded to furnished the opportunity for a lesson. A sufficient number of these eggs were opened and prepared to enable students to master the methods and learn what to observe. The manner in which Agassiz first taught a group of inquirers this interesting lesson, was an event to be remembered. It was in the open air. The question as to method was asked. Eggs were brought; the professor seated himself upon a convenient keg of nails, and the observers stood about him. He first showed in what position the egg should be held, and then with delicate and patient manipulation, he removed the shell in minute pieces at the right spot, and revealed the marvelous structure within, all the while accompanying his work with sparkling thoughts in delightful words.
Another lesson was the constant and patient observation of the motions and habits of living specimens in the aquarium. Often a student would sit all day long watching a single specimen, and did not find such work either irksome, uninteresting or unprofitable.
It has been remarked that the career of original investigation with Agassiz measurably closed soon after his coming to America, and his career as an instructor began. He turned his attention to the development of the natural history of America. This he saw clearly could not be done without the aid of trained naturalists, and there were none in America. It was then his mission to create them. The establishment of a complete museum, to which all students of natural history could have access, was the first step; a museum which should not only equal, but surpass the great museums of the Old World. The design, according to Agassiz’s own plan, was so far completed before his death, that what remained to be done could be as well done by his trained assistants. He had stamped his own character and ideas upon it indelibly. Prof. Tyndall declared that there was nothing like it in the Old World. Another equally qualified to judge, familiar with all the Old World museums, declared that nowhere in his travels had he seen such an amount of original work done as here. The museum at Cambridge is an institution peculiarly American in that it is arranged without the trammels of Old World methods. In it every specimen is labeled with the name, locality, date and donor securely fastened to it, and the same duly recorded. A specimen concerning which, from whatever cause, any uncertainty has arisen as to the locality, is rejected, and consigned to the laboratory for dissection, only the best attainable specimens are retained. Unnecessary or imperfect duplicates are set aside for study or exchange. His completed plan will present a collection of the animals of the world arranged systematically, according to the principle of classification adopted by Agassiz, and exhibiting their structure. This is supplemented by minor collections showing embryonic development of the different types of animal life, synthetic relations, etc. The value of such a collection as an educational power no language can over-estimate. This museum of comparative zoölogy at Cambridge, Mass., is pre-eminently the greatest monument to his memory. The plans of instruction at the museum and at Penikese were identical in methods and principles. The first object was to bring students face to face with Nature, discarding books and recitations, substituting original observation and work. “If I can succeed in teaching you to observe,” he said, “my aim will be attained. It is not my purpose to communicate knowledge to you, but to awaken into activity a faculty which is too generally dormant, that of observing accurately for yourselves. I will teach, but I will not give information. To all intents and purposes I will be ignorant before you. Do not ask questions, for I shall not answer them, but shall so lay out your work that you will find your own path without difficulty.”