Louis Agassiz (1807 - 1873)
Louis Agassiz (1807 - 1873) was a prominent Swiss
geologist and ichthyologist. Invited to the United States in
1847, he founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology at
Harvard, and endowed the Agassiz Chair later occupied by
Stephen J. Gould, who discussed Agassiz' work critically.
Agassiz' was an effective scientific administrator and talented lecturer. His reputation has suffered since his death. He opposed Darwin's theory, and sided with those who believed in the Polygenic Theory of of and inherent biological differences among human races. Agassiz, raised in Europe, had a visceral antipathy to American Blacks, and objected to having his food brought to him by black servants.
Darwin wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker [March 26, 1854], "I am particularly obliged to you for sending me Asa Gray's letter; how very pleasantly he writes.… It is delightful to hear all that he says on Agassiz: how very singular it is that so eminently clever a man, with such immense knowledge on many branches of Natural History, should write such stuff and bosh* as he does. Lyell told me that he was so delighted with one of his (Agassiz') lectures on progressive development, &c. &c., that he went to him afterwards and told him, "that it was so delightful, that he could not help all the time wishing it was true."
*The phrase "such stuff and bosh" was edited out of the standard edition of Life and Letters by Darwin's family, and restored only many years later. Darwin is (almost) invariably polite, even to his detractors.
Agassiz' was an effective scientific administrator and talented lecturer. His reputation has suffered since his death. He opposed Darwin's theory, and sided with those who believed in the Polygenic Theory of of and inherent biological differences among human races. Agassiz, raised in Europe, had a visceral antipathy to American Blacks, and objected to having his food brought to him by black servants.
Darwin wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker [March 26, 1854], "I am particularly obliged to you for sending me Asa Gray's letter; how very pleasantly he writes.… It is delightful to hear all that he says on Agassiz: how very singular it is that so eminently clever a man, with such immense knowledge on many branches of Natural History, should write such stuff and bosh* as he does. Lyell told me that he was so delighted with one of his (Agassiz') lectures on progressive development, &c. &c., that he went to him afterwards and told him, "that it was so delightful, that he could not help all the time wishing it was true."
*The phrase "such stuff and bosh" was edited out of the standard edition of Life and Letters by Darwin's family, and restored only many years later. Darwin is (almost) invariably polite, even to his detractors.
Text material ©2026 by Steven M. Carr