In the laboratory



I entered Professor Agassiz's laboratory, and told him I had enrolled my name in the Scientific School as a student of natural history.

"When do you wish to begin?"



"Now," I replied.



This seemed to please him, and with an energetic "Very well!" he reached from a shelf a huge jar of specimens in yellow alcohol. "Take this fish," he said, "and look at it: by and by I will ask what you have seen." With that he left me. I was disappointed, for gazing at a fish did not seem to be challenging enough to an eager student, and the alcohol had a very unpleasant smell. But I said nothing and began to work immediately.

In ten minutes I had seen all that could be seen in the fish, and started to look for the Professor --- who had, however, left. Half an hour passed --- an hour --- another hour; the fish began to look disgusting. I turned it over and around; looked it in the face --- ghastly; from behind, beneath, above, sideways --- just as ghastly. I must not use a magnifying glass, nor instruments of any kind. Just my two hands, my two eyes, and the fish: it seemed a most limited field of study. With a feeling of desperation again I looked at that fish. I pushed my finger down its throat to feel how sharp the teeth were. I began to count the scales in the different rows, until I was convinced that was nonsense. At last a happy thought struck me --- I would draw the fish; and now with surprise I began to discover new features in the creature. Just then the Professor returned.

"That is right," said he, "a pencil is one of the best of eye." With these encouraging words, he added, "Well, what is it like?"



He listened attentively to my brief description. When I finished, he waited as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment.



"You have not looked very carefully; why," he continued more earnestly, "you haven't even seen one of the most visible features of the animal, which is as plainly before your eyes as the fish itself; look again, look again!" and he left me to my misery.



I was hurt. Still more of that wretched fish! But now I set myself to my task with a will, and discovered one new thing after another, until I saw how just the Professor's criticism had been. The afternoon passed quickly; and when, towards its close, the Professor inquired, "Do you see it yet?"



"No," I replied, "I do not, but I see how little I saw before."



"That is next best," said he earnestly. "But I won't hear you now; put away your fish and go home; perhaps you will be ready with a better answer in the morning. I will examine you before you look at the fish."

This was disconcerting. Not only must I think of my fish all night, studying, without the object before me, what this unknown but most bisible feature might be, but also, without reviewing my discoveries, I must give an exact account of them the next day.

The friendly greeting from the Professor the next morning was reassuring. He seemed to be quite as anxious as I that I should see for myself what he saw.



"Do you perhaps mean," I asked, "that the fish has symmetrical sides with paired organs?"



His thoroughly pleased "Of course!" repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night. After he had talked most happily and enthusiastically --- as he always did --- upon the importance of this point, I asked what I should do next.



"Oh, look at your fish!" he said, and left me alone again. In a little more than an hour he returned, and heard my new list.



"That is good, that is good!" he repeated, "but that is not all; go on." And so for three long days he placed that fish before my eyes, forbidding me to look at anything else, or to use any artificial aid. "Look, look, look," was his repeated instruction.



The fourth day, a second fish of the same group was placed beside the first, and I was told to point out the similarities and differences between the two; another and another followed, until the entire family lay before me.



This was the best lesson I ever had. It has influenced the way I have studied ever since. It was something the Professor gave me, which we could not buy, with which we could not part.



While training the students in the method of observing facts and their orderly arrangement, Professor Agassiz urged them not to be content with just facts. "Facts are stupid things," he would say, "until brought into connection with some general law."
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