becoming more and more absorbing. He was fifteen years old and the
time had come when, according to a purpose long decided upon, he
was to leave school and enter the business house of his uncle,
Francois Mayor, at Neuchatel. He begged for a farther delay, to be
spent in two additional years of study at the College of Lausanne.
He was supported in his request by several of his teachers, and
especially by Mr. Rickly, who urged his parents to encourage the
remarkable intelligence and zeal already shown by their son in his
studies. They were not difficult to persuade; indeed, only want of
means, never want of will, limited the educational advantages they
gave to their children.

It was decided, therefore, that he should go to Lausanne. Here his
love for everything bearing on the study of nature was confirmed.
Professor Chavannes, Director of the Cantonal Museum, in whom he
found not only an interesting teacher, but a friend who sympathized
with his favorite tastes, possessed the only collection of Natural
History in the Canton de Vaud. To this Agassiz now had access. His
uncle, Dr. Mathias Mayor, his mother's brother and a physician of
note in Lausanne, whose opinion had great weight with M. and Mme.
Agassiz, was also attracted by the boy's intelligent interest in
anatomy and kindred subjects. He advised that his nephew should be
allowed to study medicine, and at the close of Agassiz's college
course at Lausanne the commercial plan was finally abandoned, and
he was permitted to choose the medical profession as the one most
akin to his inclination.

Being now seventeen years of age, he went to the medical school of
Zurich. Here, for the first time, he came into contact with men
whose instruction derived freshness and vigor from their original