HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT PROFESSOR VERRILL

[Footnote: From a private letter from Professor Addison Emery Verrill
to Lane Cooper. The extract is printed with the consent of Professor
Verrill.]

In regard to the methods of instruction of Agassiz I must say that so
far as I saw and experienced he had no regular or fixed method, except
that his plan was to make young students depend on natural objects
rather than on statements in books. To that end he treated each one of
his new students differently, according to the amount of knowledge and
experience that the student had previously acquired, and often in line
with what the student had done before. Not infrequently young men came
to him who were utterly destitute of any knowledge or ability to study
natural science, or zoology in particular, but had an idea that it
would be a 'soft snap,' as the boys say. In such cases he often did
give them a lot of mixed stuff to mull over, to see what they could do,
and also to discourage those that seemed unfit. Sometimes he was
mistaken, of course, and the student would persevere and stay on--and
sometimes turned out well later. In fact, his treatment was highly and
essentially individualistic.

In my own case, he questioned me closely as to what I had previously
done and learned. He found I had made collections of birds, mammals,
plants, etc., and had mounted and identified them for several years,
and in that way was not a beginner exactly. I remember that before I
had been with him six months he told me I knew more zoology than most
students did when they graduated. Therefore my case was not like some
others. He had an idea, of course, that though I had collected and
mounted birds, and knew their names and habits, I probably knew little