Louis John Rudolph Agassiz was a Swiss geologist and zoologist. He was born in 1807 and died in 1873. The son of a Swiss Protestant clergyman at Metiers, near the eastern extremity of the Lake of Neufchatel. He completed his education at Lausanne, and early developed a love of the natural sciences. He studied medicine at Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich. His attention was first specially directed to ichthyology by being called on to describe the Brazilian fishes brought to Europe from Brazil by Martius and Spix. This work was published in 1829, and was followed in 1830 by Histoire Naturelle des Poissons d'eaux donees de L'Europe Centrale (Freshwater Fishes of Central Europe). Directing his attention to fossil ichthyology, five volumes of his Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles appeared between 1834 and 1844. His researches led him to propose a new classification of fishes, which he divided into four classes, distinguished by the characters of the skin, as ganoids, placoids, cycloids, and ctenoids. His system was not generally adopted, but the names of his classes have been used as useful terms. In 1836 he began the study of glaciers, and in 1840 he published his Etudes sur les Glaciers, in 1847 his Systeme Glaciaire. From 1838 he had been professor of natural history at Neufchatel, when in 1846 pressing solicitations and attractive offers induced him to settle in America, where he was connected as a teacher first with Harvard University, Cambridge, and latterly with Cornell University as well as Harvard. After his arrival in America he engaged in various investigations and explorations, and published numerous works, including: Principles of Zoology, in connection with Dr. A. Gould (1848); Contributions to the Natural History of the United States (four volumes 1857-1862);
Zoologie Generale (1854); Methods of Study in Natural History (1863). In 1865-1866 he made zoological excursions and investigations in Brazil, which were productive of most valuable results. Louis Agassiz held views on many important points in science different from those which prevailed among the scientific men of the day, and in particular he strongly opposed the theory of evolution. Research Louis Agassiz
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus was the fifth of the legendary kings of ancient Rome, reputed to have reigned from 616 BC until 578 BC. An exile from Corinth, and married to an Etruscan woman named Tanaquil, he went to Rome where he won the favour of king Ancus Marcius, and changed his original name of Lucumon to Tarquinius. Elected king when Ancus died, he proved himself a vigorous ruler, defeating the Latins and the Sabines. He was murdered by the sons of Ancus Martius. Research Tarquinius Priscus
An obelisk is a stone pillar having a square or rectangular cross section and sides that taper towards a pyramidal top. They were often used as monuments in ancient Egypt, where they symbolised the supreme god. They were known as Pharaoh's needles by the Arabs, and fingers of the sun by the Egyptians. The first recorded obelisk was described during the reign of Rameses II about 1322 BC, but the Romans also took to them, emperor Augustus erecting one in the CampusMartius on the base of which was a sundial. Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment in London is an example of an Egyptian obelisk. Research Obelisk
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Louis Agassiz
