THE AGASSIZ CIRCLE IN THE NEW WORLD: THE CASE OF DESOR AND GLACIOLOGY

In 1846 Louis Agassiz took up permanent residence in the United States, becoming America’s pre-eminent naturalist. Here, as in his native Switzerland, he plunged into scientific projects that were so ambitious as to exceed the normal capacities of a solitary investigator. To sustain such enterprises he assembled a team of subordinates to whom he parcelled out the work and over whom he exercised a controlling influence. Since many of his original associates followed him to America, Agassiz’s “scientific factory” operated in the New World as it had in the Old. It was a distinctive approach to the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge, corporate, yet without formal structure and wholly dependent on the vision, aims, and personal magnetism of one man. The characteristics of the Agassiz circle, viewed collectively, and the role it played in the evolution of American science are the topic of an ongoing collaborative historical investigation. One strand of the problem, considered here, is the early career and glaciological studies of Edouard Desor seen in the context of his relations with Agassiz. What emerges is a picture of benefits and shortcomings in the Agassiz approach. On the plus side, Desor gained much from the relationship. Indeed, he owed his entire formation as a naturalist to Agassiz’s guidance and instruction. The empirical grounding for his contributions to glaciology went back to the summers with his mentor on the Unteraar glacier, while their interpretive framework drew from Agassiz’s Ice Age concept. In return Agassiz had in Desor a helper who advanced the glacial theory and a secretary who assisted in the composition of scientific works on a variety of topics. But relations with Desor also attest to a failing in Agassiz’s collective approach to science. It hinged too much on personality, on the loyalty of the disciples and a willingness on their part to defer to a sometimes imperious master. After a decade of co-operative discipleship Desor finally split with Agassiz in a scandalous dispute. He returned to Europe, where he achieved success in politics. He continued to cultivate geology, among other scientific interests, but without the focus and theoretical boldness his association with Agassiz had inspired.