Introduction

Louis Agassiz is an incredibly influential person for the history of geology. From his work with glaciers that helped to bring an end to the idea of a biblical flood as a serious scientific hypothesis to his staunch opposition to Darwin’s theory of evolution, it cannot be said that Agassiz did not leave his mark. In terms of his positive achievements, he deserves credit for contributing much to ichthyological classification and in geology, the essential founding of glaciology. Louis Agassiz was the first person to propose the idea of a global ice age, a term that had not yet been coined. This leads many people to mark him in the annals of history as the father of glaciology. His work with ichthyology has also been extensive and his thorough regimen of observational data gathering and analysis has made his name known across the world of geology. However, his reputation suffered in his latter years due to his inflexibility of thought, not allowing himself to accept new and prevailing theories, such as the theory of evolution and monogenism.