I read the short essay “Look at Your Fish” by Samuel Hubbard Scudder, which is a personal narrative of Hubbards early experiences as an assistant to Professor Louis Agassiz, who was the custodian of the Boston Society of Natural History from 1862 to 1864.
The essay begins with Scudder coming under the tutelage of Prof. Agassiz and declaring his desire to become experienced in all fields of zoology, particularly the sub-field of entomology. Scudder portrays himself as an eager and willing student, ready to “dig into the deep stuff” of all things entomological yet to his surprise Prof. Agassiz assigned him the task of caring for and examining a fish specimen called a Haemulon, which had been kept in a specimen jar in alcohol. The professors instruction concerning the fish was to “look at it”, and this task of “looking” is the common thread throughout the rest of the essay.
Scudder recounts how his initial disappointment at staring at the fish gradually turned into boredom, then loathing as the hours passed; after a brief respite he returned and began to take more interest in 'looking” at the fish, even venturing to sketch the fish with a pencil, as no other instruments were allowed for observation, which leaves Scudder no choice other than, as he put it, “my two hands, my two eyes, and the fish”. The significance of this did not escape me as I read, because just as Scudder was exercising his powers of observation, I too have had the opportunity to hone mine as well, and I can attest to the fact that the best observations of people or objects are made when one is unencumbered by technological tools and is able to focus all their attention on the subject. That is not to say that there is not room for such tools, but rather that, before one can use them effectively one must have a foundational understanding of what is meant to observe. Touching, using the hands, serves to identify texture and form; looking, not staring, is an active process, taking in the whole of ones subject before classifying it into different groups. Scuddard lamented the lack of a magnifying glass yet if one was available how likely would it have been that he would have gotten a proper overview of the Haemulon?
In addition to looking, repetition, if possible, is foundational to proper observation as well, the more one looks at a subject, the more familiar it becomes; the more familiar it becomes, the easier to identify variation and similarities.
After three days of intensive observation, Scuddard was tasked by Prof. Agassiz to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between not two, but several different specimens of Haemulon fish; Scuddard closes the essay with how the exhortation of Prof. Agassiz to “look, look, look!” was formative in his future career as an entomologist. How can the observation of one species of fish be so relevant to the study of insects? I came to the conclusion that as one establishes a thorough understanding of the basic characteristics of an animal or insect; it becomes easier to identify the differences within the species when hundreds of specimens are compared. If differences are able to be identified and recorded, it may provide, for example, well documented information for further classification of of species.
