SAUSSURE, Horace Benedict de, a celebrated naturalist, was a native of Geneva, and born in the year 1740. His father was an intelligent farmer, who lived at Conches, about half a league from Geneva, which no doubt contributed, in addition to his active education, to increase the physical strength of young Saussure, so requisite for a naturalist who intends to travel. He went daily to town for public instruction; and as he lived at the foot of a mountain, he frequently amused himself in ascending its steep and rugged sides. Thus environed by the phenomena of nature, and assisted by study, it was to be expected that he would soon conceive a predilection for natural history. Botany was his most early and favourite study, a taste which was powerfully encouraged by his local situation, and was the means of introducing him to the acquaintance of the great Haller, to whom he paid a visit in 1764, and who was astonished at his intimate acquaintance with every branch of the natural sciences.

His attachment to the study of the vegetable kingdom was also increased by his connection with Bonnet, who had married his aunt, and who put a proper estimate on the talents of his nephew. He was at that time engaged in the examination of the leaves of plants, to which Saussure was also induced to turn his attention, and published the result of his researches under the title of Observations on the Bark of Leaves. About this time the philosophical chair at Geneva became vacant, and was given to Saussure at the age of twenty-one. Rewards conferred so early have been thought to extinguish in some a zeal for the increase of knowledge; but this was not the case with De Saussure, who taught physics and logic alternately with equal success. For physics, however, he had the greatest taste, as affording the means of prosecuting the study of chemistry, mineralogy, and other kindred sciences.

He now began his travels through the mountains, not for the purpose of studying, as formerly, their flowery decorations, but their constituent parts, and the disposition of their masses. During the first fifteen years of his professorship, he was alternately engaged in discharging the duties of his office, and in traversing the mountains in the vicinity of Geneva; and in this period his talents as a great philosopher were fully displayed. He extended his researches on one side to the banks of the Rhine, and on the other to the country of Piedmont. He travelled to Auvergne to examine the extinguished volcanoes, going afterwards to Paris, England, Holland, Italy, and Sicily. It is proper to remark, that these were not mere journeys, but were undertaken purely with the view of studying nature; and in all his journeys he was surrounded with such instruments as would be of service to him, together with plans previously arranged of his whole procedure.

The first volume of his travels through the Alps, which was published in 1779, contains a circumstantial description of the environs of Geneva, and an excursion as far as Chamouni, a village at the foot of Mont Blanc. It contains a description of his magnetometer. In proportion as he examined the mountains, the more was he persuaded of the importance of mineralogy; and that he might study it with advantage, he acquired a knowledge of the German language. In the last volumes of his travels, the reader will perceive how much new mineralogical knowledge he had acquired.

During the troubles which agitated Geneva in 1782, he made his beautiful and interesting experiments on hygrometry, which he published in 1783. This has been pronounced the best work that ever came from his pen, and completely established his reputation as a philosopher. De Saussure resigned his chair to his pupil and fellow-labourer, Pictet, who discharged the duties of his office with reputation, although rendered difficult to him by succeeding so great a man. He projected a plan of reform in the education of Geneva, the design of which was to make young people acquainted with the natural sciences and mathematics at an early period; and wished that their physical education should not be neglected, for which purpose he proposed gymnastic exercises. This plan found admirers in the city, but the poverty of its funds was an obstacle in the way of any important innovation. It was dreaded, too, that if established forms were changed, they might be altered for the worse.

The attention of De Saussure was not wholly confined to public education, for he superintended the education of his own two sons and a daughter, who have since proved themselves worthy of such a father and preceptor. In 1786, he published his second volume of travels, containing a description of the Alps around Mont Blanc, the whole having been examined with the eye of a mineralogist, geologist, and philosopher. It contains some valuable experiments on electricity, and a description of his own electrometer, said to be the most perfect we have. To him we are indebted for his cyanometer, for measuring the degree of blueness of the heavens, which is found to vary according to the height of the observer; his diaphanometer, for measuring the transparency of the atmosphere; and his anemometer, for ascertaining the force of the winds. He founded the Society of Arts, to the operations of which Geneva is indebted for the state of prosperity which it has reached within the last thirty years. Over that society he presided to the day of his death; and the preservation of it in prosperity constituted one of his fondest wishes.

In 1794, the health of this eminent man began rapidly to decline, and a severe stroke of the palsy almost deprived him of the use of his limbs. Such a condition was no doubt painful; but his intellects still preserved their original activity, and he prepared for the press the last two volumes of his travels, which appeared in 1796. They contain a great mass of new facts and observations, of the last importance to physical science. During his illness he published Observations on the Fusibility of Stones by means of the Blow-pipe. He was in general a Neptunian, ascribing the revolutions of our globe to water, and admitting the possibility of mountains having been thrown up by elastic fluids disengaged from the cavities of the earth. Id the midst of his rapid decline he cherished the hopes of re[7:19:658] covery; but his strength was exhausted. A languor succeeded the vigour which he had formerly enjoyed; his slow pronunciation did not correspond with the vivacity of his mind, and formed a melancholy contrast to the pleasantness which he had formerly exhibited. He tried in vain to procure the re-establishment of his health; for all the remedies prescribed by the ablest physicians were wholly ineffectual. His mind afterwards lost its activity; and on the 22d of March 1799, he finished his mortal career, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, lamented by a family to whom he was dear, by a country to which he had done great honour, and by Europe, the knowledge of which he had extended.