Saussure, HORACE BÉNÉDICT DE

Saussure, HORACE BÉNÉDICT DE, a Swiss physicist and geologist, was born at Conches, near Geneva, 17th February 1740. He early showed an interest in the study of nature, his inclination being quickened by his uncle Bonnet, the naturalist, and his friend Haller, the physicist. In 1762 he obtained the chair of Physics and Philosophy in the university of Geneva. In 1768 he commenced a series of journeys which were fraught with important consequences to science; he visited the Jura and Vosges Mountains, Germany, England, Italy, Switzerland, Sicily and the adjacent isles, the extinct craters of Auvergne, and traversed the Alps in nearly all directions. He was the first 'traveller' (a party of guides were actually the first) who ever ascended to the summit of Mont Blanc, in 1787. During this course of travel he made numerous observations on the minerals, physical features, botany, and meteorology of the districts he visited; and these were put together in the work Voyages dans les Alpes, &c. (4 vols. Geneva, 1779-96). His observations were made with considerable labour; he had in many cases to perfect or even invent the instruments he used. In 1786 he resigned his chair, and, after a long period of suffering, died at Geneva, 22d January 1799. He always took a deep and active interest in the public affairs of his native canton. Besides the great work above mentioned, and some minor productions, he wrote Sur l'Hygrométrie (1783), which, according to Cuvier, is one of the most important contributions to science in the 18th century. His Life was written by Senebier (1801), by Cuvier in Biographie Universelle, and by De Candolle in Phil. Magazine, i. 4. See also Douglas Freshfield, De Saussure and the Alps, in 'Great Explorers' (1892).—His son NICOLAS THÉODORE (1767-1845) lived a very retired life, but wrote a valuable work on the physiology of plants, entitled Recherches Chimiques sur la Végétation (Paris, 1804).