SAUSSURE, HORACE BENEDICT DE, a celebrated Swiss physicist and geologist, was b. at Conches, near Geneva, Feb. 17, 1740. His education was attended towith such success that, in 1762, young Saussure obtained the chair of physics and philosophy in the university of Geneva. In 1768 he commenced the famous series of journeys which were fraught with such consequences to science and to his own reputa tion; and during the course of which lie visited the Jura and Vosges mountains, those of Germany, England, Italy, Switzerland, Sicily, and the adjacent isles; the extinct craters of Auvergne, etc.; and traversed the .Alps no less than 14 times, crossing them by 8 different routes. He was the first "traveler" who ever ascended to the summit of Mont Blanc; he camped for 17 days on the Col du Geant, and finished his Alpine achievements by the ascent of Monte Rosa in 1780. During this extensive course of travel, he made numerous observations on the minerals, physical features, botany, and meteorology of the mountain ranges lie visited; and these observations were found, after having undergone a searchires, examination, to lie as correct and valuable as they were numerous. In short, they put the science of geology for the first time on a basis of fact.. The work in which they are found is entitled Voyages dans les Alpes, etc. (Neufchatel, Geneva, Paris, 4 vols.). and is much admired for its accurate and splendid descriptions of Alpine scenery. His observations were not made withoutcon
siderable preliminary labor, for he found it to improve his thermometer, hygrometer, audiometer, electrometer, anemometer, and to invent other two instruments —viz., the cyanometer and diaphanometer, before his investigations, which were con ducted with much care and candor, produced satisfactory results. In 1786 Saussure resigned his chair; and in 1798 was appointed.professor of natural history in the central school of the department of Leman (formed on the annexation of Geneva to France); but four years afterward, he was struck with paralysis, and after a long period of suffering', died at Geneva, Jan. 22, 1799. Besides the great work above mentioned, he wrote numerous others, the chief of which are: Observations' sur Vgcorce des Fealties et des Petales (1762); De Prwmpais Errorum nostrorum Causis, ex Mentis Facultatibus Oriundis (1762); De E!ectrieitate (1766); De Aqua (1771); Sur l'hygrometrie (1783), which, accord ing to Cuvier, is one of the most important contributions to science in the 18th c.; and in which Saussure set forth his discovery of the dilatation in bulk, and diminution in specific gravity, of air charged with moisture. His "Description of the Alps," a portion of his great work, was published separately in 1834, at Geneva and Paris.