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See also:SAUSSURE, See also:HORACE See also:BENEDICT DE (1740-1799) , Swiss physicist and Alpine traveller, was See also:born at See also:Geneva on the 17th of See also:February 1740.' Under the See also:influence of his See also:father and his maternal See also:uncle, See also:Charles See also:Bonnet, he devoted himself to See also:botany. In 1758 he made the acquaintance of Albrecht von See also:Haller, and in 1762 he published his first See also:work, Observations sur l'ecorce See also:des feuilles et des petales. The. same See also:year he was chosen See also:professor of See also:philosophy at the See also:academy of Geneva, and retained this See also:chair till 1786. His See also:health began to fail in 1791, when too he suffered See also:great pecuniary losses. But he was able to See also:complete his great work in 1796, before his See also:death on the 22nd of See also:January 1799. He became a F.R.S. after his visit to See also:England (autumn of 1768), and in 1772 founded the Societe pour 1'Avancement des Arts at Geneva. His See also:early devotion to botanical studies naturally led him to undertake journeys among the See also:Alps, and from 1773 on-wards he directed his See also:attention to the See also:geology and physics of that great See also:chain. Incidentally, he did much to clear up the See also:topography of the snowy portions of the Alps, and to attract the attention of See also:pleasure travellers towards spots like See also:Chamonix and See also:Zermatt. In 176o he first visited Chamonix, and offered a See also:reward to the See also:man who should first succeed in reaching the See also:summit of Mont See also:Blanc (then unsealed). He made an unsuccessful
' His father, See also:Nicolas de Saussure (1709-1790), an agriculturist of unusually liberal opinions, resided all his See also:life at his See also:farm of Conches, on the Arve, near Geneva. As a member of the See also:council of Two See also:Hundred he took See also:part in public affairs. Most of his writings See also:bear on the growth and diseases of See also:grain and other farm produce. His last work Le See also:Feu, Principe de la fecondite des plantes et de la fertilite de la terre (1782), was more speculative in its nature.
The Alps formed the centre of Saussure's investigations. They forced themselves on his attention as the See also:grand See also:key to the true theory of the See also:earth, and among them he found opportunity for studying geology in a manner never previously attempted. The inclination of the strata, the nature of the rocks, the fossils and the minerals received his closest attention. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the See also:chemistry of the See also:day; and he applied it to the study of minerals, See also:water and See also:air. Saussure's See also:geological observations made him a See also:firm believer in the Neptunian theory: he regarded all rocks and minerals as deposited from aqueous See also:solution or suspension, and in view of this he attached much importance to the study of meteorological conditions. He carried barometers and boiling-point thermometers to the summits of the highest mountains, and estimated the relative humidity of the See also:atmosphere at different heights, its temperature, the strength of See also:solar See also:radiation, the cbmposition of air and its transparency. Then, following the precipitated moisture, he investigated the temperature of the earth at all depths to which he could drive his thermometer staves, the course, conditions and temperature of streams, See also:rivers, glaciers and lakes, even of the See also:sea. The most beautiful and complete of his subsidiary researches is described in the Essai sur l'hygrometrie, published in 1783. In it he records experiments made with various forms of See also:hygrometer in all climates and at all temperatures, and supports the claims of his See also:hair-hygrometer against all others. He invented and improved many kinds of apparatus, including the magneto-See also:meter, the cyanometer for estimating the blueness of the See also:sky, the diaphanometer for judging of the clearness of the atmosphere, the See also:anemometer and the See also:mountain eudiometer. His modifications of the thermometer adapted that See also:instrument to many purposes: for ascertaining the temperature of the air he used one with a See also:fine bulb hung in the shade or whirled by a See also:string, the latter See also:form being converted into an evaporometer by inserting its bulb into a piece of wet sponge and making it revolve in a circle of known See also:radius at a known See also:rate; for experiments on the earth and in deep water he employed large thermometers wrapped in non-conducting coatings so as to render them extremely sluggish, and capable of See also:long retaining the temperature once they had attained it. By the use of these See also:instruments he showed that the bottom water of deep lakes is uniformly See also:cold at all seasons, and that the See also:annual See also:heat See also:wave takes six months to penetrate to a See also:depth of 30 ft. in the earth. He recognized the immense advantages to See also:meteorology of high-level observing stations, and whenever it was practicable he arranged for simultaneous observations being made at different altitudes for as long periods as possible. It is perhaps as a geologist (it is said that he was the first to use the See also:term "geology "—see the " Discours preliminaire" to vol. i. of his Voyages, publ. in 1779) that Saussure worked most; and although his ideas on matters of theory were in many cases very erroneous he was instrumental in greatly advancing that See also:science.
See Lives by J. See also:Senebier (Geneva, 18oi), by See also:Cuvier in the Biographie universelle, and by See also:Candolle in See also:Decade philosophique, No. xv. (trans. in the Philosophical See also:Magazine, iv. p. 96); articles by E. See also:Neville in the Bibliotheque universelle (See also:March, See also:April, May 1883), and chaps. v.-viii. of Ch. Durier's Le Mont-Blanc (See also:Paris, various See also:editions between 1877 and 1897). (W. A. B.
End of Article: SAUSSURE, HORACE BENEDICT DE (1740-1799)
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