REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF PHYSICS 

 AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA, FROM JUNE, 1872, TO 

 JUNE, 1873. 



By Prof. A. De La Rive, President. 



[Translated for the Smithsonian Institution.] 



Gentlemen : Called a second time, tbrougli your kindness, to preside 

 over you, again I have the lionor to present the annual report of such of 

 your transactions as your president has considered it desirable to register. 

 Happily, this year, that part of the report appropriated to biographical 

 notices is extremely brief. The society, after the great losses it sustained 

 during last year, has not this year been called to mourn a single one of 

 its ordinary regular members. But of its honorary members two have 

 been taken away, Madame Somerville and Arnold Escher de la Linth. 



I have little to say of Madame Somerville, who has made for herself 

 a brilliant reputation, during the last fifty years, by her mathematical 

 works, and especially by her translation into English of the Mecanique 

 celeste of Laplace. She was in full sympathy with the different branches 

 of science, and well informed as to their i)rogress. She had for several 

 years resided in Florence, where she died at an advanced age. 



Arnold Escher de la Linth was a sou of the celebrated Conrad Escher, 

 surnamed de la Linth on account of the great service he rendered to 

 the valley of that name, by directing the river Linth into Lake Wallen- 

 stadt, in order to protect the valley from inundations ; an admirable 

 work, managed with great talent and perseverance. 



Arnold Escher acquired at au early age, under his father's tuition, a 

 love for the natural sciences. Conrad Esclier was in fact one of the 

 most eminent naturalists of his time ; his observations in regard to the 

 dispersion of erratic bowlders, and their distribution over the Swiss 

 plains, are especially remarkable. 



The son, during the frequent excursions made with his father into the 

 mountains of Claris, formed the conception of a geological map of Switz- 

 erland, which he afterward executed and published, in concert with M. 

 Studer, the eminent geologist of Berne, after twenty years of labor and 

 innumerable journeys. He examined the Alps in every detail, and the 

 precision and justice of his judgment, the accuracy of his observations, 

 and the quickness of his comprehension j)ermitted him to accumulate 

 more abundant material for study than unfortunately he could make 

 use c£. 



The desirable qualities we have mentioned inspired confidence, and 

 he was frequently consulted ; his answers were always characterized by 



