356 SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA. 



Pictet. Members elected unanimously : M. M. de Saussurc, father and 

 sou, Necker de Saussure, Seusbier, Tingrey. 



" Perhaps there are one or two others whom I have forgotten to men- 

 tion, as I made this catalogue from memory. 



The next meeting will be the first Thursday after the 15th, at M. 

 Toilet's, and if you accept your election, as we all hope you will, your 

 membership dates from the present, as well as that of your son and M. 

 Necker, to whom I beg you to have the goodness to communicate the 

 rules. 



" Accept the sincere attachment of your devoted servant and colleague, 



" PICTET. 



" Geneva, Saturday, Ocioher 8, 1791." 



This document refers, as we see, the definite constitution of the Society 

 of Physics to the year 1791. It shows that it was composed first of 

 twelve sava7its of Geneva, and that the original meetings were held on 

 Thursday, as in our days, though lately we have changed to Wednes- 

 day. The limited number of its members continually increased, and we 

 now have the satisfaction of seeing it sustained at a level which 

 tends rather to rise than to fall. The construction of new 

 academic buildings, in proportion to the new demands, is a speaking 

 testimony of the increasing progress of the intellectual activity of our 

 city. The extensions which could be made in the library, the laboratories, 

 and the museums would furnish a new element to this activity, and 

 would not fail to contribute to the extension of the taste for science in 

 which Geneva ought to occupy a position before the world superior to 

 that which would be assigned her, merely taking into consideration her 

 population and the smallness of her territory. 



In concluding, we will hope that the year, so fraught with agitation, 

 through which we have just passed may be succeeded by a" period of 

 calm, of repose, and of prosperity, in which the peaceable occupations of 

 science may take the place of the clamorous commotion with which we 

 have been too long disturbed. Our society will then return to its la- 

 bors with new ardor, and more fullj'^ maintain the honorable position 

 so long occupied by our country, through the memory of the men who 

 have distinguished it, and of whom the traditions are well preserved 

 wherever profound truth is cherished. 



Appendix to the report of the president. 



EDWARD CLAPAKi:DE. 



Gentlemen: A few days after you had heard the reading of the 

 report of your president upon the operations of the year 1870-'71, we 

 received the afflicting iutelligence of the death of our excellent col- 

 league, M. Edward Clapar^de. In view of the deep and unanimous 

 regret which we all experience at the loss of one who ranked among 

 the first savants of our city, we concluded it wpuld be too long to wait 



