152 TEANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND 



Society of Natural Sciences, in 1815 coDceived first the idea of forming 

 a scientific society which should meet, like the British Association, in a 

 different place every year* Andre-Louis Gosse inherited many of the 

 good qualities of his father. He, like him, displayed throughout his life 

 an extraordinary zeal for the good of his fellow-men. His studies, his 

 travels, his medical practice, his conversation, his writings, were inspired 

 by this feeling ; and no one could converse with him and not be affected 

 by the influence of his generous sentiments. While he was still a stu- 

 dent at Paris, and soon after, in 181C, a young practitioner, his courage 

 was put to the test in the hospital at Geneva, where several physi- 

 cians had died of a severe typhus fever introduced by the armies. On 

 the return of peace, wishing to obtain a knowledge of the clinics of Italy, 

 Germany, and England, and also to gain more experience of life, he 

 traveled for three years always in a private carriage, on horseback, or 

 on foot. In these expeditions he carried his observations into all classes 

 of society, and even submitted to serious i)rivatious in order to gain the 

 confidence of the miserable peasants of some of the countries he visited. 

 While in Edinburgh he made known to the medical corps of that city a 

 double-current catheter of his invention, which since, tlirough mistake, 

 has been attributed to Jules Cloquet. On his return home, and having 

 acquired a satisfactory practice, Gosse was seized with the enthusiasm 

 then manifested in Geneva in favor of the indepeudence of Greece. He 

 offered his services gratuitously to the committee of arrangements, and 

 started at the most critical moment in the history of the contest to lend 

 his aid and assistance in the organization for the supply of ambulances 

 and military hospitals. The energy he displayed was of great value to 

 this unfortunate country — the seat of war, of pestilence, and moral dis- 

 order. 



This work completed, he had entered again, not without difficultj^, 

 into the practice of medicine, when another occasion of self-devotion 

 was presented to him. The Swiss federal authorities were alarmed by 

 the invasion of the north of Europe by cholera. This was in 1831, 

 the time of the first prevalence of the epidemic, and very little was 

 known of this mysterious and frightful disease. Gosse volunteered to 

 study it from actual observation, and completed the undertaking ^^ sans 

 inur ct mm rcprochey His knowl(Mlge thus acquired was not, however, 

 practically applied, for Switzerland never became a i)rey to the true 

 cholera epidemic. After such examples of courage and self-abnegation 

 it is hardly necessary to add that Gosse never recoiled from any duty, 

 either as citizen or physician. He also manifested great zeal in the 

 gratuitous care of the poor, in diminishing drunkenness, in ameliorating 

 the condition of prisons, as well as in acting as mediator, although 

 without success, in the unhappy political divisions of the country. 



* The Germau Society of Naturalists aud Pliysiciaus was instituted iu imitation of 

 the Swiss society. The British Association, the Society of the Scienzati, of Italj-, and 

 others of a simihir character, were formed hitor. 



