REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE GENEVA SOCIETY OF 

 PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, FROM JUNE, 1874, TO 

 JUNE, 1875. 



By E. Plantamour, President, 

 Translated for the Smithsonian Institution by M. L. Duncan. 



Gentlemen : I shall conform to the established usage of treating, in 

 the first part of this report, questions relating to the membership and 

 administration of our society, and of giving, in the second part, a succinct 

 statement of its scientific labors. 



Our society has met this year with a very great loss in the death, at 

 <Geneva, March 7, 1875, of Dr. Chossat; if medical science has lost 

 in him one of its most distinguished representatives, we have also to 

 mourn a colleague who felt the liveliest interest in the labors of the 

 society, in which, from 3830, he took an active part, and of which he 

 Ibecame president in 1863, and for many years punctually attended its 

 meetings. The great reputation of Chossat's works extended far beyond 

 the confines of Geneva, and exercised a remarkable influence on the 

 science to which he had devoted himself; he was, so to speak, better 

 known abroad than in his own country, where he was, without doubt, 

 fully appreciated by his associates of the Society of Medicine and Physics, 

 but where, however, the influence and consideration he enjoyed among 

 liis countrymen had not reached the level of his reputation abroad. 

 Being myself unacquainted with the science cultivated by Dr. Ohossat, it 

 would be very difiicult, if not im])ossible, for me to give an even imper- 

 fect account of his labors and life, without having recourse to the assist- 

 ance of a more competent person ; it is to the kindness of our colleague, 

 Dr. J. L. Prevost, that I am indebted for the following notice: 



Dr. Charles lEtienne Jacques Chossat, born at Carouge, April 30, 1790, 

 was descended from a French family originally from the environs of 

 Valence, who had taken refuge in Geneva, in consequence of the relig- 

 ious persecutions so cruelly waged in the Cevennes in the eighteenth 

 -century. Chossat first studied with Pestalozzi, and on leaving the Iii- 

 stitut d'Yverdon, continued his studies at the Academy of Geneva. 

 IVhile still young he evinced a very decided taste for the natural sciences 

 and medicine, which latter he intended to embrace. In 1813, Chossat, 

 then seventeen years of age, would have been enrolled iu the Guard of 

 Honor (gardes d^hotmeur), if his father had not entered him as a student 

 of theology, either at Geneva or Montauban. This decision was entirely 



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