PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 201 



Dr. Gosse lias communicated to the Society a note of M. Campbell relative 

 to the frequency of goitre, in the dif?tricts near the foot of the Himalaya — a 

 malady with which ulao goats and sheep are frequently infected when they de- 

 scend from the mountain Lastly, Dr. Lombard has read to us a detailed 

 extract of observations publishei by M. Jordanuet, a French physician, on the 

 climate of Mexico, considered in a medical point of vie 



Having thus presented a cursory review of our proceedings during the past 

 year, my task unfortunately is still incomplete; for, notwithstanding the re- 

 stricted number of our members, scarcely a year passes in which your presiding 

 otlicer, in his annual report, is not called on to deplore the loss of one or more 

 of them. This year has removed two from among us: one of them, ]\L Le 

 Hoyer, a retired member, of advanced age; the other, j\L Etieune Melly, a 

 member in ordinary, whose years authorized us to hope that we might long re- 

 tain him. I must not close this report without briefly recalling the titles they 

 possessed to the esteem of the learned world and the affection of their colleagues. 



Etienue JMeily, born at Geneva, in 1807, early evinced a decided taste for the 

 physical sciences. After successfully pursuing the course of our Academy, he 

 went to Paris to complete his scientilic studies, and on his return to his country 

 was attached to the Lidustrial school of this city as a teacher of physics and 

 chemistry, the study of which he may be said to have created in the establish- 

 ment in question, and from tlie superintendence of which he never desisted 

 until the infirm state of his health made it impossible for him to give to his 

 duties the care and attention which his scrupulous conscience exacted. While 

 thus employed he prosecuted divers physico-chemical researches of great interest, 

 only a part of which, owing to his characteristic diffidence, have been commu- 

 nicated to the public. His two principal publications appeared, the first, in 

 1839, in the Bihlio/heque Unin'rs(dle, the second, in 1841, in the first volume 

 of the Archives de V Klcctricite. The former treats of certain felicitous attempts 

 which he had made to apply platina to other metals by means of pressure so as 

 to obtain a very solid phite, and be thus able to substitute, in certain chemical 

 processes, for utensils of platina, utensils of platinized copper. This mode of 

 platinizing offers greater assurance than that by electricity ; in that it better 

 resists the action of chemical agents. 



The second publication of M. Melly, and that of most importance, embraces 

 two distinct parts : the first, relating to a more economical construction of the 

 battery of" Grove, then just invented, and to the study of the chemical effects of 

 electricity by means of that a])paratus. The second part has for its object the 

 study of the chemical effects of the electric spark, whether produced by Grove's 

 battery or by currents of induction. M .Melly sets forth in his memoir the 

 numerous experiments by which he had succeeded in decomposing, by means 

 of that spark, not only distilled water, but the most isolating substances, such 

 as oils, ethers, alcohol, &c. He establishes, by a well-sustained analysis of the 

 results he had obtained, the difference which exists between this mode of de- 

 composition and electro-chemical decomposition properly so called, and he shows 

 that it is an effect, not of electricity itself, but of the intense heat developed by 

 the electric spark. 



We know that this decomposing power of heat, carried to a high degree, has 

 been since demonstrated in a direct manner upon water, without the interven- 

 tion of electricity, by M. Grove, and has been extended upon a wide scale to a 

 multitude of substances by M. Deville, who has called it, " the dissociation of 

 bodies by heat." Still, there will remain to M. Melly the honor of having first, 

 by his ingenious experiments, called the attention of the learned world to this 

 important subject. Independently of what he has made known by his publi- 



