206 TEANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF 



the discovery made by M. Leiickavdt of an interesting case of alternating gene- 

 ration in the Ascarides nigrovcnosa. 



M. Duby presented a report on the investigations of 51. Bary, of Fribourg, in 

 Brisgau, relative to certain parasitical fungi which are observed on the leaves 

 of the crucifera3. M. de Bary has discovered a sexual generation among these 

 fungi, and has observed also a true alternating generation in certain kinds; 

 hence, he has felt authorized to refer to one and the same species, fungi, which 

 have been heretofore classified in difierent species and even in different tribes. 

 It is to one of these fungi, the Pcrcuos2Jora ittfestans, that M. de Bary attributes 

 the malady of the potato. 



Perso)iiui. — Our society has, in the course of the year, sustained the loss of 

 one of its members iu ordinary, M. Pyrame-Louis Morin, Avhom a premature 

 death has torn from science and his country before he had completed his fiftieth 

 year. In rapidly sketching the scientific career of our deceased colleague I 

 shall not pretend to olier a complete portrait of a life so usefully and honorably 

 occupied. I shall not speak of the devoted citizen who was animated with so 

 ardent a love for his country, and Avho gave proof of an enlightened patriotism 

 through the political agitations of the last twenty-five years. I shall not speak 

 of the pharmaceutist who bestowed upon his preparations the same care and 

 exactness which a consummate chemist applies to the most delicate analyses. 

 Nor shall I speak of the services rendered by Morin to the industry of our city, 

 for even now a voice much more eloquent than mine retraces the part which he 

 has filled in the Society of Arts, and more especially in the class of industry to 

 which he had dedicated for many years all the time at his disposal. I shall 

 confine myself to a sketch of his career as a man of science and a member of our 

 society. 



Born at Geneva, in March, 1815, he was placed at the age ef ten years in the 

 institute of M. Naville, at Yeinier, where he pursued his early studies, till ad- 

 mitted, in 1832, as a pupil at the Academy of Geneva to prosecute the scientific 

 courses then comprised in the faculty of philosophy. His taste for chemistry, 

 which was thus developed, naturally p'>iuted out the path which he was to 

 follow, and he joined his uncle, M. Antoine Moiin, in order to fulfil, as a 

 student of pharmacy, the apprenticeship of his new vocation. lie afterwards 

 passed two years at the University of Zurich, where he became preparator 

 for M. Lcewig and director of the laboratory of practical chemistry; he gave 

 also in that city courses of chemistry applied to the arts. 



He thence proceeded to Berlin, where he had the advantage of being placed 

 under the special direction of M. Mitscherlich, and he here published his first 

 scientific memoir, which had for its object researches on the bisulphurate of 

 ethyle ; this paper was inserted in the Annals of Foggendorf. He completed 

 his practical studies in Paris, at the establishment then conducted by j\[. Sou- 

 beiran, and returning to Geneva iu 1840 was admitted as pharmaceutist, after 

 imdergoing the examinations required at that period, embracing, as a qualifying 

 test, an analytical disquisition on the red quinquina. At the close of that year 

 he was received into our society, of which he was an assiduous attendant to the 

 last, and an active participant in its labors. Among the memoirs which he 

 published, most of which were presented to this body, are several which relate 

 to the waters of Saxon, and to the long controversies which he was called to 

 sustain in reference to that subject. In his second analysis, published in 1853, 

 he had shown the intermission of iodine iu that fountain, a result which was at 

 first contested by MM. Ilivier and Fellenberg, who were not slow, howevei', iu 

 recognizing the exactness of the facts advanced by Morin, and in conforming to 

 his opinion. At a later date M. Ossian Henri, whose name was an authority, main- 

 tained the constant presence of the iodine, but contended that it was sometimes 

 masked by a sulphurous principle. On this occasion Morin made new researches 

 and a complete study of the subject, proving, among other things, that there 



