REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE 
SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY 
OF GENEVA, 1862. 
BY PROF. DE CANDOLLE, PRESIDENT. 
TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BY C. A. ALEXANDER, 
GENTLEMEN: In presenting, as a rule of the Society requires, a revicw of 
its transactions during the past year, I find my task singularly facilitated by 
the exactness with which your proceedings have been recorded by our learned 
secretary, M.Claparede. Yet I am sensible that, as regards the relative length 
of the articles, the same rule will not apply to his labors and to mine. An 
analysis, however abridged, of memoirs already published or about to appear 
in the forthcoming volume of our series, would be little less than absurd. Our 
reports are addressed to men of special culture, who prefer to consult the origi- 
nal work, and are by no means embarrassed by the necessity of recurring, for 
instance, to the Bibliotheque Universelle, or the Memoires of our Society. I 
shall, therefore, simply indicate in many cases the place where dissertations 
are to be found which occupy a large space in our records, while other motives 
will induce me to pass rapidly over certain communications which possessed, 
at the moment, a lively interest. I speak now of the information given respect- 
ing discoveries made in various countries respecting new works and the opin- 
ions delivered by learned men on controverted subjects. Communications of 
this nature, alvays numerous and varied, while they keep us apprised of the 
progress of science, and assist us in forming an opinion of men and things, 
have in them either nothing original, or if anything original and of intrinsic 
interest, it consists in the opinions pronounced regarding some work or method 
or theory; and it is obvious that, in order to remain habitually frank and un- 
reserved, appreciations thus verbally given should not be made public. One 
of the charms of our association consists in conversation upon our own labors 
or those of learned foreigners. Let us preserve for this part of our exercises 
the advantage of being undivulged; it is one which, to a society like ours, 
limited, confidential, and unofficial, it would be annoying to lose. I shall pro- 
teed now to enumerate the series of our labors, classing and abridging them, 
and also suppressing much for the reasons just assigned. 
ASTRONOMY. 
To Professor Gautier we are indebted for an account of the observatories 
of Zurich and of several cities of Germany which he has had an opportunity 
of examining in detail. He has also, in numerous and varied communications, 
kept us informed of the advances made in astronomy. His views respecting 
comets* have been developed and completed in reference to an article in the 
_ * Resumé de divers travaux récents relatifs aux cométes. (Biblioth Univ., Archives des 
Sc. Phys. et Nat., Fevrier, 1862.) 
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