280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF 
61st year of his age. Devoted by choice to the career of instruction, he had 
been regent of the college in the department of mathematics, and was prin- 
cipal of the seminary for young females since 1855. He was thus led to the 
publication of elementary works, which have passed through several editions ; 
but his views were always raised to the higher regions of science, and the list 
of his works furnishes abundant proof that he maintained himself on no infe- 
rior level in mathematics as well as astronomy and physics. 
The two others whom I have named were emerite of the Society. Louis A. 
Necker de Saussure, born April 10, 1786, felt the influence though he did not 
enjoy the personal instructions of his distinguished grandfather, Horace-Bene- 
dict de Saussure. The school of that great geologist had already evinced its 
influence in the exact experiments of Theodore the uncle, and in the judicious 
observations, though different in nature, of Mme. Necker de Saussure, mother 
of the subject of this notice. Nor did he himself delay in giving proof of the 
hereditary turn for science, his first publication, on the migration of birds, hav- 
ing been prepared at the age of 19 years. Still later he communicated, for the 
memoirs of our Society, a highly interesting enumeration of the birds of the 
environs of Geneva, a paper tilled with well-observed facts, and attractive even 
to readers unacquainted with ornithology. After completing his studies at 
Edinburg, in 1807, 4 period at which he could scarcely escape the influences 
of the conflict which then prevailed between the partisans of Hutton and Wer- 
ner, he travelled in Scotland as far as the Hebrides, and formed a taste for the 
wild scenery and hospitable society of that country which evinced its force at 
a much later period of his life. On his return to Geneva, he gave to the pub- 
lic in three volumes an account of his excursion to the Hebrides, which were 
then but little visited, and while availing himself of the great variety of objects 
to add a more popular charm to his work, fails not to give proofs of a spirit 
kindred to that of the author of the Voyage dans les Alpes. In his memoir on 
the Valley of Valorsine, published in 1828, which I regard as one of the best 
of his works, he still occupies the same field of study and of ideas with his 
celebrated ancestor, while in the later work Etudes Geologiques dans les Alpes, 
(1841,) he rather attaches himself, by the nature of his observations, to the 
modern school of Constant Prevost and Sir Charles Lyell. In this latter work, 
which was the first of the numerous series published by our cotemporaries on 
the more modern stratifications of our valley, the environs of Geneva are investi- 
gated, in view of the influence of existing causes, with especial care. Sharing 
the prevalent enthusiasm at the period of the Restoration, Louis Necker, for a 
while, bore arms; but the tendencies subsequently developed had separated him, 
since 1832, from all political affairs. In 1810 he had been appointed professor 
of geology and mineralogy in the Academy of Geneva, and made his zeal par- 
ticularly conspicuous in the administration of the Museum, to which, in con 
junction with MM. de Candolle, Delue and Mayor, he contributed a series of 
lessons in zoology, for the benefit of that rising establishment. The best of 
his instructions, however, were his conversation and example, while traversing 
the mountains with a company of pupils. In 1823 De Candolle and he con- 
ducted an excursion for the purpose of study into the Chablais, and if the twelve 
young men who had the advantage of following them did not become natural- 
ists or geologists, it was assuredly not the fault of their professors. On these 
occasions Necker possessed a gaiety truly inspiriting; nor were his accuracy 
of vision and method of observing less noticeable. After returning from Scot- 
land, he had traversed the interior of France, a part of Italy, the western and 
also the eastern Alps, having made excursions of great interest into Styria and 
Carniola, his explorations on the banks of Lake Leman were incessant. With 
a view to the recovery of his somewhat exhausted strength, he again passed, 
in 1859, into Scotland, and the equal and humid climate of that country being 
found to agree with a too susceptible nervous system, led him to fix his residence 
