PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 281 
definitively in the remote island of Skye, on the western coasts of the kingdom. 
This man of cultivated mind and social qualities, cherished by a large circle of 
relatives and friends, deeply attached to Geneva, and after Geneva preferring 
Edinburg, where he had been happy in his youth, passed the last twenty years 
of his lite in a profound solitude at Portree, a small hamlet of fishermen, on an 
island covered with mists and half desert! lis health and temperament ac- 
commodated themselves to the situation. He still indulged his studious tastes. 
He observed whatever can be observed at Skye; the barometer, the thermome- 
ter, the opening of the scanty flowers, the arrival of migratory birds. Thanks 
to his meteorological observations, he could foretell tempests, and the humble in- 
habitants of Portree, whose lives are often exposed at sea, consulted this learned 
stranger with the white beard with a respect not unmingled, we may suppose, 
with sdme superstitious misgivings. Walter Scott would have certainly made 
him the hero of some romance. 
Necker died at Portree, November 20, 1861. He had long before presented 
his collections in natural history to the Museum of Geneva, and I am now 
charged, by his nephew, M. Theodore Necker, with the acceptable duty of of- 
fering to this Society the notes taken during the last years of his life in Scot- 
land, in order that examination may be made whether they contain anything 
from which advantage may be derived to science. 
The third of our number whom we have lost, Louis T. F. Colladon, was born 
at Geneva, August 25, 1792. Having proceeded, after the usual preliminary 
education, to Montpellier, he was there kindly received by A. Pyramus de Can- 
dolle, who admitted him into a small party of special pupils, destined by the 
professor to the cultivation of botany. Under this influence and instruction, 
the proficiency of Colladon was evinced by the production of an esteemed mono- 
graph on the genus Cassea. Having graduated in medicine, he repaired to Paris, 
where his success in practice was satisfactory. ‘That he carried both zeal and 
conscientiousness into his profession was shown by the courage and humanity 
with which, after having already retired from practice, he devoted himself to 
the care of the sick during the fearful cholera of 1832. Our colleague pub- 
lished an account of a descent into the sea in a diving-bell, (1816,) and a trea- 
tise, translated from the English, on deformities of the spinal column and the 
means of remedy, (1826.) 
Among associates at large, (associés libres,) we have to deplore the recent 
loss of M. Charles Pictet, a young magistrate who would have rendered good 
service to his country. A distinguished talent for design often enabled his 
brother, M. Pictet de la Rive, to employ the resourees of his pencil for objects 
of natural history. 
The Society has recruited its ranks with two regular members, M. Alois Hum- 
bert, keeper of the Museum of Natural History, and M. Miiller, author of several 
works on botany. At this time we number 36 regular members, 3 emeriti, 61 
honoraries, and 35 associates at large. Our sessions have been well attended ; 
the collection of memoirs increases each year by half a volume; scientifie zeal 
seems in nowise diminished; we can therefore, I think, felicitate ourselves on 
the progress ef the Society, and with satisfaction observe its entrance upon a 
new year. 
