210 Memoir of M. D'Aubuisson de Voisins. 



of the formation of mountains, or on the question of their 

 being raised upwards (soiilevemeni). And yet the author 

 was alive to the effect of general causes,* in the vast up- 

 raising of the hoi'izontal strata, and the great linear direc- 

 tions of these elevations ; but it is to be regretted that he 

 has been so reserved on these questions, in too close imita- 

 tion of the reserve of Saussure. To make up for this, every- 

 thing that relates to the physical description of the globe, to 

 the temperatures of its crust and atmosphere, to the action of • 

 waters, and the measurement of heights, is treated with the 

 most remarkable care and precision. 



In consequence of this important publication, M. D'Au- 

 buisson was elected Corresponding Member of the Institute 

 for the Mineral ogical Section. He was likewise perpetual 

 secretary of the Academy of Toulouse ; and it should be 

 added, that he communicated to this society, either by his 

 personal efforts or by his example, a little of that ecMt which 

 is often so short-lived in provincial societies. But he was 

 destined to be of greater real utility to his native town ; tlie 

 hydraulic monument he bestowed on it will make his name 

 long survive in the memory of his fellow-citizens ; it will 

 make it live also in that of men of science, by beautiful 

 researches on the movements of water and air, which were 

 the consequence of it, and which, united in his hydraulic 

 treatise with the whole bodj' of that most valuable science, 

 will, no doubt, form the most positive and most durable of 

 his scientific titles. 



In 1817, the municipal council of Toulouse, of which M. 

 D'Aubuisson was a member, determined that they should no 

 longer allow a legacy of 50,000 francs, left by an old chief 

 magistrate, to lie unused, but that a considerable portion of 

 it should be devoted to the erection and maintenance of foun- 

 tains, which should distribute their limpid waters to all 

 quarters of the town. This luxury, a vital one for large 

 cities, — to procure which the ancients displayed such a mag- 

 nificent prodigality, and such a degree of boldness, in their 



* See a remarkable passage in the first vol., p. 350 of the first edition ; p. 344 

 of the second. 



