Simon L'Huillier. 257 



Simon L'Huillier, for many years Professor of Mathematics at 

 Geneva, was born in that city on the 24th of April, 1750. The rapid 

 progress which he made in his collegiate studies was viewed with so 

 much interest by one of his relations, a minister of the reformed 

 church of Geneva, that he bequeathed him a large portion of his 

 fortune, on the express condition that he would embrace the cleri- 

 cal profession : but young I'Huillier, feeling no inclination to the 

 studies which this condition would have imposed upon him, resisted 

 the temptation, and preferred devoting himself to the pursuits of 

 abstract science. The spirit of independence evinced by this sacri- 

 fice, together with the extraordinary aptitude he displayed for mathe- 

 matical acquirements, excited the interest and conciliated the affec- 

 tion of another of his relations, the celebrated Le Sage, by whose 

 instructions and counsels the most salutary influence was exercised 

 over the studies of his pupil. Bertrand, who then occupied the chair 

 of Mathematics in the same college, was also one of those who dis- 

 cerned in I'Huillier the dawn of genius ; and even at that early period 

 he regarded him as destined to be his successor in that professorship. 



As I'Huillier advanced to manhood, it became necessary for him 

 to engage in some active employment, in which he could turn to 

 account his academical attainments. He had the good fortune, at 

 this critical time of his life, to be chosen tutor to Prince Czarto- 

 rynski, with whom he remained for a period of thirteen or fouiteen 

 years ; ever honoured with the friendship and respect of all the mem- 

 bers of the Prince's family. He dedicated to the father of his pupil 

 his first work, which was published at Warsaw in 1782, under the 

 title of De relatione mutud cupacitatis et terminorum Jigurarmn, 

 geometrice consideratd ; seu de Maximis et Minimis pars prior ele- 

 mentaris, and in which he treats geometrically, and with singular 

 elegance and vigour of demonstratioii, all the elementary problems 

 relating to isoperimetric figures and solids. About the same time 

 he presented to the Academy of Berlin a memoir, which was after- 

 wards published in its Transactions, on the minima relating to the 

 figure of the cells of bees, a subject v/hich he appears, in that paper, 

 to have exhausted *. 



10. Mt'iiioiie sur la t'aiiiille dts Oiiagiaiics ; 4t(). Paris, lolID. 



11. Mcinoire sur la famille (k's Lorauthacees ; 4t.o. Paris, 1830. 



12. Meiuoire sur la famille des Valeriaiiecs ; 4to. Paris, 18;}2. 



13. Cours de Botanique ; seconde partie. Physiologie Veg^tale pour 

 scrvir de suite k I'Orgaiiographie Vegetale, et d'introductioii a, la Hotanique 

 Ci6)grapliique et Agricole; vol. i. — iii. ; 8vo. Paris, 1832. 



De (laiulolle was also the author of an essay on Geographical Botany, 

 prefixed to the second volume of the ' Flore Fran9aise' (1805). — Of the 

 article " Cieographie botanique ct agricole," in the ' Dictionnairc d'Agri- 

 culture,' published iu 1809. — Of the article " Geograpliie botanique," in 

 the ' Uictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,' 1820. — And of the article " V\\y- 

 tograpliie," in the ' Dictionnairc classique d'histoire uaturelie.' 



[^I. De Candolle's Memoir on the genus Brasska was rejirinted from, 

 the Transactions of the Horticultural Society, in Phil. Mag., First Series, 

 vol. Ixi. p. 87. — KuiT.] 



[• See Phil. Mag. Second Scries, vol. iv. p. 313. — Edit.] 

 Phil. Mao. S. 3. Vol. 20. No. ] 30. March 1842. S 



