SAU 



547 



SAU 



articles ALPS, BLANC, Mont, and Department, 

 ('KM-, CIIAMOUNI, GLACIIRS. Tin- principal towns 

 in Savoy are CIIAMUKKY, the capital, which has 

 ready IH'L-II described, (See Vol. VI. p. 73) Kumilly, 

 with a population of :>(K)<), and Moustiers and St. .' 

 de Maurienne, with -jooo inhabitants each. 



Savoy was seized by the French in 1792; but in 

 1M.~> it was restored to the king ol'S-irdinia. 



SAUSSUKE, HORACE BENEDICT DC, the son of Ni- 

 cholas de Saussure, celebrated for his agricultural writ- 

 ings, was born at Geneva in 1710. From Conches, 

 where his father resided, about half a league from Ge- 

 neva, young Satissure went daily to Geneva to receive 

 the rudiments of his education. Ilia IciMm- hours 

 were spent in climbing the precipices and exploring 

 the recesses of the lofty mountains which overhung his 

 dwelling, and he was thus led at an early period of life 

 to devote himself to those studies which necessarily as. 

 sociated themselves with his early habits. His pas. 

 ion for natural history was greatly increased by his 

 connexion with M. Bonnet who married his aunt, one 

 of the family of De la Rive, and who was at that time 

 engaged in his enquiries concerning the action of the 

 upper and under leaves of plants, or which he publish- 

 ed an account in 1754* in his liecherches sur t'usage des 

 Feuillen dans lex ptantes. Young Saussure constantly 

 took a keen interest in these researches, but he pursu- 

 ed the subject farther than his relation, and published 

 an account of his labours in his Observations on the 

 bark and leaves nf plants. 



In the year 170'ii, when he was only in the twenty- 

 second year of his age, he was appointed professor of 

 philosophy at Geneva, a situation which he held for 

 twenty-five years. During the intervals between his 

 lectures, he devoted himself to the examination of the 

 mountains of Switzerland, and to those enquiries re- 

 specting their physical geography which have immorta- 

 lized his name. So early as 1769, he had visited the 

 glaciers of Chamouni, and in 1779 he had crossed the 

 principal chains of the Alps about fourteen times in 

 different directions. These journeys were not per- 

 formed in the slovenly and ignorant manner so com- 

 mon among geologists in modern times. Saussure pre- 

 pared himself for these expeditions by study as well as 

 by judicious arrangements. He equipped himself with 

 accurate instruments of every kind. He invented and 

 constructed new ones, with which science could not 

 furnish him ; and while he attended to the phenomena 

 of the rocks upon which he trod to the distribution 

 and altitude of the mountain masses which he traver- 

 sed to the phenomena of the snow and the ice with 

 which they were covered, he studied with equal inte- 

 rest and success the phenomena of the blue expanse 

 under which they lay the electricity and humidity of 

 the atmosphere, and those various meteorological phe- 

 nomena which since his time only have occupied so 

 much of the attention of philosophers. 



In the year 1779* Saussure published the first vo- 

 lume of his Voyages dans lea Alps, which contains a 

 minute description of the neighbourhood of Geneva, 

 and an account of his excursion to Chamouni. 



During the troubles with which Geneva was agitated 

 in 1782, Saussure devoted himself to a series of re- 

 searches connected with the subject of Hygrometry. 

 In order to carry on these, he invented his new hygro- 



meter which, if we except Mr. Daniell's instrument, ii 

 the beat that hsa ever been constructed. An account 

 of these researches were published in 17HJ, inhU Eiiai 

 tur t' Hygromrtrie, in 1 vol 4to.* 



About tin- fine Sausaure became to much occupied 

 with his own studies, that he resigned his chair to the 

 late M. A. Pictet who continued to discharge iu duties 

 with the highest credit and success till hi* death m1h'J5.t 

 Saussure was now able to follow, without interruption, 

 the pursuits to which he was so much attached, and 

 was enabled to publish, in 1786*. the second volume of 

 bis travels among the Alps, which contains an account 

 of Mont Diane and the surrounding mountains. 



Though engrossed with his philosophical pursuits, 

 Snii->ure took a great interest in the state of education 

 at Geneva. He projected a new system, one of the 

 principal objects of which was to make the youth ac- 

 quainted with Mathematics and the natural sciences at 

 an early period of life; but though this plan met with 

 much approbation, it was considered to be an innova- 

 tion too hazardous to be put in practice. Sautsure 

 had the merit of founding the Society of Arlt at Gene- 

 va, to the operation of which Geneva is aaid to be 

 much indebted for its present prosperity. 



In the year 1788, Saussure set out for tbe Alps for 

 the purpose of completing some of the researches 

 which he had previously commenced. Along with his 

 eldest son he encamped seventeen days on the Col du 

 Geant, during which he was enabled to make many in- 

 teresting observations both in meteorology and geology. 



When his native city was annexed to the French re- 

 public, Saussure was chosen deputy to the national as- 

 sembly, but however promising these events appeared 

 to men of sanguine temperament and fond of change, 

 the more soberminded foresaw the calamities which 

 were to follow in their train. In the political convul- 

 sions which ensued, Saussure lost the greatest part of 

 his fortune; and what was a greater calamity still, he 

 lost, amid the storms of faction, that tranquillity and 

 peace of mind which constitute the patrimony of a 

 philosopher. His health was rapidly affected by the 

 distresses which he experienced in common with his 

 country, and in l~[)l, a severe paralytic affection de- 

 prived him of the use of his limbs. His mind, how- 

 ever, though disturbed, was still active, and sought to 

 forget its afflictions in the preparation of his travels for 

 the press, the two last volumes of which appeared in 

 1796'. About this time he also published his Observa* 

 tiuns on the Fusibility of Stones by meant of the IZlotvpijx, 

 an instrument, the value of which, first pointed out by 

 Gahn, had scarcely been recognised in the south of 

 Europe. The health of Sauesure was now so far gone, 

 that the aid of the ablest physicians could give him no 

 relief. His powers of articulation were now greatly 

 affected. His mind lost its vigour, and he died on the 

 Slid of March 1799, in the 9th year of his age, deeply 

 lamented by all who knew him. 



Saussure left behind him two sons and a daughter, 

 whose education he superintended with the greatest 

 care. His eldest son, Theodore de Sausure, is well 

 known by his talents, and his chemical researches. 



Besides his hygrometer, which we have already 

 mentioned, Saussure invented the CYAM>MKTER, in- 

 vented for measuring the blue colour of the sky ; a 

 DIAPHANOMETER, || for measuring tbe transparency of 



* An account of Saussure's Hygrometer and of his principal experiment*, will be found in our article HITGBOMETRY, Vol. XI. 

 f A biographical account of this dutinguuhed individual will be found in Dr. Brewster's Journal of Science* No. IX. 

 J See CYMOMETER, VoL VII. p. 538. fl Se DIAPHAKOMETEK, VoL VII. p. 727. 



