ITALY 129 



that de Saussure's bad health dated from his visit to the Cornish 

 mines, an assertion that, as I have pointed out, receives no con- 

 firmation from the contemporary correspondence that is avail- 

 able. It is further contradicted by the detailed medical report on 

 de Saussure's case made shortly after his death by his physician, 

 Dr. Odier. The doctor's statement is definite and, I think, 

 conclusive . 



' Professor de Saussure, accustomed from his childhood to mountain 

 excursions, and in his expeditions to brave rain and snow, heat and 

 cold and fatigue, had enjoyed generally good health, until, after a 

 journey he made to the Borromean Islands in which he ate a quantity 

 of unripe fruit, he was attacked some thirty years ago by a long and 

 serious illness, which ruined his digestion and rendered him subject 

 thenceforth to the most distressing symptoms.* 1 



It was during de Saussure's absence in Italy in 1771 that a 

 fete, famous at the time, was given by Lord and Lady Stanhope 

 on the occasion of their son, Lord Mahon, a youth of eighteen, 

 having won the prize in the annual competition of the Archery 

 Society. 2 The Stanhopes had been living in Geneva for ten 

 years for the education of their boys, the elder of whom had died 

 there in 1763. By their liberal charities and geniality they had 

 made themselves very popular, and they now offered to provide 

 the town not only with a feast, but with a brilliant spectacle. 

 Unfortunately, on the day for which it was first fixed rain fell 

 in torrents, and Madame de Saussure, who writes an account to 

 her husband, tells him how all the gay decorations of the Pre 

 1'Eveque, where tables were to have been spread, were ruined. 

 A week later, however, the fete came off. There was a procession, 

 with a car on which were perched twelve Cupids, children between 

 three and eight, and a Mercury of fifteen. There was an obelisk 

 decorated with the arms of Geneva and the Stanhopes, there were 

 alfresco lunches and military dances, and, needless to add in 

 Geneva, complimentary verses to the newly adopted citizen. 

 According to an English visitor, Dr. Moore, 3 the young nobleman, 



1 Dr. Odier, who made a post-mortem examination, enters into very full 

 medical details of his patient's symptoms and their causes. The reader must 

 marvel at the pluck with which, despite such disqualifications, de Saussure 

 persisted for twenty years in his mountaineering career. 



2 See L'ancienne Geneve, 1535-1798, L. Dufour Vernes (Geneva, 1909), for a 

 full description of the connection of the Stanhopes with Geneva. 



3 See pp. 44, 135. 



I 



