194 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



the theory of the structure of glacier ice subsequently propounded 

 by Rendu and Forbes was clearly anticipated. I quote the 

 crucial passage in the original French : 



' Hypothec, sur les difftrents Phtnom&nes des Glaci&res riduits 

 a un seul principe 



' II est terns maintenant de considerer tous ces objets avec les 

 yeux de la Raison, et d'abord d'eiudier la marche et la position des 

 Glaci&res, et de chercher la solution des principaux Ph6nomenes 

 qu'elles pre"sentent. Au premier aspect des Monts de glace une 

 observation s'offrit & moi, et elle me parut suffire a tout. C'est que la 

 Masse entiere des Glaces est Ii6e ensemble, et pese rune sur 1'autre de 

 haut en bas a la maniere des Fluides. Considerons done 1'assemblage 

 des glaces non point comme une masse entierement dure et immobile, 

 mais comme un amas de matiere coagulee, ou comme de la cire amolh'e, 

 flexible et ductile jusqu'a un certain point ; supposons ensuite que 

 les sommit^s du Mont Blanc, point le plus eleve des environs, se soyent 

 trouvees couvertes de glace et voyons ce qui aura du en resulter.' 



The suggestion here put forward is remarkable in itself. But 

 what is perhaps still more remarkable is that it attracted no 

 attention at the time, or for ninety years afterwards. The 

 little volume had its short day of popularity 1300 copies were 

 sold in three months and then it was completely forgotten. 

 It was left to a Bernese professor to call attention to the chapter 

 on glaciers. Bernard Studer, in his Physiographic der Schweiz 

 (1863), introduced the passage already quoted in the following 

 words : 



* It is wonderful how, under the influence of de Saussure, the views 

 of one of his fellow-citizens, which have of late been recognised as the 

 more accurate, have been so completely forgotten that in the disputes 

 of recent years over the earliest traces of the theory that treats glaciers 

 as viscous masses, his name has never once been mentioned.' 



Professor Studer was an early friend and companion of Forbes, 

 who dedicated his travels to him, and must have read his 1863 

 book. There is perhaps evidence of this in a mention of Bordier 

 in his article published in 1865, two years later, in the North 

 British Review, but it is a bare mention, without any reference 

 to his glacier theory. 1 Studer's emphatic claim attracted no 

 notice in scientific circles in this country until Tyndall his 

 See Coolidge's edition of Forbes' Travels through the Alps, p. 530. 



i 



