340 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



' Our little Republic is but a boat attached to a vessel of the first 

 class. You realise all that is implied in the comparison.' 



From this moment, according to Senebier, 'de Saussure put aside 

 science for politics .' The phrase does not fit closely with the facts . 

 Bonnet expresses the situation far more accurately when he tells 

 us that his nephew ' was very much distracted between politics and 

 Alpine travel.' But it is true that henceforth de Saussure was never 

 free to give himself entirely to science. His sense of duty com- 

 pelled him to conquer his inclination to decline public office. 

 He was already a member of the Council of Two Hundred. As 

 soon as the old order had been re-established by the Mediating 

 Powers, he was appointed to serve on Committees for the revision 

 of the Code and for framing modifications in the form of govern- 

 ment. He was also elected a member of the Military Council, 

 which controlled the garrison of the city, a force of under a thou- 

 sand men. 



In the following year (1783) de Saussure was called on to aid 

 in entertaining the Archduke Ferdinand, the Austrian Governor 

 of Lombardy. 



The Professor was at this time troubled by a weak throat, 

 which hampered him in lecturing, and busy with bringing out a 

 volume embodying the results of his researches in hygrometry. 

 In its preface he explains that he was led to resume his studies on 

 the subject by the indisposition on Mont Lachat, that had inter- 

 rupted his mountain excursions in 1780. Five years later he pub- 

 lished a reply to his critics, of whom the principal was J. A. Deluc. 



Montgolfier was about this time (January 1784) exhibiting 

 his balloon inflated with heated air, and de Saussure went to Lyons 

 to witness the ascent, had long talks with Montgolfier, and subse- 

 quently made experiments on his own account to prove what had 

 not previously been recognised, that the ascending power was due 

 solely to the lightness of heated air compared to that of air at a 

 lower temperature. 1 Among his papers is preserved a draft of a 

 letter to an unknown correspondent probably Faujas de Saint- 

 Fond in which he describes in detail the Montgolfier machine, 

 and compares the relative powers and uses of fire and gas balloons. 2 



1 See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 13th edition, ' Aerostatics.' 



2 In Faujas de Saint-Fond's Description des Experiences de la Machine 

 Aerostatique de M. M. de Montgolfier (2 vols, Paris, 1783-84), there is a letter 

 of sixteen pages from de Saussure to the author. It is dated March 20, 1784. 



