POLITICS AND HOME LIFE (1781-92) 341 



The former, he believes, will be found most suited for carrying 

 weights and for such purposes as re victualling besieged cities, while 

 the latter will serve better for meteorological and electrical investi- 

 gations. His correspondent had suggested to de Saussure that he 

 should undertake a treatise on aerostatics . He replied that it would 

 be too great an interruption to his geological pursuits, and that, far 

 from wishing to sacrifice mountains to balloons, he hoped to make 

 balloons help him in his mountain researches, not, ' at any rate, for 

 the present,' in gaining inaccessible heights, but in ascertaining the 

 constitution of the upper layers of the atmosphere. 



After his return to Geneva, de Saussure entertained his uncle 

 and aunt, the Bonnets, by sending up a balloon from their terrace 

 at Genthod. His experiments were not always successful. We 

 hear from some visitors at Conches of an attempt which, ' with all 

 the science possible,' ended in failure. ' The illustrious Professor 

 was in a terrible temper ; he scolded his sons and several savants 

 who, with folded arms, were looking on in silence, or asking ques- 

 tions which did not make him any happier. The rest of us laughed 

 at the whole scene.' l 



In a letter (13th February 1784) to the Journal de Paris, de 

 Saussure replies to some statements as to the effects on the 

 human frame of the rarity of the air at great heights made by M. 

 de Lamanon on the strength of the ascent of a ridge of about 

 10,500 feet near the Mont Cenis. He begins thus : 



' The works of M. de Lamanon would not contribute much to the 

 progress of physical inquiry did he not observe nature with greater 

 accuracy than he reads and quotes the writings of those who have 

 observed it before him. Permit me, sirs, to use the channel of your 

 Journal to protest against the absurdities which this naturalist attri- 

 butes to me despite the fact that my statements are of a diametrically 

 opposite character.' 



The points chiefly insisted on by de Saussure are that he had 

 never asserted that there is any difficulty in the act of respiration 

 at great heights, or that the languor and discomfort experienced 

 by some individuals in such situations are universal and unavoid- 

 able. The former statement seems at first sight a paradox, and 

 inconsistent with his own view and personal experience as recorded 

 in the Voyages. His point, I take it, was that altitude does not 



1 Rosalie de Constant, sa Famille et ses Amis, par Mile. L. Achard (1902). 



