436 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



experimental observations to the phenomena of respiration on 

 the High Alps and on the plains. 



De Saussure was also a pioneer in several branches of electrical 

 research, and in 1766 in his Dissertatio physica de electricitate 

 he strongly supported Franklin's views. Two years later he made 

 his acquaintance in England. In 1784 de Saussure perfected 

 a portable Electrometer with which he studied atmospheric 

 electricity and that produced by the evaporation of heated water 

 under various conditions. He communicated to Spallanzani, 

 who was investigating the animalcules of infusoria, a method of 

 killing them by electricity. The concluding sentences of his 

 chapter on the ' Electricity of the Atmosphere * are characteristic 

 of his mental attitude : ' Do not the investigations here described 

 show by their very imperfection how imperfect is our knowledge of 

 the action and force of electricity, and in particular of atmospheric 

 electricity, its causes and relations with other variations of the 

 atmosphere ? Happy will be the student who finds the time and 

 the means to cultivate this fruitful field and to develop the truths 

 of which it holds the germs.' 



Again, de Saussure was one of the earliest observers to insist 

 on the very important work water, by means of streams and 

 rivers, has done as an agent in moulding the details of the earth's 

 surface, in deepening valleys and forming estuaries. 



While living on his estate at Conches, if deprived of a view of 

 Mont Blanc, he could still feel a link with the glaciers in the 

 Arve, along whose banks, as Senebier tells us, he loved to 

 stray. He found occupation in observing the variations in the 

 volume and the temperature of its waters. At the time the 

 stream was highest the temperature was lowest. He accounted 

 for this fact by showing that the rise of the river resulted from 

 the diurnal melting of the glaciers, which increased the pro- 

 portion of ice-water in the stream. A calculation of the hours 

 the flood would take in reaching the environs of Geneva showed 

 that the previous day's melting passed Conches early the next 

 morning. 1 



It is also to his credit that he introduced new methods of 



1 See 'Memoire BUT les variations de hauteur et de temperature de 

 1'Arve,' par M. Desaussure, Journal de Physique, vi. 1798. Observe the revolu- 

 tionary spelling of the author's name 1 This was, I think, de Saussure's last 

 literary output. 



