300 TRANSACTIONS OP THE SOCIETY OF 



So well did Perrot employ Lis time that, at the nge of eighteen, when he came to 

 Geneva, he was welcomed and encoLiraged by most of the distinguished savanrs 

 who were there, and eepecially by the blind philosopher, the venerable Huber. lie 

 had the advantage in 1807 of accompanying de Candolle in a botanical explora- 

 tion of the south of France and of the Pyrenees, and afterwards resided for some 

 months in Paris, where the kind offices of his illustrious fellow-traveller plac-ed 

 him in amicable relaiions with the savants of that capital. Returning to Neu- 

 chatel at a later period, he became engaged in new pursuits : elected in 1816 a 

 deputy of the grand council of the city, (called the forty,) he formed a part of 

 several committees of public utility, and was named president of that of educa- 

 tion. Thus brought into closer communication with men of that specialty, both 

 at home and abroad, such as Pestalozzi and Father Girard, he took upon him 

 self the direction of one of the schools of Neuchatel, in order to acquaint himself 

 practically with the advantages of the system of mutual instruction, and to qual- 

 ify teachers for the pursuit of that method. Botany was not the only branch 

 of the natural sciences which he cultivated ; his researches on the fishes of the 

 lakes of Neuchatel and Geneva, as well as of the Mediterranean in the vicinity 

 of Nice, were of great interest ; nor less so, those on the habits of a great num- 

 ber of insects, particularly bees, different kinds of wasps, and hornets. Yet In^ 

 published nothing, contenting himself, when he had finished a memoir, with 

 communicating it to his learned friends, to whom also he has bequeathed his 

 herbals and other preparations. Yet, however modest and severe in regard to 

 his own discoveries, it is probable that many of the observations of Perrot would 

 have been entirely new had he published them at the time when they were 

 made. We will cite but one, which, if confirmed, cannot fail to be of real in- 

 terest. This relates to the Dytiscus, (Diiisque,) its larva, and its nymph. After 

 describing the curious position which the latter adopts in the cavity which it 

 digs in the clay, he describes the very singular effects produced when this nymph 

 is held in the hand, and which consisted of all the physiological symptoms at- 

 tending discharges of galvanism. After taking the proper precautions and 

 repeating the experiment on persons not forewarned, he satisfied himself that, 

 in this case, an electrical phenomenon really takes place. In 1830 he returned 

 to reside permanently at Geneva, devoting the last years of his life to acts of 

 charity and religion. And, assuredly, he was not now in his apprenticeship ; 

 for as early as 1817 he had actively engaged in the organization of the succor 

 extended to the poor, when a dearth was prevailing at Neuchatel and in some 

 parts of Savoy, and, for several weeks, made experiments upon himself to ascet- 

 tain the quantity of nourishment strictly necessary for the maintenance of health 

 and the physical forces. He was twice mar; ied ; first, to a descendant, of the 

 celebrated mechanician Di'oz ; and, secondly, to M'lle Rosalie de Pourtales, by 

 whom he had four children, the youngest of whom, our colleague, M. Adolphe 

 Perrot, much to the satisfaction of his father, has devoted himself to the cultiva- 

 tion of physics. M. Perrot, having reached the advanced age of nearly eighty- 

 four years, died somewhat suddenly June 9, 1866. 



Frederick Jacob Soret, was born May 13, 1795, at Saint Petersburg. His 

 father, a distinguished painter in enamel, had established himself in that city, 

 where he enjoyed a high degree of the imperial favor, but was induced, from 

 considerations of health, to return in 1800 to his native home, Geneva. His 

 eldest son, our late colleague, early evinced a love of study and a quick intelli- 

 gence ; and, though destined for the church, gave himself with zeal to the natu- 

 ral sciences, particularly mineralogy and geology. In 1816 he read to the 

 society of naturalists a memoir on the molasse of the environs of Geneva, in 

 which, in contradiction to the views of Saussure, who held these formations to 

 be marine, he was the first to announce the existence of fresh water fossils. At 

 the termination of his theological studies, he composed a thesis, whose subject 

 marked his taste for natural history, and was sustained by an exegesis not less 

 enlightened than rational. He maintained therein that the six days of creation 



