ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE rRESIDEXT. 49 



faithful and devoted friends of the late Professor John Morris, 

 rendered no small services to the cause of our science. 



Bernhard Studer, the greatest geologist that S^Yitzerland has 

 produced since de Saussure, was born at lierne in 1704. He be- 

 longed to an ancient family in that city, many of whose members 

 had shown a marked taste for natural-history pursuits, but was 

 himself educated as a clergyman. No sooner had young Studer 

 passed his theological examinations, however, than he determined to 

 prosecute his studies in mathematics and science, and for that pur- 

 pose resided in turn at the Universities of Gottingen, Freiburg, 

 Berlin, and Paris. On his return to his native country in 1816 he 

 was appointed teacher of Mathematics and Physics in the Berne 

 Academy. 



It is evident that at a very early age the writings of de Saussure 

 exercised a very powerful influence upon Studer's mind. He tra- 

 velled constantly in the Alps, and in other parts of his native 

 country, and after some preliminary papers, produced in 1825 his 

 admirable 'Monographic der Molasse,' — a work which at once 

 established his reputation as a geologist of the first rank. 



In the meanwhile Studer was rapidly acquiring fame as a teacher. 

 His lectures on various branches of science attracted great numbers 

 of pupils, and, refusing to be drawn aside by political or theological 

 controversies, he threw all his energies into the development of the 

 educational institutions of his native town. It was largely through 

 his influence, and by the aid of his great powers of organization, 

 that, in 1834, the University of Berne was established, Studer 

 becoming the first professor of mineralogy. During this period of 

 his life Studer wrote a number of text-books for students upon 

 physics, mathematical and physical geography, and geology; and 

 these works were remarkable alike for the excellence of their plan 

 and the thoroughness of their treatment of the several subjects. 



At the same time Studer was busily engaged upon what was 

 destined to be the greatest work of his life. He visited every 

 portion of the Alpine Chain, filling many note-books with detailed 

 accounts of the phenomena observed, and the most accurately 

 constructed sections. He also entered into co-operation with Escher 

 von der Linth, Peter Merian, and other Swiss geologists, the result 

 being a number of separate papers and monographs on Swiss 

 geology, published between the years 1825 and 1850. 



At this time Studer's fame had already become so widely known 

 that he was elected, in 1850, a Poreign Member of this Society. 



