12 
had continued in the Bibliotheque Universelle Journal , the publica- 
tion of the comparative meteorological observations begun to be 
taken long before, both at Geneva and at the Hospice on Mount 
St. Bernard ; the earliest example it is said of a systematic study of 
the climate of elevated regions ; and the results, discussed as they 
were by the hand of a master, were eventually published in his 
work entitled The Climate of Geneva from 50 years of Observa- 
tion. To these again he added his brilliant studies of the physical 
geography of the region, chiefly from the astronomical and accurate 
point of view ; conducting extensive levellings, both instrumental 
and barometric, over the highest ridges, and through the deepest 
valleys of Europe; determining also the force of gravity by pendulum 
observations in numerous localities, and their longitudes both by 
telegraphic signals and geodesic measures of the most exact kind. 
In short, this admirable man, as our own learned and most 
devoted librarian, Mr. James Gordon — to whom I owe much of 
these materials, has kindly informed me — produced in his time no 
less than 83 distinct memoirs, varying in size from pamphlet to 
book, with a distribution of their subjects, something as follows, — 
Cometary, observations and calculations . 
Astronomy, general ..... 
Eclipses, Solar transits, new planets or planetoids 
Magnetic ....... 
Atmospheric Electricity .... 
Meteorologic ...... 
Hypsometric and Geodesic .... 
27 
6 
8 
2 
1 
28 
11 
besides several other memoirs in conjunction with M. Hirsch and 
M. Birner, chiefly geodetic. 
No wonder then that his local biographers have described, that 
even in his later years, when though over-shadowed by the threaten- 
ings of his eventually fatal disease, he yet worked a full eight hours 
a day ; and at a kind of astronomical labour which does not exactly 
repose the mind. Yet through it all, they record that he was ever 
the gentleman, the man useful to the community, and always ready 
to give his services wherever they were asked. Oh ! what abne- 
gation of self, for who amongst us, living happily under an ancient, 
long consolidated, and much loved constitutional monarchy, can 
