Horace Beénédict de Saussure (1740–1799)

Abstract

ON February 17 occurs the bicentenary of the birth of the celebrated Swiss naturalist and geologist Horace Bénédict de Saussure. He was born at Conches, near Geneva, in which city he passed most of his life and in which he died on January 22, 1799. As a boy he was a diligent collector of plants and minerals, being stimulated in his studies by his uncle, the naturalist Charles Bonnet (1720–93). At the age of twenty he made his first tour to the glacier of Chamonix, an excursion regarded generally as dangerous. This was the beginning of his many journeys in the Western Alps and his travels in England, Germany, Sicily and Italy. At the age of twenty-two he was given the chair of physics and philosophy at the Academy of Geneva, and this post he held until 1786 when he resigned and was succeeded by his pupil Marc-Auguste Pictet (1752–1825). Among his earliest writings was a volume on electricity published in 1766. Year by year he extended his knowledge of the Alps, and in 1787 on August 2 with Michel Cachet he ascended Mont Blanc. The first Englishman to make the ascent, Mark Beaufoy (1764–1827), reached the summit a week later. In 1788 Saussure spent about a fortnight on Col du Geant and between 1789 and 1792 climbed Monte Rosa, the Breithorn, and other mountains. The upheaval in Switzerland due to the revolutionary movement in France drew him for a time into political life, but in 1794 most of his activities were brought to an end by a stroke of paralysis. From this he never really recovered.