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SHORT ACCOUNT of the LIFE and WRITINGS of DESAUSSURE, by A. P. DECANDOLE.

[From the DECADE PHILOSOPHIQUE, and inserted in the 31st Number of NICHOLSON'S CHEMICAL JOURNAL.]

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ORACE Benedict Desaus- great Haller He paid him a visit

Hoe was born at Geneva in in 1764, during his retirement at

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the year 1740; his father an enlightened cultivator, to whom the public is indebted for some memoirs concerning rural economy, resided at Conches, a country house situated on the banks of the river Arve, half a league from Geneva. This habitual residence in the country, together with an active education, was undoubtedly the cause which developed in Desaussure that natural strength of constitution so necessary to the practical cultivator of natural history. He went every day to the town, in order to profit by the adservations on the Bark of Leaves.' vantage of public education. Residing at the foot of the Salève, a mountain he has since rendered famous by his researches, it was an enter tainment to bim to climb its rugged paths. Living thus surrounded by the phænomena of nature, and possessing the advantage of study, he became attached to natural history, without imitating those learned men who form theories without leaving their cabinets, or those men of mere practice, who, being continually surrounded by natural scenes, become incapable of admiring their beauty.

Bex, and gives an account in his travels of his admiration for this sur prising man, who excelled in all the natural sciences. Desaussure was still more excited to study the vegetable kingdom by his connec tions with Charles Bonnet, who had, married, his aunt, and who soon perceived the value of his nephew's increasing talents. Bonnet was then employed on the leaves. Desaussure also studied these organs of vegetables, and published the result of his inquiries under the title of Ob

"His first passion was for botany. A varied soil, producing numerous different plants, invited the inhabitant of the borders of the Leman lake to cultivate this agreeable science. This taste of Desaussure led him to form a connection with the

This little work, which appeared soon after the year 1760, contains some new observations on the epidermis of leaves, and, in particular, on the miliary glands which cover them*.

"About this time the place of professor of philosophy became vacant. Desaussure, then just in bis twenty-first year, obtained it. Experience proves, that if very early recompenses extinguish the zeal of those who exert themselves merely for the sake of reward, on the contrary they increase the industry of those who are in search of truth, At that time the two professors of philosophy taught by turns natural philosophy and logic. filled these two offices with equal success. He gave a practical, we may say an experimental, turn to the science of logic. His course,

Desaussure

"He resumed this subject eighteen months before his death."

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lage at the foot of Mont Blane. Natural philosophers will read with pleasure the description of his magnetometer. The more he observed the mountains, the more he perceived the importance of mineralogy. In order to study it to greater advantage, he learned the German language; and in the last volumes of his Travels, we may easily perceive how much new mineralogical knowledge he had acquired.

"Natural philosophy being the object of his attachment, led him to study chemistry and mineralogy; and soon afterwards he recommenced his travels in the mountains, not only to examine the plants, but to observe the mountains themselves, whether he considered their com- During his numerous excore position or the disposition of their masses. Geology, a science then scarcely known. gave a charm to his numerous walks in the Alps. Here it

sions among the Alps, and even in the midst of the political troubles of Geneva in 1782, he found opportanities to make his experiments on

self to was that he discovered him- hygrometry, which he published in

truly great philosopher. During the fifteen or twenty first years of his professorship he was employed in performing the duties of his office, and in surveying the mountains in the neighbourhood of Geneva. He extended his excursions on one side as far as the banks of the Rhine, and on the other to Piedmont. About this time he made a journey into Auvergne, to examine the extinct volcanoes; and another to Paris, Holland, and England, and afterwards to Sicily. These voyages were not merely excursions from one place to another. They had only one object, namely, the study of nature. He never travelled without being provided with every instrument that might be useful to him; and always before he set out, he sketched the plan of the experiments and observations he intended to make. He often mentions in his works, that he found this method of great utility to him.

“In 1799 he published the first volume of his travels in the Alps. We there find a complete description of the environs of Geneva, and an excursion to Chamount, a vi

1783 under the title of An Essay

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on Hygrometry. This work, the best he ever wrote, completed his reputation as a natural philosopher. We are indebted to him for the invention of an hygrometer. Deluc had already invented an hygrometer of whalebone, on which subject a dispute was maintained between him and Desaussure, which was even attended with a considerable degree of earnestness.

"In 1786 Desaussure resigned the place of professor, which he had held for nearly 25 years, to Pictet, his disciple and colleague, who performed with reputation to himself the difficult task of succeeding this great philosopher.

Desaussure being called upon by his office to attend to public education, made it a particular object of his attention. He presented a plan for reforming the course of education at Geneva. He proposed to teach children very early the natural sciences and mathematics; he was even attentive to their physics! education; and, that it might not* be neglected, proposed the adoption of gymnastic exercises. This plan excited great attention în a

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town where every one is aware of the importance of education. It found both admirers and censurers. The mediocrity of their pecuniary resources was a great obstacle to every important innovation. They were apprehensive that in changing the form they might lose sight of the principle, and that an alteration, even for the better, might destroy the good they possessed. The Genevese were attached to their form of education, and they had cause, for it had not only introduced geAneral information among them, but had given the first spring to the lalents of several distinguished mathematicians *, and natural philo sophers +

Public education did not alone claim the attention of Desaussure. He attended himself to the education of his two sons and his daughter, who have shown themselves worthy of such an instructor. His danghter unites to the accomplishments of her sex an extensive know lenge in the natural sciences. His eldest son is already known by his works in natural philosophy and chemistry.

tion; his diaphanometer, or his method of measuring the diaphaneity of the air; and his anemometer, in which, by means of a kind of balance, be weighs the power of the wind.

**Some years, after the publication of his second volume, Desaussure was received as a foreign associate of the academy of sciences, and Geneva could boast of having two of its citizens in these, seven eminent situations. Desaussure not ►only honoured, but was desirous of serving his country. He founded the society of art, to which Geneva is indebted for that prosperity it has gained through its industry within the last thirty years. He presided in this society to the very last; and it was one of his principal object to support that useful establishment.

He also showed his zal to serve his country while he was member of the council of five hundred, and of the national assembly. It was from his assiduous labour in that assembly that his health first began to fail; and in 1794 a paralytic stroke deprived him of the use of one side of his body. However "The second volume of his Tra- painful his situation might then be, vels was published in 1786 It con- he lost nothing of the activity of his tains a description of the Alps which mind; for it was after, this accident surround Mont Blanc. The author that he drew up the two last volumes considers them as a mineralogist, of his Travels, which appeared in geologist, and natural philosopher. 1796. They contain an account of It contains, in particular, some very his travels in the mountains of interesting experiments on electrici. Piedmont, Switzerland, and in party, and a description of his electro- ticular of his ascent to the summit meter, which is one of the most of Mont Blanc. These two last vocomplete we possess. We are like lumes, so far from appearing to wise indebted to him for several in- partake of the weakness of his construments of measurements; his cy-dition, offer a considerable mass of anomer, designed to measure the important facts and observations in intensity of the blue of the heavens," : natural philosophy.

which varies according to its eleva- "He gave the last proof of his

Abanzit, Cramer. Huiler, F. Tremley, &c,,

+Jalabert, A. Tremley, Bonnet, Lesage, Deluc, Senebier, Prevost, Pic'et, and Desaussure himself"

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attachment to science in publishing

ceeded the activity he had formerly slow and

the Agenda, which completes the enjoyed. His he had formerly

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fourth volume. Here this great man has surpassed himself. He conducts the young naturalist amidst the mountains, and teaches him to observe them to advantage. This Agenda is a proof of his genius, and the strength of mind he preserved amidst all his sufferings. During his illness, he also published his observations on the fusibility of stones with the blowpipe; and he directed the experiments on the height of the bed of the Arve. When he was at the baths of Plombieres for his health, he observed the mountains at a distance, and procured specimens of the strata he perceived in the most steep rocks. He had announced to the public, that he intended to complete his Travels by his ideas on the primitive state of the earth; but the more new facts he required, and the more he meditated on this subject, the less could he determine with regard to those great revolu tions which have preceded the present epoch. In general, his was a Neptunian, that is to say, be attributed to water the revolutions of this globe. He admitted it to be possible that elastic fluids, in disengaging themselves from the cavities, might raise mountains.

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pronunciation no longer displayed the activity of his mind, but formed a striking contrast with the agreeable vivacity which formerly distinguished him. It was an affecting sight to behold this great man so worn out at a time of life when the mind is most active in meditation, or at least when he should have enjoyed the fame and knowledge he had acquired.

"It was in vain he tried all the remedies which medicine, assisted by the natural sciences, could offer. Life and strength abandoned him by slow and painful degrees, and towards the end of the 6th (republicen) year, his decay became more evident; his memory failed; and at length, on the 3d of Pluviose, in the 7th year, at the age of 59, he completed his brilliant career, much regretted by a family who loved him, a country to which he was an honour, and Europe, whose knowledge he had increased.

By his side and at the same moment, a violent-death robbed the sciences of a young man whose industry and talents had afforded the most flattering hopes. (Qu. ?)

"I must here conclude this short

account; and it may easily be perceived that I am very far from making the éloge of my illustrious countryman. I had neither the necessary materials, nor sufficient means; that interesting task is reserved for one who has been the companion of his travels and labours, and who, by living habitually with him, has had the advantage of observing his manner of acting and thinking."

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ACCOUNT of SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT, and his IMPROVEMENTS in MACHINERY for the COTTON MANUFACTURE.

[From the first Volume of GENERAL BIOGRAPHY, &c. chiefly composed by JoHN AIKIN, M. D. and the late WILLIAM ENFIELD, LL, D.]

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IR Richard Arkwright, a manufacturer of great celebrity for carding and spinning cotton by machines; by which inventions he made a rapid and immense fortune, after having been originally in very low circumstances as a country barber. The usual proces of invention in manufactures is this. An enterprising man in narrow cirstances (for the rich will seldom risk in this kind of adventure until the probability of success is rendered in some measure considerable); — a poor man conceives a project by which he hopes to alter his circumstances, and considers the means mechanical as well as commercial, that is to say, how the thing is to be done, and how he shall acquire the means of paying the expense of doing it. For the former he must depend upon his own ingenuity, and for the latter he can seldom, at first, have any greater dependence than the spare time he can afford from those exertions of industry which are necessary to procure him bread. After much incessant labour, too often attended with severe distress from borrowing too much of the indispensable time required for his subsistence, the projector either finds himself reduced to beggary, or his plan becomes so far probable in respect to its result, that he can apply to some other man of greater capital than himself for assistance. This second projector is usually a man of small fortune, and disposed to adventure from motives somewhat of the same kind as those which impelled the original contriver. He

engages part of his little property in
the scheme,with the hopes of speedi-
ly becoming independent. Difficul-
ties still present themselves; more
money is wanted; and as long as
the monied man can supply the ne-
cessities of the invention and of the
inventor, he is in all probability
Em-
tempted by the sanguine expecta-
tions of the latter to go on.
barrassment, contention, legal pro-
cesses, ruin to the man who risked
his property, and a prison to the
inventor, are too frequently the re-
sult of this first combination, even
in cases where the invention may
itself have been of value; and still
more frequently, when, as it com-
monly happens, the invention is the
mere speculation of an uninformed,
and, perhaps, unprineipled man.
For it is the nature of these under-
takings, a

as soon as the mind be
comes habituated to them, that they
mislead the operator into a notion
of their probable success in spite of
every intervening impediment; and
the inventor must possess more for-
titude than usually fails to the lot of
a poor man, if he does not go on to
flatter himself and his partner as
long as any money is to be by such
means obtained. When the inven-
tor has acted uprightly, or the first
supporter proves a candid man, and
not of a vindictive disposition, it
commonly happens that he with-
draws out of the concern with the
loss of the whole or a part of his
capital, and retains no share what-
ever in it, lest the legal consequen-
ces of a partnership should at some
mainder
future period deprive him of the re-

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