Henri de Saussure

Henri de Saussure

Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure (born November 27, 1829 in Geneva ; † February 20, 1905 ibid) was a Swiss mineralogist and entomologist and grandson of the naturalist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure .

He first studied at the Geneva Academy with Pictet de la Rive before he went to Paris to the Sorbonne , where he received a licentiate in 1852. In 1854 he received his doctorate from the University of Giessen .

Between 1854 and 1856 he made a two-year research trip to the Caribbean and especially to Mexico with Henri Peyrot . He made numerous zoological, geological, hydrological and archaeological observations and put together large collections of samples, which he only evaluated in the following years. He also described the political events, such as a US attempt at annexation in Cuba and the Mexican civil war. Since that trip he also wrote reports for the Journal de Genève . On his return trip he visited the United States, where he met Louis Agassiz, also born in Switzerland, and the physicist Joseph Henry .

Upon his return to Geneva, he soon became a world-renowned entomologist specializing in hymenoptera and jumping terrors . He donated his insect collections to the Geneva Natural History Museum ( Musée d'histoire naturel ). He also had a farm at the foot of the Voirons and suggested various agronomic improvements.

In 1858 he was a co-founder of the Geneva Geographical Society , of which he was president for several years. In 1866 he was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his scientific and agronomic achievements. In 1872 he became an honorary member of the Entomological Society of London . In 1883 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

He had four sons, among them the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the painter Horace de Saussure .

Fonts

• Henri de Saussure: Etudes sur la famille des vespides . J. Cherbuliez, Geneva and V. Masson, Paris 1852–1858 (3 volumes).
• Henri de Saussure: Mélanges hyménoptérologiques . In: Mémoires de la Société de physique et d'histoire naturelle de Genève . Vol. 14, 1855, pp. 1-67; Vol. 17, 1864, pp. 129-244.
• Henri de Saussure: Essai d'une faune des myriapodes du Mexique avec la description de quelques espèces des autres parties de l'Amérique . Fick, Geneva 1860.
• Henri de Saussure: Note sur quelques mammifères du Mexique . In: Revue et magasin de zoologie , Paris, 23rd year, pp. 5–494.
• Henri de Saussure: Coup d'oeil sur l'hydrologie du Mexique, principalement de la partie orientale: accompagné de quelques observations sur la nature physique de ce pays . Fick, Geneva 1862.
• Henri de Saussure and Jules Sichel: Catalog des espèces de l'ancien genre Scolia, contenant les diagnoses, les descriptions et la synonymie des espèces avec des remarques explicatives et critiques = Catalogus specierum generis Scolia (sensu latiori) . H. Georg Geneva and V. Masson, Paris, 1864
• Henri de Saussure: Hymenoptera . Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1868.
• Henri de Saussure and A. Humbert: Etudes sur les myriapodes, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1872.
• Henri de Saussure: Synopsis of American wasps . Smithsonian institution, Washington 1875.
• Henri de Saussure: Prodrome des oedipiens: insectes de l'ordre des orthoptères . H. Georg, Geneva 1888.
• Henri de Saussure: Histoire naturelle des hyménoptères . Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1890-1892 (3 volumes).
• Henri de Saussure: Histoire naturelle des orthoptères . Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1895.
• Henri de Saussure and Zehntner : Myriapodes de Madagascar . Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1902

literature

• L. Léjéallien: Henri de Saussure . In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes , Volume 3, No. 1, 1906, pp. 97-99. ( french )

• EV: Henri de Saussure . In: Journal de Genève , February 23, 1905, p. 2. ( Necrology, French ) [1]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ member entry of Henri de Saussure at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed November 14, 2015.