Horace Benedict De Saussure, a Swiss naturalist, born at Conches, near Geneva, Feb. 17, 1740, died in Geneva, Jan. 22, 1799. He studied botany under his father and his uncle Charles Bonnet, and under Haller, and became familiar with many sciences. From 1762 to 1786 he was professor of philosophy at Geneva, and in 1798, after the incorporation of that city with France, of natural history at the central school of the department of Léman; and he founded the society of arts in Geneva. He made important researches in the Alps and other mountains, contrived the best kind of hygrometer or rather hygroscope, and perfected and invented other instruments, the best known being the cyanometer. In 1787 he ascended the summit of Mont Blanc, in 1788 of the Col du Géant, and in 1789 Monte Rosa. Cuvier regarded his Essai sur l'hygrométrie (Neufchâtel, 1783) as a remarkable scientific work, and attached the highest importance to his geological and mineralogical labors. His Voyages dans les Alpes (4 vols., 1779-'96), comprising also his exploration of other mountains, gave him the title of the "first painter of the Alps." - His son Nicolas ThÉodore (1767-1845) became eminent in vegetable chemistry.

His daughter Albertine Adrienne (1766-1841), who married Jacques. Necker, a cousin of Mme. de Staël, translated Schlegel's "Course of Dramatic Literature" (1814), and wrote Notice sur le caractère et les écrits de Mme. de Staël (1820), and L'Éducation progressive (3 vols., 1828-'32; 4th ed., 2 vols., 1864).