PICTET (John-Louis), a counsellor of Geneva, born in 1739, was of the same family. He was member of the Council of Two Hundred; Counsellor of State and Syndic; and died in 1781. He applied himself to the study of astronomy, and made several voyages into France and England for his improvement. Few men were ever blessed with a clearer or more enlightened understanding. He has left in manuscript the "Journal of a Voyage which he made to Russia and Siberia in 1768 and 1769, in order to observe the transit of Venus over the sun's disk." A work very interesting, from the lively descriptions which it gives both of men and of nature.