FRANCOIS, author of the Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles, belonged to a family of which several members had already distinguished themselves in various walks of science, and was born at Geneva in 1750. At the age of fifteen he lost his eye-sight from the intensity with which he had applied himself to his studies; but the means he inherited from his father placed him beyond the reach of want, and enabled him to follow his bent for natural history. The devotion of his wife and of an attached secretary compensated to him in some measure the loss of his sight; and having selected the bee as the subject of his special studies, he, with their assistance, wrote on that theme the most accurate and comprehensive work that has yet appeared. (See Bee.) Huber died at Lausanne in 1831. An interesting account of his methods of study is given in Dr Kitto's Lost Senses.