New Observations on the Natural History of Bees

François Huber (1750-1831) was a Swiss naturalist. He was born at Geneva, of a family which had already made its mark in the literary and scientific world: his great-aunt, Marie Huber, was known as a voluminous writer, and his father Jean Huber (1721- 1786), had distinguished himself by his Observations sur le Vol des Oiseaux (1784). François Huber was only fifteen years old when he began to suffer from a disease which gradually resulted in total blindness; but, with the aid of his wife, Marie Aimée Lullin, and of his servant, François Burnens, he was able to carry out investigations that laid the foundations of a scientific knowledge of the life history of the honey bee. His Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles was published at Geneva in 1792, with the English translation, New Observations on the Natural History of Bees, being published in 1806. He assisted Jean Senebier in his Mémoires sur l'Influence de l'Air (1800) and he also wrote Mémoires sur l'Origine de la Cire, Lettre à M. Pictet Sur Certains Dangers que Courent les Abeilles and Nouvelles Observations Relative au Sphinx Atropos.