[Physiology in the work of Jean Senebier (1742-1809)]

Born in a family of French refugees established at Geneva in the XVIth century, Jean Senebier was first a protestant parson at Chancy and later librarian at Geneva. Charles Bonnet convinced him to become a naturalist and persuaded him to translate Spallanzani's experimental work. At that time the chemistry of gases was making great progress and Senebier applied it to the study of gaseous exchanges in plants. He brought an important contribution to plant physiology.