SKETCH OF J. B. BOUSSINGAULT. 839 



from 1848 to 1851 — of political service, in which he represented 

 the department of the Lower Rhine in the Constituent Assembly, 

 and was nominated Councilor of State. He discharged the duties 

 of these offices — which he had accepted from motives of patriotism 

 alone — while, his political activity being regarded as merely tem.- 

 porary and for an emergency, his professorship at the Conserva- 

 tory was kept open for him. Having bade a final goocl-by to poli- 

 tics in December, 1851, he used afterward to say, " There are few 

 men of science who have succeeded in it, and science has always 

 lost by it." But he always followed political events with a lively 

 interest. Although his liberal and republican opinions were sub- 

 jected to more than one blow from the events which were enacted 

 in France, he did not consider it his duty to refuse the distinctions 

 which were addressed to the man of science ; and, while he held 

 himself apart from the official world, he had occasion to give Na- 

 poleon III some good advice — which was not followed — concern- 

 ing the expedition to Mexico. By his marriage, in 1833, with 

 Mile. Le Bel, an Alsacian heiress, M. Boussingault became joint 

 proprietor, with his brother-in-law, of the fine estate of Bechel- 

 bronn, in the Lower Rhine. The cultivation of this farm afi^orded 

 excellent opportunities for experiments on the apiDlications of 

 chemistry to agriculture, concerning which it also suggested 

 many questions ; and the skill which had been cultivated and so 

 creditably employed among the volcanoes and in the pampas of 

 South America, now found a more practical field for its exercise in 

 the investigation of matters which touched the vital interests of 

 the nation, and, individually, of a large proportion of its mem- 

 bers. These investigations laid the foundation of the science of 

 agricultural chemistry as it is studied and practiced to-day ; and 

 Boussingault's French friends claim, not without reason, that his 

 Bechelbronn farm was the prototype of the farm at Rothamsted, 

 in England, and furnished the model after which the German 

 laboratories for agricultural investigation were planned. 



M. Boussingault's greatest scientific work, that for which he 

 was most famous, was connected with his experiments upon the 

 value of food-rations and the influence of various chemical agents 

 upon the growth of plants ; and those to ascertain whence plants 

 derive their constituent elements. When he began them very lit- 

 tle was definitely known on these subjects ; even the composition 

 of hay was not correctly understood. It was not his privilege to 

 carry these inquiries to a complete result ; but he made the ini- 

 tiatory intelligent efforts toward solving them, set the work well 

 afoot, and pointed out to those who are still seeking with accumu- 

 lated skill and intelligence the way which they should pursue. 

 " The processes," says M. Dehdrain, " for the estimation of carbon, 

 hydrogen, and nitrogen had been made effective; the methods 



