602 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Avas born May 21, 1834, at Pont-a-Mousson, in the Department of 

 ]Mtnirthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine. He was, therefore, in his sevent}'- 

 eighth year at the time of his death. 



After graduating from colk\ge he pursued graduate work f^yr the 

 doctorates in science and medicine and for the diploma of pharmacy. 

 For ten 3^ears he worked under the direction of Sainte-Claire-Deville 

 at the Ecole normale superieure, and under Claude Bernard at the 

 College of France, where he did original research work on the pres- 

 ence of caesium and rubidium in alkaline waters. He further gave 

 attention to the alkaloids, methods of Avater analysis, and other lines 

 of chemical study. At this period he became especially interested 

 in organic cheniistn- and phj'^siological studies, out of which grew his 

 attention to the aj)plication of these branches in agTiculture, and 

 which furnished the basis and motive of his life work. 



In 1867 he was sent to Germany by the French Ministry of Agri- 

 culture to study the experiment station system of that country. He 

 was much impressed with the importance of the agricultural labora- 

 tories and experiment stations which had been established and with 

 their practical value to agriculture, and he undertook the work of 

 establishing such institutions throughout France. 



On his return he laid his plans for the founding of a station before 

 the Ministry of Agriculture, and received a grant which enabled 

 him to open, in 1868, the Experiment Station of the East on his own 

 estate, located near Nancy, as the first French station. In the same 

 year he was appointed to the new chair of chemistry and physiology, 

 as applied to agriculture, in the University of Nancy, and was invited 

 to give a course of lectures on agricultural chemistry, an opportunity 

 which, as he says, he accepted with enthusiasm in the hope that he 

 might stimulate the improvement of agriculture in his native State. 



During the first years of his work at Nancy he gave special atten- 

 tion to the physiology of plants and conducted special researches on 

 the function of the organic matter of the soil in plant nutrition. In 

 connection with these studies on soil humus, or inatiere noire, as he 

 termed it, he devised a method for its determination Avhich has 

 remained in quite general use to the present time. With Fliche he 

 investigated extensively the lack of tolerance of certain plants for 

 lime, controverting the then Avidely accepted view of Thurman which 

 attributed the distribution of the native floras to physical conditions 

 of the soil. He also at this time began his observations on the influ- 

 ence of atmospheric electricity upon plant growth. 



His studies of methods of analysis resulted in the publication of a 

 volume on agricultural analysis (Traite d'analyse des matieres agri- 

 coles) in 1877, which has passed through three editions, the last of 

 which, a two- volume work, was published in 1897. This treatise was 

 translated into German and Italian. 



