ADDRESS. 



Iv 



She has shown, that our supply of animal food might be obtained at a 

 cheaper rate from the Antipodes, by simply boiling down the juices of the 

 flesh of cattle now wasted and thrown aside in those countries, and importing 

 the extract in a state of concentration. 



She has pointed out, that one of the earths which constitute the principal 

 material of our globe contains a metal, as light as glass, as malleable and 

 ductile as copper, and as little liable to rust as silver ; thus possessing pro- 

 perties so valuable, that when means have been found of separating it ceco- 

 nomically from its ore, it will be capable of superseding the metals in coin- 

 mon use, and thus of rendering metallurgy an employment, not of certain 

 districts only, but of every part of the earth to which Science and Civilization 

 have penetrated. 



And may I not also say, that she has contributed materially towards the 

 advancement of those arts in which an agricultural county like this is espe- 

 cially interested ? 



Who has not heard of the work of Baron Liebig, which, at the time of its 

 first appearance, made such a sensation throughout the country ; and stirred 

 up the dormant energies oi' the agricultural public, not less thoroughly, than 

 the subsoil plough, of which he explained the advantages, elicited the latent 

 treasures of the land ? 



It is not often that the same individual has reaped a high reputation, at 

 once by establishing general principles in Science, and by rendering popular 

 their application to practice. 



Oersted, the father of the science of Electro-chemistry, and our own 

 Faraday, who has done so much to develope its principles, left to Wheatstone 

 the invention of the telegraph ; Dalton, the propounder of the Atomic Theory, 

 did nothing to improve the manufactures of the city in which he resided; 

 and the contrivances which have rendered the steam-engine generally appli- 

 cable to practice required a combination of tlie distinct talents of a Black 

 and a Watt, the one to explain the theory of latent heat, the other to apply 

 it to the ceconomical generation of steam. 



But Baron Liebig stands equally distinguished for his ingenuity in de- 

 vising new methods of analysis, for his originality in propounding great 

 theoretical principles in Science, and for his happy talent in applying these 

 principles to purposes of practical utility. 



Like his countryman Goethe, his mind seems to have passed through 

 three phases ; for his ingenious methods of analysis were appreciated, before 

 his views on the relation between organic substances, his doctrine of com- 

 pound radicals, and the consequences flowing from his researches in vege- 

 table chemistry, came to be generally admitted ; and the latter had already 

 taken root in the minds of chemists, and had established for him a very high 

 reputation among his fellow-labourers in Science, before his attempts to 

 apply his principles to agriculture and to physiology made his name so 

 celebrated, as it has since been, amongst the public in general. 



It is well known, that a controversy has been going on for some time past 

 between this distinguished foreigner, and certain experimental agriculturists 

 of our own country, with regard to the principles upon which the manuring 

 of our land ought to be regulated. In this dispute, however, you will not 

 expect me to take part ; for it would be obviously improper on the present 

 occasion, that I should avail myself of a little brief authority to influence the 

 public on either side of a much-debated question; and, indeed, on any other, 

 it might be deemed an act of presumption in an individual, <rho can prefer 

 no claim either to the extensive practical experience of the one, or to the high 

 scientific eminence of the other, to take upon himself to adjudicate between 

 two such conflicting parties. 



