BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION xxxv 



research work. His knowledge of colloquial German enabled 

 him in after years to describe the results of the Rothamsted 

 investigations to many foreign visitors. His special mental 

 characteristics also eminently fitted him for the work sub- 

 sequently carried out. He was both cautious and painstaking 

 to a remarkable extent, desiring to accumulate a great mass of 

 facts before coming to any certain conclusion upon them. His 

 mode of work was also extremely methodical, and the method 

 once adopted, after full consideration, was continued through 

 many subsequent years, thus giving rise to long series of results 

 obtained in a perfectly similar manner. The continuation of 

 the same field experiments for more than fifty years, and the 

 important results which subsequently followed from an examina- 

 tion of the soils so long under definite cultivation, may be cited 

 as examples of Gilbert's method. Under his care, samples of 

 the grain and straw from each experimental plot, in each year 

 were preserved in the laboratory, and also samples of the ash 

 yielded by each. In later years, when samples of the soils and 

 subsoils of each plot were repeatedly taken, large portions of 

 each sample were also preserved. ' At his death the number of 

 samples stored for future reference in the laboratory and in the 

 adjoining building exceeded 50,000. The bulk of tabulated 

 records prepared by the clerks at the laboratory was corre- 

 spondingly large. He thus laid the foundation of much solid 

 work. The same characteristics appeared in his reports. 

 These usually contained a great bulk of numerical statements, 

 set forth in an orderly manner, with not unfrequently only a 

 small proportion of illuminating theory. The recording of 

 observed facts seemed often to satisfy his object as an investi- 

 gator. When, however, a definite conclusion had been arrived 

 at it was tenaciously held, and if attacked was vigorously 

 defended. Sir Henry Gilbert was an antagonist who never 

 tired. His controversies with Liebig, on the subject of his 

 mineral theory, and, in later years, with other German investi- 

 gators, on the source of fat in the animal body, will be well 

 remembered by his contemporaries. 



