PREFATORY NOTE BY THE EDITOR. 9 



At the same time a massive silver salver, bearing the 

 following inscription, was presented to Dr Gilbert, viz. : — 



Presented by the Subscribers to the Rothamsted Jubilee Fund to 

 Dr JOSEPH HENRY GILBERT, F.R.S., in Commemoration of the 

 Completion of Fifty Years of unremitting Labour in the Cause of 

 Agricultural Science, July 29th, 1893. 



Besides the addresses from the subscribers to the 

 Jubilee Fund, numerous other addresses from Scientific 

 and Agricultural Institutions at home and abroad were 

 either on the same occasion or at other times during the 

 year 1893 presented to Sir John Bennet Lawes and Dr 

 Gilbert. Amongst .these was an address to Sir John Bennet 

 Lawes from the Highland and Agricultural Society. This 

 address was adopted at a General Meeting on 14th June 

 1893, and runs as follows, viz.: — 



Sir, — We, the members of the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland, in General Meeting assembled, embrace this opportunity of 

 offering to you our heartiest congratulations upon the attainment of 

 the jubilee of the splendid lifework in which you have been engaged 

 at Rothamsted. Without parallel, either as to extent, character, or 

 scientific and practical usefulness, the Rothamsted experiments have 

 done more to advance agricultural science, and have been and will be 

 of greater service to agriculture than can ever be fully realised. In 

 these unique experiments, and in the munificent provisions you have 

 made for their continuation, the nation has received an inheritance of 

 inestimable value. In approaching you, therefore, with our congratu- 

 lations upon the completion of half a century of your great work of 

 scientific agricultural research, we would desire also to record our 

 appreciation of the public spirit and benevolence which you have 

 displayed in establishing and carrying on the Rothamsted experi- 

 ments ; to convey to you our high sense of personal regard for your- 

 self ; and to express our earnest hope that you may be long spared to 

 enjoy in good health the quiet evening of a life that has been unusually 

 active and abundantly fruitful in good work. 



The portrait of Sir John Bennet Lawes, facing page 1, 

 is from a recent photograph by Elliott & Fry, London. 

 Sir John, now in his eighty-first year, is hale and hearty, 

 and as actively interested as ever in his great lifework. 



On August 11, 1893, that is, about a fortnight after the 

 Jubilee celebration at Bothamsted, Dr Gilbert received the 

 honour of knighthood. Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert was born 

 at Hull in 1817, so that he is three years the junior of Sir 

 John Lawes. Sir J. H. Gilbert's father was the Rev. Joseph 

 Gilbert, and his mother, Ann Taylor of Ongar, was well 

 known as an authoress. His college studies were begun at 

 Glasgow, and finished at the University College, London. 

 From the outset he devoted special attention to chemistry, 



