18 LIFE OF 



In the year 1805 Mr. Knight was elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society, and on the 4th of November, 1806, the Copley 

 Medal was voted to him for his papers on vegetable physiology, 

 and presented at the anniversary meeting on the 1st of 

 December following, when Sir Joseph Banks delivered an 

 address expressive of the sense the society entertained of the 

 value of his discoveries. 



But the time and attention he devoted to scientific pursuits 

 did not divert him from the prosecution of objects which, 

 though less calculated to secure him an eminent rank among 

 philosophers, were gaining him the still more enviable distinc- 

 tion of a benefactor of his country. 



He had by this time become well known as a practical agri- 

 culturist, and an improver of the breed of Herefordshire cattle. 

 The stock of this county had been long distinguished for its 

 superior quality ; the origin of this superiority he had taken 

 some pains to discover, and the result of his inquiries led him 

 to attribute it to the introduction from Flanders* of a breed of 



yourself, and would not have left his reader in a perplexing state of doubt. 

 M. Aubert du Petit Thouars has combated my opinions, but those he has sub- 

 stituted have not satisfied me, for which reason I have paid little attention to his 

 criticisms. You have opened my eyes to my errors. I have made a long 

 course of experiments on the elm, the apple-tree, the cherry, and on many 

 other trees, and I believe I have this time detected nature in her operations, 

 and I shall myself seize the first occasion to refute my original doctrine. I have 

 seriously examined it, and I think it will be easy to rearrange the facts, and to 

 make this part of my work much more correct. 



" I have not yet, sir, received the work that you announce. What I know of 

 you gives me beforehand a high opinion of your new researches. It is very im- 

 portant that we should clear up the chaos of vegetable physiology : this branch 

 of general science is overloaded with error, and with fanciful theories ; we shall 

 only succeed in clearing it up by substituting strict observation instead of vain 

 hypothesis, and severe logic for frivolous reasoning : it is for you, above all 

 others, to do us this service. Accept the testimony of the high consideration 

 with which I have the honour to be, Sir, 



" Your very humble Servant, 



" MIR BEL." 



* In Cuyp's pictures the cattle are usually represented of the Herefordshire 

 colour, with white faces. 



