250 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



^Bulletin Mensuel de la Societe Imperiale zoologique d'Acclimatation. June, 1856.3 

 Translation hy H. Meigs. 



The present state of Agriculture compared with the general 

 Industry, By Mons. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, President of 

 the Society. 



Ii is often said that our age is that of wonders, nothing is more 

 true. All that our fathers dreamed of, or imagined, has been 

 undertaken to be accomplished by science. All the Oriental 

 fables have become in Europe beneficent realities. We might 

 say of science and industry, our modern fairies, what Pliny said 

 of nature, " de ea nil incredibile existimari," (nothing in it can 

 be deemed incredible). Nothing is above its power, and there is 

 no prodigy which may not be expected of it. 



In 1760, Voltaire said "who could have foreseen that we 

 should ever use the electricity of thunder ? or analyze the rays 

 of the sunf Immortal discoveries ! Light, heat and electricity 

 subjected not only to the laws of science, but to the will of man ! 

 Light from gas — rendering darkness light — engraving, statuary. 

 It is the most prompt of all painters, and exact as prompt. 

 More marvellous still we see electricity by turns an engraver, 

 statuary, gilder, a powerful motor and a splendid pharos, the 

 docile agent of the most varied transformations, or the swift mes- 

 senger which instead of conveying like " La Chappe's telegraph — 

 thought from the centre of France to its most remote parts in 

 one day," carries thought as quick as lightning through Europe, 

 through seas and through continents. We cannot say it flies, 

 for the flight of a bird, the glance of a bullet from a cannon, the 

 course of the earth itself in its orbit, are all in comparison 

 Repose ! Immobility ! Science can give the result in figures, but 

 the tongue has no words to express it. 



And after all these prodigies in mechanics, physics, and chem- 

 istry, and others no less admirable, what is best of all is their 

 vast utility. In the present domain of science and arts, it seems 

 that years are now worth what ages have been heretofore. 



The novelty of twenty years ago is used up — it is old, hardly 

 recollected by any one ! 



Now to our question — agriculture. 



Are the people well fed yet 1 Are they clothed suitably to 

 climates ? No, a melancholy spectacle is seen in the suburbs of 

 our great cities. The ragged cotton dress -of winter! Blouses 

 pieced and patched, a habitual evil of a part of the population 

 of the first city of the w rid ! How does this happen ? We call 

 the Chinese barbarians, but they repay that with usury ! 



