76 



SCIENCE. 



LVol. V., No. 103. 



very great interest. At present, and before we know 

 the exact conditions under which the experiments 

 were performed, it is impossible to form a correct 

 judgment as to their value. The number of repeti- 

 tions, and, in fact, all the details of the work, are 

 needed in order to a just estimate of its correctness. 



THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF 

 AGRICULTURE. 



Under the will of its founder, the Sher- 

 arclian professor of botan}' in Oxford univershVy 

 was to hold also the Sibthorpian professorship 

 of rural economy. The duties of both, but of 

 the latter more particularly, were performed b} r 

 Dr. Daubeny while he held this honorable post. 

 His immediate successor, we suppose, gave his 

 attention to the botanical chair ; and the pres- 

 ent incumbent, holding the ancient Sherardian 

 professorship only, will doubtless give a fresh 

 impulse to botanical study in the university. 

 Under a chancery decree, the Sibthorpian pro- 

 fessorship of rural economy is now independ- 

 ently established, and its duties defined " to 

 lecture on the scientific principles of agricul- 

 ture ; ' ' the amount of service is raised from 

 ' one public lecture in each term ' to twelve lec- 

 tures annually ; and Dr. Gilbert, for forty years 

 the associate of Mr. Lawes at Rothamsted, and 

 still so associated, was called to fill the chair. 

 The continuous and well-concerted work done 

 by these two men during the last forty or 

 fifty years is now fairly well known and appre- 

 ciated in all scientific circles; thanks, espe- 

 cially, to the extensive publication of a great 

 part of the results in the Transactions of the 

 Ro} r al society. Mr. Lawes began his s} T ste- 

 matic investigations, we believe, while he was 

 an undergraduate, more than half a century 

 ago, by experimenting with manuring sub- 

 stances upon plants in pots ; and when in 

 1834, on attaining his majorhYy, he came into 

 hereditary possession of the manor of Roth- 

 amsted, he at once set on foot the systematic 

 experiments which are still in progress. It is 

 understood that he has made ample provision 

 for their continuance in the future. Although 

 it could add nothing to his scientific fame, 

 it was in fitting recognition of his services to 

 his country that this inheritor of a handsome 

 landed estate and a noble old manor-house 

 was recently made a baronet. Equally fitting 

 it is that Dr. Gilbert should now be called 



Introduction to the study of the scientific principle s of agri- 

 culture: being the inaugural lecture delivered May 6, i884, at 

 the University museum, Oxford. By Joseph Henry Gilbert, 

 Ph.D., LL.D., Sibthorpian professor of rural economy, etc. 



upon to present, in comparatively untechnical 

 form, the general results and applications of 

 his accumulated knowledge, and to inform the 

 minds of those who will in great part become 

 landlords, or country clergymen, or statesmen, 

 to whom such instruction will form a proper 

 and a very important part of a liberal educa- 

 tion. 



Dr. Gilbert's numerous scientific associates 

 and personal friends in the United States, and 

 not least those who had the pleasure of meet- 

 ing him during his two visits to this country, 

 while they read with interest the inaugural 

 lecture delivered last spring, are hoping to 

 have before them, in due time, the remainder 

 of the course so happily begun, also its pro- 

 spective continuation, to take the place in our 

 day which was filled forty years ago b} T John- 

 ston's lectures on agricultural chemistiy and 

 geolog}\ 'A good deal has happened since 

 then,' of which Dr. Gilbert can give excel- 

 lent account. As an introduction to such an 

 account, and to a popular exposition of the 

 results attained during this interval, — much of 

 it at Rothamsted, — nothing can well be more 

 fit than this inaugural lecture. Agriculture is 

 well said to be ' the concentrated production 

 of food ; ' and the scientific principles upon 

 which improvements in the art of concen- 

 trated production depend are drawn from the 

 chemistry of the soil and atmosphere, and 

 the chemistry along with the physiology of 

 vegetation and of animal life. Of course, the 

 subject will be treated by the present Sibthorp- 

 ian professor from the chemical side. In this 

 lecture the history of the subject is sketched 

 from Saussure's analysis of plant-ashes in 

 1804, and Priestley's discovery of oxygen and 

 of its liberation by growing plants, down to 

 the researches of Liebig and Dumas, and end- 

 ing with a sketch of the systematic field and 

 laborator} r work which has been carried on now 

 for fort} T } T ears by Sir John Lawes and himself. 

 For the details of these prolonged experiments, 

 and the full discussion of the results, see the 

 elaborate memoirs published last year in the 

 Transactions of the Ro} T al societ}- of London. 



CHADBOURNE ON INSTINCT. 



Prof. P. A. Chadbourne's Lowell lectures 

 on instinct have reached a second edition ; but 

 the author has neither seen reason to alter the 

 statements of the first edition, nor found time 



Instinct: its office in the animal kingdom, and its relation to 

 the higher powers in man. By P. A. Chabbourne. [Second 

 edition.] New York, Putnam's sons, 1883. 323 p. 12°. 



