Liebigs Organic Chemistry applied to Agriculture. 545 



If, on the one hand, we admit that an author has directed his 

 views towards right objects, and that he has never swerved from the 

 idea which must give life to his labours, we must, on the other hand, 

 ask two questions before we can conceive a precise idea of the real 

 value of his work. We must firstly inquire what degree of clearness 

 this leading idea has attained in his mind, and how far it has been 

 combined with the consciousness of its scientific tendency : and, 

 secondly, how he has applied this idea to specific objects. It is ex- 

 tremely difiicult, I may say impossible, to separate these two ques- 

 tions, and to answer them singly, in giving an opinion of this pub- 

 lication of Dr. Liebig's. For in reference to the last question, the 

 principal reproach to which his work is subject is, that it has been 

 written without consideration, and without its author having pre- 

 viously digested the matter as he ought to have done, as is evident 

 from the circumstance that nearly every page, and certainly every 

 chapter, is either not in accordance with that which precedes, or is 

 frequently in plain contradiction to it. The whole work is, in fact, 

 a strange mixture of contradictions, superficial observations, gross 

 ignorance, ingenious ideas, and rich and powerful combinations, 

 with which are interwoven the opinions and views of other authors, 

 sometimes named and sometimes not, and just historical notices ; 

 although in other places the author intentionally, as it seems, falsi- 

 fies historical facts. The reader is frequently uncertain what opi- 

 nion he has to form ; he does not know whether he understands the 

 views of the author, or whether he is studying ideas conceived and 

 written down in haste, or whether, supposing that the true view of 

 the author is made out, it is worth exposing, and proving that it 

 does not rest on any foundation. Liebig himself does not hesitate to 

 designate as illiterate all those who despise the value of foreign 

 literature the more, the less they are acquainted with it ; and we 

 shall add, that it is only a proof of mental vulgarity when a man 

 extols his own business as elevated above all others, and presents his 

 own limited views as the only ones founded on truth. Dr. Liebig, 

 who speaks so contemptuously of physiologists, and asserts that even 

 the most distinguished among them do not connect any idea with 

 such terms as carbonic acid, acids, and bases, does not show in his 

 book that he is himself acquainted with the publications of any bota- 



