2 
Sir  Humphry  Davy,  Bart.,  P.R.S. 
Managers  of  the  Royal  Institution  by  which  Davy  was  enabled 
to  engage  himself  with  the  Board  of  Agriculture  to  deliver  a 
course  of  six  lectures. 
The  Managers  of  the  Institution  not  merely  gave  permission 
for  their  Professor  to  make  arrangements  with  the  Board,  hut 
they  showed  the  greatest  interest  in  the  undertaking.  On 
May  27,  1803,  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  in  the  name  of  the  Committee 
of  Science  of  the  Royal  Institution,  wrote  to  the  Board  of 
Agriculture  as  follows  : — 
“ The  Committee  do  not  expect  in  agricultural  analysis  the  same  degree  of 
precise  accuracy  as  is  necessary  in  that  intended  to  illustrate  philosophical 
experiments  ; it  will  be  enough  for  them  if  the  component  parts  of  substances 
and  their  respective  proportions  to  each  other  are  marked  with  sufficient 
precision  to  demonstrate  the  probable  effects  on  vegetables. 
“ The  Committee  are  aware  that  at  present  the  science  of  agricultural 
chemistry  is  in  its  infancy,  and  that  till  it  has  been  more  matured  each  analysis 
will  take  up  a considerable  portion  of  time  ; they  trust,  however,  that  it  will 
not  be  long  before  Mr.  Davy  himself,  or  some  one  named  by  him  and  acting 
under  his  superintendence,  will  undertake  the  business  of  analysing  soils  and 
manures  for  individuals  at  a moderate  fixed  price  for  each  substance  that  shall 
be  brought  to  them. 
“The  Royal  Institution  wish  to  have  Mr.  Davy’s  lectures  repeated  at  their 
house,  and  have  desired  me  to  ask  whether  the  Board  of  Agriculture  have  any 
objection  to  a measure  which  appears  to  them  likely  to  extend  still  further.”' 
The  lectures  delivered  in  1803  gave  general  satisfaction,  and 
in  consequence  of  their  success  Davy  was  appointed  Professor 
of  Chemical  Agriculture  to  the  Bottrd  of  Agriculture  at  a salary 
of  100k  per  annum.  His  duties  were  to  give  lectures  and  to 
analyse  such  substances  as  were  referred  to  him.  Courses  of 
lectures  were  annually  delivered  by  Davy  for  ten  successive 
years,  and  in  1813  the  general  results  of  his  re.sea relies  were 
])ublished  in  a volume  under  the  title  of  the  Elements  of 
Agricultural  Chemistry,  which  passed  through  many  editions 
and  was  translated  into  nearly  every  European  language.^ 
Thus  was  founded  the  science  of  agricultural  chemistry 
which  has  grown  year  by  year  and  has  now  advanced  (through 
the  labours  of  many  devoted  workers,  among  whom  the 
honoured  names  of  Liebig,  Boussingault,  Lawes  and  Gilbert, 
and  Voelcker  stand  pre-eminent)  far  beyond  the  condition  in 
which  it  was  left  by  Davy.  It  is  the  inevitable  law  of  nature  that 
the  discoverer  of  one  age  is  superseded  by  the  worker  in  the 
next,  who  is  able  to  stand  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  predecessors. 
' Dr.  Bence  Jones,  The  Royal  Imtitution,  1871,  pp.  215,  21(i. 
For  an  account  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  1793-1822,  by  Sir  Ernest 
Clarke,  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  (the  modern  equivalent  of 
the  Board)  see  Journal  R.A.S.E.,  Vol.  59,  1898,  pp.  1-41. 
