274 Jigriculture and its Bearings on Medicine. 
AGRICULTURE AND ITS BEARINGS ON MEDICINE. 
BY DR. THOMPSON. 
As a fact not less worthy of remark than creditable to the 
profession, agricultural science has been more aided and advanced, 
and has received more valuable contributions from physicians, 
than from all other sources. As a class, they have been emi- 
nently the founders and conservators of natural science. Most of 
the brilliant discoveries in chemistry and valuable acquisitions in 
geology, mineralogy and botany, are due to them. They have 
defined the principles upon which the successful prosecution of 
this art is founded; and have been the well informed advisers in 
most of its practical operations. Wherever physicians have be- 
come practical agriculturists, they have usually been successful 
ones. If learned in their own profession, they were well prepared 
to investigate and comprehend the science of their adoption. 
They have ample opportunity to acquire much by observation. 
In their daily rounds of professional duty the systems and manage- 
ment of a great variety of individuals fall under their notice. 
They are thus prepared to institute numerous comparisons, and 
determine their various results. A series of observations thus 
conducted for a succession of years, of necessity ends in the in- 
sensible accumulation of a multidude of facts, and a vast amount 
of practical information. Why the professors of the agricultural 
art should have remained so long paralyzed, and permitted the 
honors of discovery in their own field of labor to be carried away 
by more industrious and energetic investigators, it is difficult to 
conjecture. A new era, however, has commenced. The dissem- 
ination of cheap writings, in the shape of periodicals, magazines, 
pamphlets, weekly papers, reports, and every possible form of 
publication has gradually awakened the public mind. Book 
farming and book farmers are no longer alluded to with derision, 
since it is postively ascertained that agriculture has its principles 
which admit of being discussed, and which are capable of being 
written out, and can be read and acted upon. 
This large and influential class — influential in retarding im- 
provement — has now dwindled down to a few sturdy grumblers, 
who now grumble more for the sake of consistency with opinions 
once expressed and formerly entertained, than from any real dis- 
trust of the merit of these innovations. 
The remarks of Professor Johnston, the well known writer on 
agricultural chemistry, are pertinent to this point. " Human 
science is progressive in all its branches, and to refuse to follow 
the indications of existing knowledge, because it is to some 
