622 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
impregnating the plant with that which is foreign to it, or 
by inducing a peculiar conditional state of it. Especially do 
I think they often give rise to urinary affections, as the kid- 
neys are the organs by which all the soluble salts are elimi- 
nated from the system, and I believe I have traced the ex- 
istence of the compounds of lime in excess in urine to plants 
grown on soil too freely and recently limed. 
Science of late years having been extensively applied to 
agriculture, it becomes a matter of some moment to be ac- 
quainted with the consequences resulting therefrom, as on 
this may depend the health and well-being of thousands, or 
the converse may obtain. In all probability, the cultivation 
of the soil forms the only real basis of a nation’s wealth: 
trade and commerce being the offspring of necessity, rather 
than of choice. It has been thought it will ultimately be- 
come the prominent employment of mankind, as it was 
unquestionably the first occupation of man. After his for- 
mation, we are told, he was placed in a garden to till it. 
The patriarchs also followed it, becoming agricultural 
nobles, while kings have not thought it an employment be- 
neath them. Some of you may have read that the wily false 
prophet sent with great pomp a plough, as a present to the 
Dey of Algiers, averring it to be the true philosopher’s 
stone. Nor was he far short of the mark ; industry being 
the real talisman. In an almost exhausted soil, like that of 
the greater part of England, it is perhapsa bsolutely necessary 
that these artificial stimulants, in the shape of manures, 
should be resorted to by the agriculturist, so as to enable him 
to compete with other countries, and to furnish food for his 
numerons flocks and herds. Nevertheless, the question 
arises — May not this forcing system be carried too far? 
There is no questioning the fact that an over luxuriant state 
of vegetation thus induced changes, more or less, the normal 
textures of the plant ; and an undue development being 
given to some parts over that of others, the consequence is, 
the peculiar principle of the vegetable, on which its value 
depends, becomes altered in its constitution, and therefore in 
action. This is frequently seen in the cultivation of wild 
plants for medicinal purposes. We also know what follows 
in the animal organism after an undue use of stimulants, 
namely, a more than commensurate degree of depression, 
which calls for a repetition of the excitant; and this being 
continued, it eventuates in disease either functional or 
organic. The like may possibly take place in the vegetable. 
I must, however, leave this debatable ground, referring you 
to what was stated by my colleague, Professor Simonds, in his 
