'■SCIENCE.
��IVoi.. v., Xo.
��very great Interest. At present, ftDd before we know the eiftct conditions under whicb the experiments were performed, it js impossible to form a correct judgment aa to their value. The number ot repeti- tions, and, in fai-t, all the details of the work, are neiHli-d in order to a just estimate of Its c
��Undeii the will of its founder, the Sher- ai'ilian pi-ofeesor of botanj- in Oxford university nas to hold also the fSil)thorpian professorship of rural economy. The duties of both, but of the latter more partioolarlj-, were performed by 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 botaDical study in the university. Under a chancery decree, the Sibthorpian pro- fessorship of rural economy is now independ- ently established, and ita duties deOned " to lecture on the scientific principles of agricul- ture;" the amount of service is raised fVom ' one public lecture in each term ' to twelve lec- tures annually ; and Dr. Gilbert, for forty years the associate of Mr. Lawes at Rothamsted, aud stall so associated, was called to fill the chair. The coutitjuous 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 Royal society. Mr. Lawes began his syste- matic investigations, we believe, while he was an undergraduate, more than half a ccnturj' f^o, by experimenting with manuring sub- stances upon plants in pots ; and when in I8S4, on attainiug his majoritj', 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 hia scientific fame, it was in fitting recognition of bis services to bis 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
tnirodacUim U ths Uudy of M
��upon to present, in comparatively unteclinical 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 pro]>er and a very important part of a liberal educa- tion.
Dr. Gilbert's numerous scientific associates and personal friends in the LTnitetl 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 by John- ston's lectures on agricultural chemistry and geology. ' A good deal has happened since then,' of which Dr. Gilbert can give excel- lent account. As an introduction to such aa account, and to a popular exposition of Uie results attained during this interval, — much of it at Rothamsted, — nothing can well be more fit than this in.iugural 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 chcraistrj' 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 ctiemical 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 libeiation hy growing plants, down to the researches of Liebig and Dumas, and end- ing with a sketch of the systematic field and laboratory work which has been carried on now for forty years by Sir John Lawes and himself. For the details of these prolonged experiments, und the full discussion of the results, see the elaborate memoirs published last year in the Transactions of the Royal society of London.
��CHADBOURNE ON INSTINCT.
Pkof. p. a. Chadbourne'b Lowell lectures on instinct have i-cached a second edition ; but the author has neither seen reason to alter the statements of the first edition, nor found time
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