by Ernest Clarke

“ On 1 June 1843 he joined as technical adviser John Bennet Lawes, who had shortly before started the first organised agricultural experiment station in the world at his ancestral home at Rothamsted; Gilbert lived at Harpenden close to the laboratory. From June 1843 to August 1900, when Lawes died, the two investigators lived in unbroken friendship and collaboration. 'What was Lawes' work was Gilbert's work; the two are indissolubly connected. . . . Lawes was essentially the practical agriculturist. ”

“ In 1760 the prohibition on the export of Irish cattle to England was removed. Varlo accordingly sold his land in Ireland, and proceeded to bring his cattle over to this country. The step was, however, very unpopular. Varlo's cattle were slaughtered by the mob in the streets of Dublin, and he himself had a very narrow escape. A small compensation was given to him by the government at the instance of the Duke of Bedford, then lord lieutenant, and he appears to have begun grazing in England, probably in his native county of Yorkshire. ”

“ He says, however, that 'for three or four years he does not remember any connection between agriculture and chemistry crossing his mind; but the remark of a gentleman, Lord Dacre, who farmed near him, who pointed out that in one farm bones were invaluable for the turnip crop, and on another farm they were useless, attracted his attention a good deal.' The investigations which Lawes made to discover the reason for this may fairly be regarded as the germ of the Rothamsted experiments, which subsequently became world-famous. ”

“ In August 1871, in accordance with the report of the royal sanitary commission which was appointed in April 1869 to consider means of co-ordinating the various public health authorities, the old poor law board, the local government act office (of the home office) , and the medical department of the privy council were amalgamated to form one new department, the local government board. Simon became chief medical officer of the new board in the belief that his independent powers would be extended rather than diminished. ”

“ He was elected president in 1880, when the agitation for an act of parliament to restrict the title of veterinary surgeon to the diploma-holders of the college had become acute, and by his energy and pertinacity he was mainly instrumental in securing the passage through parliament of the Veterinary Surgeons Act, 1881, which imposed a penalty upon unqualified persons who took or used the title of veterinary surgeon. ”

“ Whatever new matter there is chiefly relates to America, and especially to American agriculture, an account of Varlo's travels, and proposals to introduce into England certain details of American farm management, such as the cultivation of maize or the stabling of horses without litter. ”

“ He will ever remain a noble figure in the medicine of the nineteenth century, and will live in history as the apostle of sanitation.' The most important feature of Simon's work was his insistence that practice should be based on scientific knowledge, and his recognition of the large field for investigation without reference to immediate practical results. ”

“ The experiments which he was conducting at Rothamsted early brought Lawes into prominence. He joined the Royal Agricultural Society in 1846, and became one of its governing body on 22 May 1848, retaining his seat on the council for the unprecedented period of over fifty-two years. He became a vice-president in 1878, and a trustee in 1891, and was offered the presidency in 1893 (the year of the jubilee of the Rothamsted experiments) , though he then felt unequal, through advancing years and increasing deafness, to accept the post. ”

“ Ill-health during childhood postponed the commencement of his education until he was twelve years old, but by persevering energy he was able at the age of sixteen to earn his own living as a pharmacist's assistant at Frankfort. After a four years' course in that capacity he went in 1842 as manager of a similar business at Schaffhausen. In 1844 he entered the university of Göttingen, where he studied chemistry under Professor Wöhler. During his college career he also attended Justus von Liebig's lectures on agricultural chemistry at Giessen. ”

“ Robert was described as 'a model all-round farmer good cattle, good sheep, good crops, neat hedges, neat farm-buildings,' but, not being so much of a specialist, was less known than his more businesslike and versatile brother Charles. ”

“ Early in life he was taken by his father to Manchester, where both were employed in the farrier's shop of a veterinary surgeon. He subsequently entered the service of a well-known veterinary surgeon of Manchester, John Lawson, who sent him to Dick's College in Edinburgh. He took several medals and prizes, and in 1855 obtained the certificate of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, which was then recognised as a veterinary diploma. ”

“ He left Göttingen to take up the post of principal assistant to Professor Gerrit Jan Mulder at Utrecht, aiding him in preparing his ‘Chemische Untersuchungen’ (Frankfort, 1852, 8vo) . Mulder devoted much attention to the study of physiological chemistry, especially in its relation to vegetable and animal production. Though Voelcker's stay at Utrecht was short, his work there fixed the ultimate bent of his researches. In February 1847 he went to Edinburgh to be assistant to James Finlay Weir Johnston [q. v.] , then chemist to the Agricultural Chemistry Association of Scotland. ”

“ Worlidge's system of husbandry may be regarded as gathering into a focus the scattered information published during the period of the Commonwealth.
Besides the ‘Systema Agriculturæ,’' Worlidge wrote (mostly under the initials of ‘J. W., Gent.’) the following: 1. ‘Vinetum Britannicum, or a Treatise of Cider,’ 1676; 2nd edit. 1678; 3rd edit. 1691, dedicated to Elias Ashmole. 2. ‘Apiarium, or a Discourse of Bees,’ 1676. 3. ‘Systema Horticulture, or the Art of Gardening,’ 1677. 4. ‘The most easie Method of Making the best Cyder,’' 1687. 5. ”

“ Indeed, on all subjects connected with county government, social reform, local taxation, and agricultural improvement he was regarded as an authority both in and out of parliament. In June 1879 he and his friend Clare Sewell Read [q. v. Suppl. II] went, as assistant commissioners to the Duke of Richmond's royal commission on agriculture, to America and Canada to study agricultural questions there. ”

“ On his return to England Lawes entrusted him with an investigation at his Millwall factory into the contamination of tartaric acid and citric acid by the vessels used in their preparation; and he found a method for overcoming the evil. In 1894 he was appointed one of the examiners in agriculture for the science and art department, and (for three years) Sibthorpian professor of agriculture at the University of Oxford. Thereafter he retired into private life at Harpenden, busying himself with writings and in charitable and religious work. ”

“ In September 1783 he graduated M.D. (List of Graduates in Medicine in University of Edinburgh, 1867) for a thesis, 'De Scarlatina Cynanchica.' It is not clear whether he ever practised as a physician; but he appears to have specialised in the sciences bearing upon agriculture.
On 7 July 1790 Sir William Pulteney took the first steps towards endowing a chair of agriculture in the Edinburgh University,nominating at the same time Coventry to be the first professor. ”

“ Another invention, which, according to his editor, brought him into ‘yet more vagations or wanderings,’ was a winnowing machine which he perfected in 1772. A third invention was ‘a machine for taking off friction.’
In 1784 he was living in Sloane Square. ”

“ In 1848 Read won the Royal Agricultural Society's prize essay on the farming of South Wales, and in 1854 and 1856 obtained the society's prizes for similar reports on Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. He contributed numerous other papers to the Royal Agricultural Society's 'Journal,' and acted frequently as judge at the Royal, Smithfield, Bath and West of England, and other agricultural shows. ”

“ Owing to his dissatisfaction with the awards at the Tyneside Society's show in 1812, he gave up showing cattle at agricultural meetings for twenty-six years, and did not again exhibit until the first show of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, held at York in 1838, when he won five prizes with seven animals. ”

“ By carrying out practical field experiments, in combination with scientific work in the laboratory, he was able to put to the test matters of agricultural practice and to study their scientific import. ”