Early training in Chemistry--his meeting with Lawes--official distinctions--the Lawes-Gilbert combination--the Rothamsted Reports--Liebig's 'mineral theory'--the relation to nitrogen--Leguminous plants--Hellriegel and others--confirmation of their results--nitrification--feeding of stock. Joseph Henry Gilbert was born at Hull on August 1, 1817. He was a son of the manse being the second son of the Rev. Joseph Gilbert, a Congregational Minister. His mother was one of the gifted daughters of the Rev. Isaac Taylor of Ongar, and a well-known writer of hymns and songs for children. Whilst at school young Gilbert had the misfortune to meet with a gunshot accident which deprived him of the use of one eye, a mishap which for a time threatened to mar his future career, but his own inherent determination and the home-training of the manse enabled him to overcome the disadvantage of defective eye-sight, and triumph over physical disability. From school he went to Glasgow University and studied chemistry under Professor Thomas Thomson, then to University College, London, where he attended the classes of Professor Graham and others, and worked in the laboratory of Professor Todd Thomson. Here it was, in Dr Thomson's laboratory, that he first met Mr J. B. Lawes, with whom he was afterwards so intimately associated. He then proceeded to Giessen for a short time, studying under Liebig and taking his degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1840. Returning to London, he worked at University College, acting as laboratory assistant to Professor Thomson, and became a Fellow of the Chemical Society on May 18, 1841, when the Society was barely three months old. He then left London to take up calico printing and dyeing in the neighbourhood of Manchester, but returned south in 1843, at the invitation of Mr Lawes, to assist in the agricultural investigations at Rothamsted, Herts. Mr John Lawes had begun experiments in 1837 on growing plants in pots with various manures. He discovered the fact that mineral phosphates when treated with sulphuric acid yielded a most effective manure. Taking out his patent for the production of superphosphates in 1842, Lawes soon found himself busy with the establishment of a successful business. Not wishing to give up the agricultural investigations which he had commenced in the fields of Rothamsted he decided to obtain scientific assistance, and remembering the young chemist he had met in Dr Thomson's laboratory, Gilbert was invited in June 1843 to superintend the Rothamsted experiments. Thus began that partnership in investigation which has yielded such a rich harvest of results, and an association with Rothamsted which lasted for fifty-eight years.