The state of the funds was the cause of the immediate change. The bills due were 3,900_l._ the balance at the bankers’ was 3,180_l._ The arrears came to 4,960_l._ 10_s._, but these were chiefly bad debts. In 1799 the income was 6,379_l._; in 1800, 11,047_l._; in 1801, 3,474_l._; whilst in 1802 it was only 2,999_l._ Moreover the expenditure was increasing. Meeting after meeting was held in May 1802 to make arrangements for reducing the expenditure in the workshops and printing-office. In June the resolution of Count Rumford to increase the rates of subscription to be paid by life and annual subscribers was unanimously rescinded. In July Dr. Young, when applying for leave of absence, had to ask for the balance of his salary, and Mr. Davy at the same time requests that he may be allowed a part of his salary. In the autumn the managers seem from the Minutes to have held only two meetings between July 5 and December 6. But on December 20 Mr. Bernard, visitor, Lord Kinnaird, treasurer, and Mr. Auriol, secretary, were requested by the managers to take into consideration the state of the Institution, and to report their opinion upon such measures and regulations as may appear to them eligible to be adopted for reducing the expenses and increasing the benefit of the Institution. An accident, as it may be called, this year led the thoughts of Davy to agricultural chemistry, and ultimately gave him a reputation in the country resembling that which Liebig afterwards obtained. During the summer it was resolved that the Board of Agriculture should be allowed the use of the lecture room for a course of lectures on the Application of Chemistry to Agriculture, provided the subscribers and the proprietors of the Institution were allowed admission; and ‘if the professors of the Institution can be of any service in assisting or forwarding the wishes of the Board of Agriculture in giving these lectures, the managers have no objection to their being employed.’ The following year Davy gave in consequence his first course on Agriculture.