3-008-500 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. John Nesbit, Professor of Chemistry and Principal of Kennington Agricultural College, 1862. '...at the age of fifteen he made an electric-battery which was purchased by the Mechanics' Institute...and proved his introduction to the place where in after years he commenced his career as a public lecturer...he was...[taught by] the celebrated Dr. Dalton, the founder of the atomic theory... He travelled everywhere through the agricultural districts, and thus acquired that sound knowledge of practical farming which he soon learnt so well to blend with scientific chemistry...Geology was another of his pet pursuits, and amongst the fruits of his unwearied researches may be especially mentioned the detection of phosphoric acid in the Farnham marls and of vast beds of coprolites in France, whose presence he indicated to the French Government in 1856...Some of his lectures have been published, and among them an "Essay on Guano," which has gone through many editions. A considerable portion of the last fifteen years of his life was devoted to detecting and exposing the adulteration of imported and manufactured manures...The Chemical College at Kennington was solely of his founding, and he held the office of principal till his death'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.