JOHNSON, Samuel William, chemist, born in Kingsborough, New York, 3 July, 1830. He studied at the Yale (now Sheffield) scientific school, and then at the universities of Leipsic and Munich in Germany. In 1856 he was appointed professor of theoretical and agricultural chemistry in the Sheffield scientific school, and he has since held that chair, he early became associated with the work conducted under the auspices of the Connecticut state agricultural society, and later was chemist of the Connecticut state board of agriculture, contributing to both of these organizations numerous papers and reports on fertilizers and kindred subjects, with analyses, he is a member of scientific societies, and was elected president of the American chemical society in 1878, also receiving in 1866 an election to the National academy of sciences, and in 1875 was chairman of the chemical section of the American association for the advancement of science. As an authority on matters pertaining to the application of chemistry to agriculture, Professor Johnson stands deservedly high. In addition to many papers that he has furnished to scientific journals and agricultural reports--among which are the "Examination of Two Sugars (Panocite and Pinite) from California" (1856); "Soil Analyses: Notice of the Agricultural Chemistry of the Geological Surveys of Kentucky and Arkansas" (1861); "On Native Crystallized Terpin" (1867); "On Nitrification" (1869); and "On the Use of Potassium Dichromate in Ultimate Organic Analysis" (1874)--he is the author of "Peat, and its Uses as a Fertilizer and Fuel" (New York, 1866); "How Crops Grow" (1868; London, 1869; German ed., Braunschweig, 1871; Russian ed., St. Petersburg, 1873); "How Crops Feed" (1870; German ed., Braunschweig, 1872); and also translator and editor of Fresenius's "Manual of Qualitative Analysis" (1864); and his "Manual of Quantitative Analysis" (1869).