58 • Royal Society. 



ley's experiments on the extrication of oxygen from marine 

 vegetables, to the point of eminence which we all know him 

 to have reached. 



It is not necessary for me more than to advert to his dis- 

 covery of nitrous oxide ; to his investigation of the action of 

 light on gases ; on the nature of heat ; to his successful dis- 

 crimination of proximate vegetable elements ; nor to his most 

 scientific, ingenious, and useful invention, the safety-lamp, — an 

 invention reasoned out from its principles, with all the accu- 

 racy and precision of mathematical deduction. 



The particular series of discoveries for which the Royal 

 medal has been awarded, are those which develop the relation 

 between electricity and chemistry. 



Soon after Sir Humphry Davy had been seated at the 

 Royal Institution by an invitation from Count Rumford, an 

 invitation founded on his first production, — A paper on the 

 nature of heat, — our late President began his experiments and 

 investigations on electric chemistry : a most powerful Voltaic 

 apparatus was fortunately placed at his disposal ; and in his 

 hands electric chemistry soon became the most important 

 branch of practical science: important from its immediate 

 energies and powers; but much more so from the general 

 laws of nature, which it has laid open to our view. 



A new acidifying principle, or supporter of combustion, was 

 discovered, possessing the same negative electric properties as 

 oxygen. Muriatic acid disclosed its real composition. The 

 oxymuriates were transferred to their proper class. The 

 alkalies were reduced into metals ; and the earths were proved 

 to be similar oxides. But in the progress of these experi- 

 ments a discovery was made, surpassing all the wonders attri- 

 buted to alchemy. Three basins were arranged in a straight 

 line, each containing water, and to the middle basin some 

 neutral salt was added. The three were connected by moist- 

 ened syphons of asbestos : the opposite piles of a Voltaic bat- 

 tery were then applied to the extreme vessels ; and in a short 

 time the neutral salt disappeared from the middle basin, and 

 its constituent parts were found separated ; the acid attracted 

 to the positive pile of the battery, the alkali to the negative. 

 This astonishing result, followed up by other experiments, 

 led to the conclusion that chemical energies may be increased, 

 diminished, or even inverted, by the superinduction of electric 

 powers homogeneous with or dissimilar from their own. This 

 metastasis in the hands of physiological inquirers promises to 

 conduct them to discoveries of the utmost importance in the 

 functions of life. I flatter myself that it is now actually in 

 such hands. 



The 



