Life of Sir Humphry Davy. 355 



than mere science to fix their attention. In giving his early friend, 

 Mr. Gilbert, an account of his successful exertions, he says * In 

 lectures, the effect produced upon the mind is generally transitory ; 

 for the most part they amuse rather than instruct, and stimulate to 

 inquiry rather than convey information.' In this letter he mentions 

 the powerful galvanic battery which he had caused to be constructed 

 for the laboratory of the Institution, consisting of 500 plates of five 

 inches in diameter, and 40 plates of a foot in diameter, and that by 

 means of it he had been enabled to burn inflammable substances, 

 to fuse platina wire, &c., and to boil and decompound oil and water ; 

 and that he was then engaged in examining its agencies upon sub- 

 stances which had not as yet been decomposed. * The elegance with 

 which his experiments in the theatre were conducted was strangely 

 contrasted to the slovenly style of his manipulations in the laboratory. 

 So rapid were his movements, that he would carry on several un- 

 connected experiments at one time, and while it was imagined that 

 he was merely preparing for an experiment, he was actually obtaining 

 the results/ 4 With Davy,' adds Dr. Paris, * rapidity was power.' 

 Whatever diversity of opinion may have been entertained of Davy's 

 style as a lecturer, his philosophical memoirs are so remarkable for 

 clearness, simplicity of language, and freedom from technical expres- 

 sions, that they have been proposed as models for all future chemists ; 

 and Mr. Brande, in a lecture delivered last year before the members 

 of the Royal Institution, forcibly contrasted his style with that of 

 another eminent foreign chemist on this ground. Davy himself, in 

 his * ' Last Days of a Philosopher,'' has the following remarkable pre- 

 cept, which he supported by his example : " In detailing the results 

 of experiments, and in giving them to the world, the chemical phi- 

 losopher should adopt the simplest style and manner; he will avoid 

 all ornaments as something injurious to the subject ; and should 

 bear in mind the saying of James I., that the tropes and meta- 

 phors of the speaker were like the brilliant wild flowers in a field of 

 corn, very pretty, but which very much hurt the corn.'" 



The first series of the Journal of the Royal Institution was pub- 

 lished in monthly numbers, and the price was fixed at one shilling, 

 in the hope that it might be more generally diffused. It contained 

 abridged accounts of what was going on in the scientific world, 

 abroad and at home, and several very interesting original papers by 

 Dr. Young and by Davy, who appears to have acted as joint 

 editor. His original communications were * An Account of a new 

 Eudiometer ;' ' Several Papers on Galvanic Phenomena ;' * On the 

 Gallic Acid;' and * On the Processes of Tanning ; ; * An Account of 

 a Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and making Profiles by 

 the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver,' invented by Mr. T. 

 Wedgwood, with observations by Davy ; * On the Collision of Flint 

 and Steel in vacuo ;' and some * Observations upon the Motions of 

 small Pieces of Acetate of Potash during their solution upon the 

 surface of Water/ to which the late interesting observations of Mr, 

 Brown is calculated to excite attention. 



