Life of Sir Humphry Davy. 579 



with apparent success, and Mr. Hamilton having represented the 

 circumstance to government, he was authorised to proceed to Naples, 

 and funds were placed at his disposal for paying persons whom 

 it might be necessary to engage in the process. He embarked at 

 Dover for the continent in May, 1818. During his journey he 

 made some interesting observations on the causes of the formation 

 of mists over the beds of river and lakes, which were communicated 

 to the Royal Society in February, 1819. In the process of unrolling 

 the papyri, it appears that Davy was not successful; the failure was 

 not, however, owing to his want of zeal and skill, but solely to the 

 unfortunate condition of the rolls. He had succeeded in partially 

 unrolling some, and the late Rev. Peter Elmsley came to Naples for 

 the purpose of assisting in transcribing what had been recovered. 

 This excited jealousy, which the interference of the English ambas- 

 sador could not entirely remove ; obstructions were thrown in the 

 way of his future operations, and he abandoned the task at the end 

 of two months. He returned to England in 1820; and the death 

 of Sir Joseph Banks, having vacated the chair of President of the 

 Royal Society, Davy was raised to that high honour. Dr. Wol- 

 laston, having declined competition, gave him the weight of his 

 influence; and though a feeble attempt was made in favour of Lord 

 Colchester, without his knowledge or concurrence, Davy was elected 

 by an immense majority. 



In the winter of 1819, Professor Oersted published an account of 

 his highly important discovery of the intimate relation of electricity 

 and magnetism, which has given birth to a new science termed 

 ELECTRO-MAGNETISM. The discovery was limited to the action of 

 the electric current on needles previously magnetised. Davy applied 

 himself with his characteristic zeal to the repetition and variation of 

 the experiments, and soon ascertained that the uniting conductor 

 itself became magnetic during the passage of electricity through it. 

 He communicated the results of his successive experiments on this 

 subject to the Royal Society, in three papers, published in 1820, 

 1821, and 1823. The third paper announced the discovery of a 

 new electro-magnetic phenomenon. These researches are insepa- 

 rably connected with Mr. Faraday's beautiful experiments on mag- 

 netic rotation. 



Dr. Paris relates in detail the circumstances attendant upon one 

 of the most important discoveries of modern science, the conden- 

 sation of the gases; a discovery which he regards, with justice, as 

 strictly belonging to Mr. Faraday. The circumstances are par- 

 ticularly interesting, because Dr. Paris was an eye-witness of the 

 first result, and publicly stated Mr. Faraday's claim immediately 

 after the event, in a lecture at the College of Physicians. Those 

 who have read Mr. Faraday's paper in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, and that of Sir H. Davy, will have remarked a discrepancy 

 in the statements, which the narrative of Dr. Paris will correct. 



' Before the year 1810, the solid substance obtained by exposing chlo- 



