10 Biographical Memoir of Sir Humphry Davy. 



and, finally, elected to the distinguished station of President 

 of the Royal Society in 1820, on the death of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, by a majority of two hundred against thirteen, an of- 

 fice which he continued to hold for seven years: — the young 

 apprentice of Penzance enjoyed without interruption all the ho- 

 nours which a great state could confer on those who do it honour. 

 These marks of esteem were confirmed by the approbation of 

 foreigners. Crowned by the Institute in 1807, when the war 

 with England was at its height ; associated with that body in 

 1817; called upon in like manner to enjoy the honours of all 

 the celebrated academies ; Mr Davy had to boast of the appro- 

 bation of Europe as well as of his own country. But our na- 

 ture does not admit of perfect happiness in the present world ; 

 and when ail around us is prosperous, we not unfrequently 

 carry within ourselves the poison that embitters our existence. 

 In the exposition which I am about to give of Mr Davy's la- 

 bours, continued without interruption for upwards of twenty- 

 five years, and published in sixty different memoirs and papers, 

 it willjbe understood that I can attend only to the principal re- 

 sults and fundamental discoveries. I shall, therefore, pass ra- 

 pidly over his first experiments, made in the Royal Institution 

 in 1803, to determine the proportions of tannin in the different 

 substances^J used in tanning *. Those of the following year 

 (1802), on the different combinations of azote with oxygen, 

 that is to say, on nitrous oxide and the nitrous gas now named 

 protoxide and deutoxide of azote, and on the proportions of 

 their elements, as well as those of hydrogen and azote, which 

 are*acquiring a more general importance in Chemistry, were 

 the natural consequences of his first observations on nitrous gas, 

 and the invention of a new eudiometer resulted from them-f*. 

 A solution of muriate, or of sulphate of iron, impregnated with 

 nitrous gas, was found to absorb oxygen with greater facility 

 than any other substance. 



" An account of some experiments and observations on the constituent 

 parts of certain astringent vegetables, and on their operation in tanning — 

 Roy. Soc. Londouj 24th Feb. 1803 ; Phil. Trans, xcxiii. p. 233 ; NicholsorCs t 

 Journal, v. p. 256. 



•f An Account of a New Eudiometer Nicholson''s Journal, 4to, vol. v. 



p. 175; BihUoth. Brit. vii. p. 246 ; Ann Chim, torn. xlii. p. 301. 



