6 Biographical Memoir of Sir Humphry Davy. 



mist could have done, that marine plants act on the air in the 

 same manner as land plants. This was in 1797, when he was 

 not quite eighteen years of age. 



About this time, Dr Beddoes, who had been obliged by politi- 

 cal dissensions to leave the Chair of Chemistry in the University 

 of Oxford, came to establish himself at Bristol, where he formed, 

 witli the assistance of the family of the celebrated Wedgwood, an 

 establishment called TJie Pneumatic Institution^ the principal 

 object of which was to try the action of various gases on dis- 

 eases of the lungs ; he commenced at the same time a periodi- 

 cal collection, entitled Contributions Jrom tJie Western Provinces^ 

 in which he inserted the researches of the physicians and che- 

 mists of that part of England. It was to this individual that 

 Davy addressed his essay, and Beddoes, surprised at finding a 

 young apothecary of Penzance capable of such investigations, 

 was very anxious to attach him to his institution. 



For this purpose, it was necessary to dissolve the contract of 

 apprenticeship which he had formed with Borlase, according to 

 the somewhat Gothic practice which prevails in Great Britain. 

 Mr Davies Gilbert now President of the Royal Society, under- 

 took the negotiation, which was speedilj'^ completed ; for the 

 apothecary, who apparently cared but little for scientific dis- 

 coveries, and still less for metaphysics and poetry, shewed no 

 reluctance to restore to liberty a youth whose qualities he re- 

 garded with no favourable eye, although destined to become 

 so soon after the light of chemistry, and the honour of his 

 country *. 



But Beddoes estimated men by a different standard ; and 

 speedily discerning the intellectual qualities of his new assistant, 

 he did not employ him merely in that capacity, but entrusted 

 him with his laboratory, and permitted him to perform all the 

 experiments he judged necessary to extend his knowledge of 

 gases, and gave the use of his amphitheatre to deliver lectures. 



• It is due to the character of Davy's first master to state, that the rea- 

 diness with which he surrendered the indenture, originated in motives en- 

 tirely the reverse of those here ascribed to him. It was because he appre- 

 ciated the talents of the young chemist, and from a wish to promote his ad- 

 vancement, that the arrangement was effected with so much facility. See 

 Paris' Life of Sir H. Davy, i, 55 — Trans. 



