Sir Humphry Davy^ Bart, 165 



would be a beautiful place ; but I fear my light of life is 

 burned out." From Salzburgh, he had previously written 

 to Mr. Gilbert, resigning the chair of the Royal Society. 

 " I have gained strength," he observes, " under the most 

 favourable circumstances, very slowly, and though I have 

 had no new attack, and have regained, to a certain extent, 

 the use of my limbs, yet the tendency of the system to 

 accumulate blood in the head still continues, and I am 

 obliged to counteract it by a most rigid vegetable diet, and 

 by frequent bleedings, with leeches and blisterings, which, 

 of course, keep me very low. From my youth up, to last 

 year, I had suffered more or less from a slight hemorrhoidal 

 affection ; and the fulness of the vessels, there only a slight 

 inconvenience, becomes a serious and dangerous evil in the 

 head to which it seems to have been transferred. I am far 

 from despairing of an ultimate recovery, but it must be a 

 work of time ; and the vessels which have been over dis- 

 tended only very slowly regain their former dimensions 

 and tone ; and for my recovery, not only diet, and regimen, 

 and physical discipline, but a freedom from anxiety, and 

 from all business, and all intellectual exertion, is absolutely 

 required." He then concludes, by begging Mr. Gilbert to 

 communicate his resignation to the Society. On the 6th of 

 October, he returned to England in a very infirm state of 

 health. He remained in this country till the last week of 

 the following March. During a portion of this period, he 

 paid two visits, one to a nobleman in Sussex, for whom he 

 had a great regard ; the other to his friend Mr. Poole, in 

 Somersetshire. But he did not enter into London society, 

 to which he felt his strength inadequate. 



By the advice of his friends, he decided on again visiting 

 the continent, and, accordingly, on the 29th of March, 

 1828, he left London, accompanied by Mr. Tobin (now Dr. 

 Tobin), the eldest son of his early friend, Mr. James Tobin. 

 Passing through Austrian Flanders, they crossed from the 

 Rhine to the Danube ; and from thence to Donanworth, 

 proceeding southward ; the season not being sufficiently 

 advanced to enjoy the Alpine country, they travelled rapidly 

 to Laybach, where they arrived on the 4th of May. Here, 

 he amused himself in fishing, and pursuing his journey 

 leisurely, he followed up the same amusement. From 



