HUMPHREY DAVY 193 



resulted in this gas, called laughing gas on account of its 

 eflFects discovered by Davy, soon becoming a favourite 

 anaesthetic for small surgical operations. In i8oi he already, 

 as a result of this, received from Count Rumford an invitation 

 to come to London to his newly founded Royal Institution, 

 where he received a still better equipped laboratory, and 

 undertook the duty of giving every year a certain number of 

 lectures to large audiences.^ 



Here he carried out the work with Volta's battery to which 

 we have referred above, and which then also became the 

 subject of his lectures. It may appear astonishing that he 

 was able at once to appear with great success as a lecturer 

 although he had hitherto had no practice of any importance. 

 However, not only did his poetic gifts and his unlimited 

 enthusiasm for his chosen subject ensure this success for 

 him; but he was aided by the striking exhibition of entirely 

 new etfects, such as the Voltaic battery and its action, the 

 peculiarities of the alkali metals produced by it, and the 

 electric arc. Since Galileo had been able to exhibit the 

 moons of Jupiter, or Guericke the Magdeburg hemispheres, 

 there had certainly been no such great public impression 

 produced by purely scientific successes. But Davy, by the 

 depth of his attitude towards scientific research, which he 

 here exhibited, and by suitable historical disquisitions, made 

 his lectures a striking and noble means of culture for old and 

 young and for all circles. He thereby firmly founded the 

 reputation of the Royal Institution exactly in the sense de- 

 sired, by Rumford. 



This tireless activity brought him high recognition; in 

 the year 181 2 he was knighted, and he also received many dis- 

 tinctions from abroad. He married in the same year. His 

 wife was very well-to-do, and this enabled him to make long 

 travels, extending over years, through almost the whole of 



^ For a short time before Davy, Thomas Young had occupied this 

 position. 



Os 



