8 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Cornwall ; in the fullness of his fame he was passionately fond of trav- 

 eling, and his latest book was " Consolations of Travel " — the work of 

 a dying Plato, as it was called by Cuvier. 



On the death of his father, Davy, who was then just entering on his 

 sixteenth year, was apprenticed to Mr. Borlase, apothecary and surgeon 

 of Penzance. He now resolved to begin a systematic course of study, 

 literary and scientific. In his boyish ardor, the task he set himself 

 was nothing less than the acquisition of universal knowledge. His 

 MSS. of this period contain the germs of many of the thoughts which 

 found more perfect expression in his maturer writings. In his note- 

 books, a voluminous collection of which he left behind him, he was ac- 

 customed to make a record of every chance observation, and of every 

 more important thought which occurred to his mind. Says a writer in 

 the "Chemical News," to whom we are indebted for many of the partic- 

 ulars of Davy's career contained in the present sketch : " Observations 

 of every kind and sort are included in these pages. At one time he notes 

 down a peculiarity of flight in a swallow, at another a philosophical 

 or theological puzzle, at another the anomalous behavior of certain re- 

 agents, with a view to further investigation ; whatever, in fact, he ob- 

 serves, down it goes for future reference or consideration." 



In 1796 he read Lavoisier's "Elements of Chemistry," and so was 

 led to the experimental study of that scipnce, in which later he at- 

 tained the highest eminence. The following year he began to write his 

 " Researches on Light and Heat," published in 1799. One of his first 

 chemical researches had for its object to determine the nature of the 

 air which fills the vesicles of common sea-weed ; and he demonstrated 

 that the marine plants act upon the air precisely in the same way as 

 the terrestrial, by decomposing carbonic acid under the influence of the 

 sun's rays. These physical and chemical researches won for him in 1798 

 an invitation from Dr. Beddoes, director of the " Pneumatic Institution " 

 at Clifton — a sort of hospital for the treatment of pulmonary diseases 

 by the inhalation of different gases — to become his assistant. Having 

 removed to CUfton, Davy made use of the facilities which the Pneu- 

 matic Institution afforded for studying the physiological effects of vari- 

 ous gases — as nitrous oxide (laughing-gas), carbonic acid, nitrogen, etc. 

 These experiments more than once came very nea?r being fatal to the 

 venturesome young chemist, and indeed his health was seriously im- 

 paired, so that he was forced for a time to intermit his researches. 

 While at Clifton he also took up the subject of galvanism, and thus 

 laid the foundations for bis brilliant discoveries in electro-chemistry. 



In 1801 Count Rumford offered him the position of lecturer on 

 chemistry in the London Royal Institution, which he had recently 

 founded. This post he held for one year, and then was formally ap- 

 pointed Professor of Chemistry in the same institution. Davy was a 

 remarkably handsome man, of good stature, gifted with great elo- 

 quence, and above all an enthusiast. His lectures at once became the 



