1908] on Davifs Discovery of the Metals of tlie AlJcalis. 3 



assurance was shared also by the Managers, for at a subsequent 

 meeting they unanimously resolved "that Mr. Humphry Davy, Director 

 of the Chemical Laboratory, having given satisfactory proofs of his 

 talents as a lecturer, should be appointed, and in future denominated, 

 Lecturer in Chemistry at the Royal Institution, instead of con- 

 tinuing to occupy the place of Assistant Lecturer, which he has 

 hitherto filled." 



That such shrewd experienced men of the world as Sir Joseph 

 Banks and Rumf ord, who were the moving spirits in the management 

 of the Institution and genuinely solicitous for its welfare, should thus 

 entrust its fortunes, then at their lowest ebb, to the power and ability 

 of a young and comparatively unknown man, barely out of his teens, 

 seems, even in .an age which was familiar with the spectacle of " a 

 proud boy " as a Prime Minister, like the desperate throw of a 

 gambler. 



But Banks and Rumf ord had, doubtless, good reason for the faith 

 that was in them. For a happy combination of circumstances had 

 served to bring the Cornish youth within the range of many who 

 could be of service to him in that search for the fame for which he 

 hungered. His connection with the Beddoes brouglit him the friend- 

 ship of the Edge worths, and it is amusing to trace how the good- 

 humoured patronage of the gifted Maria quickly passed into amazement 

 and ended in awe as her acquaintance with him ripened. Living in 

 Bristol, he was at once brought into that remarkable literary coterie 

 which distinguished that city at the close of the eighteenth century. 

 Southey spoke of him as a miraculous young man, whose talents he 

 could only wonder at. Cottle, the publisher, on one occasion said to 

 Coleridge, " You have doubtless seen a great many of what are called 

 the cleverest men — how do you estimate Davy in comparison with 

 these ? " Mr. Coleridge's reply was strong and expressive. " Why, 

 Davy can eat them all ! There is an energy, an elasticity, in his 

 mind which enables him to seize on and analyse all questions, pushing 

 them to their legitimate consequences. Every subject in Davy's 

 mind has the principle of vitality. Living thoughts spring up like 

 turf under his feet." 



Davy's experimental work on " the pleasure-giving air " had 

 made him known to the Watts and the Wedgewoods. Priestley, 

 then in exile, and Hope of Edinburgh, were greatly impressed 

 with the philosophical acumen of the author of phosoxygen, and he 

 had a powerful friend in his own countyman Davies Gilbert, who 

 succeeded him in the Presidential Chair of the Royal Society. We 

 need be in no doubt, therefore, as to the influences which conspired 

 to bring Davy into what he termed " the great hot-bed of human 

 power called London." 



The mention of Davy's first course of lectures in this Institution 

 brings me at once to the proper subject of this discourse. 



The first year of the last century is memorable for the invention 



B.2 



