210 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Dr. Beddoes, having founded at Bristol an establisbmcnt (the Pneumatic Insti- 

 tution) \\here the therapeutic properties of the gases might be carefully studied 

 and turned to account, had need of an assistant. On the recommendation of 

 Davies Gilliert (who presided over the Royal Society of London from 1827 to 

 1830) he made choice of the young Davy, whose merit he could well appreciate 

 from a memoir which the latter had sent him for insertion in a journal which he 

 edited. Davy left for Bristol October 2, 1798, and, the year following, he there 

 discovered the properties of nitrous oxide gas, (protoxide of nitrogen,) a discov- 

 ery which rendered his name popular in the three kingdoms. 



VI. — The first course op chemistry given by davy. — the discoveries 



MADE BY HIM IN THE LABORATORY OF THE INSTITUTION. 



We have shown how Davy had entered the Royal Institution and the success 

 which he there attained as professor. His lectures took place on Thursdaj's at 

 2 and 8 o'clock in the afternoon, and on Saturdays at 2. The earlier lectures 

 ■of the afternoon were devoted to general chemistry, those of the evening to its 

 applications. The abstract of his first course has been preserved ;* it was 

 divided into three parts : the chemistry of ponderable substances; the chemistry 

 of imponderable substances ; the chemistry of the arts. 



The first of these parts treats: (1) of chemical forces and their modes of 

 application ; (2) of uncompounded substances or simple principles ; (3) of bodies 

 compounded of two simple substances ; (4) of bodies compounded of more than 

 two simple substances ; (5) of substances compounded of different compound 

 bodies and of simple bodies ; (6) of the general phenomena of chemical action. 

 The second part treats : (1) of heat or caloric; (2) of light; (3) of electrical 

 influence; (4) of galvanism. The third part treats: (1) of agriculture; (2) of 

 tanning; (3) of bleaching ; (4) of dyeing; (5) of metallurgy ; (6) of the man- 

 ufacture of glass and porcelain; (7) of the preparation of solid and liquid ali- 

 ments ; (8) of the emploj'ment oi^ artificial heat and light. 



Nominated to the incumbency of the chair of chemistry May 31, 1802, Davy 

 resigned it April 5, 1813. He had given his last lecture April 9, 1812, the day 

 after that on which he had been knighted by the prince regent, and the eve of 

 his nuptials with Mrs. Apreece, a union which made him master of a large for- 

 tune. He had shed great lustre on the Royal Institution, at the same time that 

 lie changed the character which had pervaded the thought of its founder. The 

 Institution was no longer a school of arts and trades, established with a view 

 to the most numerous class of society, but redounded almost exclusively to the 

 profit of the higher classes. '' Ladies of the highest rank," says Cuvier, " fol- 

 lowed his lectures, together with lords of high degree, and the most distin- 

 guished of the young men." The spirit of research was introduced, and the 

 laboratory of the Institution became the theatre of the most brilliant discoveries. 

 It was there that Davy discovered the laws of electro-chemical decomposition ; 

 succeeded in decomposing the fixed alkalies, established the true nature of 

 chlorine, and the philosojjhy of flame. The electric battery with which the 

 scjiaration of potassium and of sodium was effected, and which is still preserved 

 in the cstaldishmcnt with other apparatus used by I)avy, consisted of three bat- 

 teries conil)incd, one of 24 square plates of copper and zinc, of 12 inches to the 

 side, anotiier of 100 plates of six inches, and the third of 150 plates of four 

 inches. The discovery of potassium was made October 6, 1807. The pleasure 

 which Davy experienced at seeing the small globules of the new metal spring 

 through the crust of potash and kindle on contact with the air was witnessed 

 by his relative and assistant, Edmund Davy. " Our professor could not restrain 



* A Sijlliibiis of a Course of Lectures on Clieinistry, delivered at the Royal Institution of 

 Gnat Britain, by II. Davy, professor of chemistry, pp. 91, octavo, Londou, Cadell &, 

 Davies, 18U2. 



