1868.] Chemistry. 297 
of the Bile and Urine”* also deserve a notice for the vast amount 
of labour which seems to have been bestowed upon them. 
Among new chemical literature, we notice with pleasure the first 
publication of the Berlin Chemical Society.t This society was 
founded by Dr. Hofmann, upon the pattern of the London Chemical 
Society, and this record of the earliest communications made to it 
gives the promise of a great success. 
This paper cannot be concluded without a brief reference to the 
losses chemistry has sustained within the last three months. It 
may seem an anachronism to place first on the list the name of Dr. 
John Davy, F.R.S., for he gave up the active pursuit of the 
science very many years ago. Still his connection with his more 
eminent brother at the Royal Institution, and the great promise of 
success contained in his early writings on chemistry, make this 
perhaps the most fitting place for a short record of his life. 
Dr. Davy was born at Penzance, on the 24th of May, 1790, 
and was the .youngest of five children, of whom Sir Humphry was 
the eldest. In the autumn of 1808, the subject of our notice came 
to London, and began the study of chemistry in the laboratory of 
the Royal Institution. The pupil was in a very short time advanced 
to the position of assistant to Sir Humphry, then in the zenith of 
his fame and happiness. 
Within the period 1808-1811, the elder Davy, it will be 
remembered, made some of his most brilliant discoveries; and the 
younger brother was associated in all the laborious researches which 
led to them. Among these was that elaborate investigation which 
confirmed the views of Scheele as to the simple nature of chlorine. 
The name oxymuriatic acid, which until then was applied to that 
body, expressed the belief that it was a compound gas containing 
oxygen. The experiments of Sir Humphry Davy proved beyond 
a doubt that no oxygen could be separated from the so-called 
oxymuriatic acid; but they did not suffice to convince all the 
chemists of that day. Among those who remained unconvinced 
was Dr. Murray, the Lecturer on Chemistry at the University of 
Edinburgh ; and it was in reply to the objections of this gentleman 
that Dr. (then Mr.) John Davy published his first scientific paper. 
It will be found in ‘Nicholson’s Journal,’ vol. xxvii. (1811), and 
may be read with pleasure at this day for its lucid style and clear 
reasoning. This paper won the approval of Sir Humphry so 
much that he flatteringly told his brother he had never written 
anything half so good at the same age. The controversy went on 
for a couple of years, and. led eventually to the discovery of 
Phosgene Gas, or chloro-carbonic acid, by Dr. Davy. In trying to 
repeat an experiment indicated by Dr. Murray, he exposed to sun- 
* “Proceedings of Royal Society,’ No. 97, p. 215 
p. 215. 
+ ‘Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin,’ N. 1, 2, 3. 
