158 Necrology.— Sir Humphrey Davy. 
others are arranged around the negative pole. This new and pow- 
erful means of analysis soon conducted him to a series of: brilliant 
discoveries. Substances reputed elementary, were discovered to be 
compound ; the alkalies, alkaline earths, and almost all the other 
earths, which were reckoned among simple bodies, were ascertained 
to be oxides of metals before unknown ; and these new metals, on 
account of their specific levity, constituted an exception to the laws 
which governed this class of bodies. The consequences of these 
discoveries were immense ; a new theory, styled electro-chemstry, 
was based upon these new facts. 
“In pursuing his researches, Davy found that some substances 
which were regarded as compound, must be considered as simple, 
and he was one of the first who discovered that chlorine was a sub- 
stance not yet decomposed. 
“He endeavored to turn his chemical discoveries to the benefit of 
agriculture ; and we are indebted to him for a good method of ana- 
lyzing soils, as well as a treatise on agricultural chemistry replete with 
the most ingenious views. Humanity received also a benefaction 
from his hands. His researches led him, in 1815, to discover the 
singular property possessed by metallic gause, of opposing the trans- 
mission of flame, and it is to this observation that we are indebted for 
the miner’s lamp. It is well known that this class of men devoted 
to labors so painful and dangerous, find in this instrument a means of 
preservation from one of the most fatal accidents of their profession. 
“ At the death of Sir Joseph Banks, Sir H. Davy succeeded him 
as President of the Royal Society of London. He had some years 
before been elected one of the eight foreign associates of the Royal 
Academy of Science of Paris, and all the principal scientific societies 
of Europe, ranked him in the number of their correspondents. 
“In travelling through Ttaly, and during his sojourn at Naples and 
Rome, he amused himself in studying the substances which the an- 
cients used as colors in their pictures ; he sought also in chemistry 
the means of separating more easily the leaves of the Herculaneum 
3 manuscripts. He also attempted, not long since, to explain upon 
his own chemical theories, the phenomena of volcanos. Even his 
iversions were not useless to science ; the last work which he pub- 
lished, and which was a treatise on fishing, entitled Salmonia, i0- 
cludes @ great number of interesting observations on the manners of 
fishes, and upon other points of natural history. ~ 
