176 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



how Davy compared with the cleverest men he had 

 met on a visit to London, replied expressively : 

 " Why, Davy can eat them all ! There is an energy, 

 an elasticity in his mind, which enables him to seize 

 on and analyze 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." He thought that 

 if Davy had not been the first chemist he would 

 have been the first poet of the age. Their corre- 

 spondence attests the intimate interchange of ideas 

 and sentiments between these two men of genius, so 

 different, yet with so much in common. 



In 1801 Davy was appointed assistant lecturer 

 in chemistry at the Royal Institution (Albemarle 

 Street, London), which had been founded from phil- 

 anthropic motives by Count Rumford in 1799. Its 

 aim was to promote the application of science to the 

 common purposes of life. Its founder desired while 

 benefiting the poor to enlist the sympathies of the 

 fashionable world. Davy, with a zeal for the cause 

 of humanity and a clear recognition of the value of 

 a knowledge of chemistry in technical industries and 

 other daily occupations, lent himself readily to the 

 founder's plans. His success as a public expositor 

 of science soon won him promotion to the professor- 

 ship of chemistry in the new institution, and through 

 his influence an interest in scientific investigation 

 became the vogue of London society. His popularity 

 as a lecturer was so great that his best friends feared 

 that the head of the brilliant provincial youth of 

 twenty-two might be turned by the adulation of 

 which he soon became the object. " I have read," 



