DAVY 



1778-1829 



^ I ^WO years after the Declaration of Independence of 

 America, and the same year that an alliance 

 between France and America was signed, England's 

 great chemist, Humphry Davy, was born at Penzance, 

 in Cornwall, on 17th December 1778 four years after 

 the discovery of oxygen. 



He went to school until he was fifteen years of age, 

 and was then apprenticed to a surgeon -apothecary. In 

 these young days he was endowed with great observing 

 power and a keen appreciation of Nature. In 1798 he 

 began the study of chemistry by reading Lavoisier's Traite 

 de Chimie ; and about this time Davy became acquainted 

 with Mr Davies Gilbert (afterwards President of the Eoyal 

 Society) and Dr Beddoes. He was employed by the latter 

 to superintend the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol, and 

 from this date his scientific career began a career that 

 placed Davy's name in the front rank of scientific investi- 

 gators. " His was an ardent boyhood," says Professor 

 Forbes ; " educated in a manner somewhat irregular, and 



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