Sl/i HUMPHREY DAVY 57 



lecture-rooms crowded day after day by all that was most dis- 

 tinguished in the rank and intellect of the metropolis ; and his 

 striking and beautiful elucidations of every subject that came 

 under his review, riveted, often even to breathlessness, the 

 attention of his splendid auditory. The year after his appoint- 

 ment to this situation he was elected also Professor of Chemistry 

 to the Board of Agriculture ; and he greatly distinguished him- 

 self by the lectures which, for ten successive sessions, he 

 delivered in this character. They were published in 181 3 at 

 the request of the Board. In 1803, when only in his twenty- 

 fifth year, Davy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and 

 his contributions to the transactions from this time till his death 

 were frequent, and of the highest value. In 1806 he was chosen 

 to deliver the Bakerian Lecture before the Society ; and he per- 

 formed the same task for several successive years. Many of 

 his most brilliant discoveries were announced in these discourses. 

 In 1 81 2 he received the honour of knighthood from the Prince 

 Regent, being the first person on whom his Royal Highness 

 conferred that dignity ; and two days after he married a lady 

 who brought him a considerable fortune. Next year he was 

 elected a corresponding member of the French Institute. He 

 was created a baronet in 1818. In 1820 he was chosen a 

 foreign associate of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris on 

 the death of the illustrious Watt. He had been for some time 

 secretary to the Royal Society; and in 1820, on the death of 

 Sir Joseph Banks, he was, by a unanimous vote, raised to the 

 presidency of that learned body — an office which he held till 

 he was obliged to retire, from ill health, in 1827, when 

 his friend and first patron, Mr. Gilbert, was chosen to 

 succeed him. Little, we may suppose, did either of the two 

 anticipate, when they first met, thirty years before, at the gate 



