SIJ? HUMPHREY DA IT. 67 



results of which he communicated in several papers to the 

 Royal Society. He also, notwithstanding his increasing weak- 

 ness and sufferings, employed his leisure in literary composition 

 on other subjects, an evidence of which appeared in his 

 "Salmonia," a treatise on fly-fishing, which he published in 

 1828. This little book is full of just and pleasing descriptions 

 of some of the phenomena of nature, and is imbued with an 

 amiable and contented spirit. His active mind, indeed, con- 

 tinued, it would seem, to exert itself to the last almost with as 

 unwearied ardour as ever. Beside the volume we have just 

 mentioned, another work, entitled "The Last Days of a 

 Philosopher," which he also wrote during this period, was 

 given to the world after his death. He died at Geneva on the 

 30th of May, 1829. He had only arrived in that city the day 

 before ; and having been attacked by apoplexy after he had 

 gone to bed, expired at an early hour in the morning. 



No better evidence can be desired than that we have in the 

 history of Davy, that a long life is not necessary to enable an 

 individual to make extraordinary advances in any intellectual 

 pursuit to which he will devote himself with all his heart and 

 strength. This eminent person was, indeed, early in the arena 

 where he won his distinction ; and the fact, as we have already 

 remarked, is a proof how diligently he must have exercised his 

 mental faculties during the few years that elapsed between his 

 boyhood and his first appearance before the public, although, 

 during this time, he had scarcely any one to guide his studies, 

 or even to cheer him onward. Yet notwithstanding that, he 

 had taken his place, as we have seen, among the known 

 chemists of the age almost before he was twenty-one, the whole 

 of his brilliant career in that character, embracing so many 

 experiments, so many literary productions, and so many splen- 



