174 



MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



[Diss. VI. 



which he applies to his own discoveries. But we 

 may truly say with one of his biographers, that to 

 him " the Voltaic apparatus was the golden branch 

 by which he subdued the spirits that had opposed the 

 advance of previous philosophers ; but what would 

 its possession have availed him had not his genius, 

 like the ancient sybil, pointed out its use and appli- 

 cation?" 



(779.) The last, and not least, extraordinary characteris- 



Numerous tic of Davy to which I shall now advert, was the 



Fnventlons. highly practical turn of a mind which seemed formed 



in a speculative mould. Four at least of his chief 



researches were of this kind his experiments on 



breathing the gases ; his lectures on agricultural 



chemistry ; his invention of the safety-lamp ; and 



his protectors for ships. No man, whose path so 



clearly lay in original discovery, ever left so many 



valuable legacies to art and to his country. 



(780.) 

 Davy's as- 

 sociates 

 Young and 

 Wollaston. 



(781.) 

 William 

 Hyde Wol- 

 laston his 

 contribu- 

 tions to 

 Electricity, 



(782.) 

 and the 

 other sci- 

 ences. 



The name of Davy gave to England a distinguished 

 pre-eminence in science during the first 25 years of 

 the century. But two others, less noticed at the time, 

 were also among her worthiest sons. These were 

 Young and Wollaston. They were all three nearly 

 contemporaries ; all lived on good terms with one an- 

 other, and united in promoting natural knowledge in 

 their several spheres. Young was Davy's early, 

 though less successful colleague at the Koyal Institu- 

 tion ; and Wollaston was joint- secretary with him 

 to the Royal Society. All three were originally 

 educated for the medical profession, and they all 

 abandoned it for the pursuit of science. Not the 

 least singular coincidence was in the periods of 

 their deaths, which all occurred within the space of 

 six months. 



Our notice of Young, the first optical philosopher 

 of his age, belongs to another chapter. WOLLASTON, 

 though an original observer in nearly every branch 

 of exact science, considered himself as a chemist ; 

 and his observations on Electricity were amongst his 

 first and best contributions to science. After the 

 impulse given to discovery by the invention of the 

 Pile, and the proof of the decomposition of water, 

 Wollaston undertook to compare critically the effects 

 of galvanic and frictional electricity a task of some 

 nicety, and of very great importance at a time 

 when it could hardly be considered as certain that 

 these agents were not specifically different. By 

 methods peculiarly his own, he produced decomposi- 

 tion, accompanied with separation of the elements at 

 the respective poles by means of common electricity. 

 He at the same time gave his powerful support to 

 the purely chemical theory of the Pile. 



His most important inventions were rather in- 

 struments which, in the hands of others, were to 

 produce important discoveries, than discoveries in 

 themselves. One was the invention of the Reflect- 

 ing Goniometer for measuring the angles of crys- 

 tals, now so essential to mineralogy ; another, the 



(783.) 



art of rendering platinum malleable, which has con- 

 ferred inexpressible benefits on chemistry, and on the 

 arts connected with it. The principle of the reflec- 

 tion of a ray of light for measuring angular spaces, 

 though it existed already in the single instance of the 

 sextant, has been, since it was applied to the gonio- 

 meter, adapted to a multitude of most ingenious and 

 valuable contrivances. 



Wollaston was an excellent optician, and of some 

 of his observations I have already spoken (476), 

 (538). 



The strong points of his character were precision 

 and rare acuteness in observation, patience and cau- 

 tion in deduction, and habitual devotion of his time trasted 

 and energies to scientific pursuits. His foibles were with that 

 an excess of caution, and a certain microscopic turn of Dav 7- 

 of mind which, though it sometimes rewarded him 

 with valuable discoveries, consumed his time in oc- 

 cupations of mechanical ingenuity, and prevented 

 him from grappling with almost any of the great 

 theories of his day. An exception, yet one which 

 illustrates his character, may be found in the fact 

 that he had all but anticipated Dalton in his disco- 

 very of the multiple combinations of Sjtilts, whilst, with 

 his characteristic sense of justice, he disclaimed any 

 participation in the merit (624). While Davy was de- 

 lighting crowded audiences with his eloquence, his 

 discoveries, and their wonderful results, Wollaston 

 was pursuing his solitary experiments on a scale so 

 small that scarcely three persons could witness them 

 at once. While Davy was firing his potassium with 

 ice, and making mimic volcanos heave by the oxida- 

 tion of his new metals, Wollaston was extract- 

 ing, by minute analyses, from the refractory and 

 unoxidable ores of platinum, substances previously 

 undetected, which, neither by their quantity nor 

 their characters, could ever interest any but a man 

 of science. While Davy was charging his prodi- 

 gious battery of 2000 pairs, the largest which 

 has ever been constructed (a homage to his ge- 

 nius, provided by his numerous admirers), Wol- 

 laston was proving, after his fashion, how similar 

 effects could be produced by the very same agency 

 on a small scale ; and with no greater apparatus than 

 a shred of zinc, a few drops of acid, and an old thimble, 

 he would gratify his friends by exhibiting the mimic 

 glow of an almost microscopic wire of platinum. 

 Davy seemed born to believe ; Wollaston to doubt. 

 Davy was a poet ; Wollaston, a mathematician, or, 

 at least, capable of becoming a great one. Davy 

 announced his discoveries in fiery haste, and pre- 

 sented all their consequences and corollaries as a free 

 gift to mankind ; Wollaston (estimating more truly 

 the rai'ity of the inventive faculty) hoarded every ob- 

 servation, turned it over and over, polished it, ren- 

 dered it exact beyond the reach of criticism, and 

 then deliberately laid it before the world. He had 

 the coldness and the accuracy of Cavendish, but he 

 wanted the spur of his genius, and the wide grasp 



