450 DAVY. 



the Cornish coast, to whom he had done some kind 

 service, the means of making some approximation to 

 an exhausting engine. 



It happened, fortunately for him, that Gregory 

 Watt, youngest son of the great engineer, and whom, 

 having had the happiness of knowing him, I have already 

 mentioned, came to reside in the house of Davy's 

 mother at Penzance, where he was ordered to pass 

 the winter for the benefit of his health. Being five 

 years older than the young chemist, and eminently 

 accomplished both in science and in letters, his con- 

 versation and advice was a great advantage, of which 

 Davy gladly availed himself. Another accident threw 

 him in the way of Mr. Davies Giddy, a cultivator of 

 natural as well as mathematical science, and he, find- 

 ing that Davy had been devoting himself to chemistry, 

 gave him the use of an excellent library, and intro- 

 duced him to Dr. Beddoes, who was then engaged in 

 forming an establishment called by him the Pneumatic 

 Institution, for the medical use of gases, as well as for 

 further investigating their properties. At the head of 

 this he placed his new friend, who was thus at once 

 enabled to pursue his scientific vocation as a profession, 

 and did not long delay giving to the world a proof 

 of his ingenuity, by the publication of a theory of 

 f Light and Heat,' fanciful no doubt, and ill-digested, 

 containing much groundless and imaginary, and even 

 absurd speculation, but disclosing great information 

 arid no inconsiderable cleverness. It was published in 

 a periodical work edited by Dr. Beddoes, called ' Con- 

 tributions to Medical and Physical Science ;' and to the 

 same work he soon after gave a paper upon the ' Nitrous 



