Sir Humphry Davy 



" JUST look at that boy ! What an extraordinary face ! 

 Who is he?" 



The boy in question, a lad of seventeen, was care- 

 lessly swinging on a gate, and as he swung contorted 

 his features into grotesque grimaces which gave him 

 the appearance of an animated gargoyle. He seemed 

 quite unconcerned at the approach of two well-dressed 

 gentlemen, from the younger of whom came the ex- 

 clamation and query. The other made answer : 



" That is young Davy, the carver's son. A queer 

 lad has a craze for making chemical experiments." 



"Eh? What? Chemical experiments!" said the 

 first speaker, regarding the boy with sudden interest. 

 " I must go and have a talk with him." 



And that was how Gilbert Giddy Davies and Humphry 

 Davy, two future Presidents of the Royal Society, first 

 became acquainted. 



Davies (or Giddy, as he then was, for he did not take 

 the name of Davies till some years later) was at that 

 time eight-and-twenty years of age, an Oxford Master 

 of Arts already known in literary and scientific circles, 



296 



