Sir fbnmpbn? IDav\? 313 



ancc and interest not their own, ami made them, as it 

 were, rational. His notr-bonks show this vrry remark- 

 ably ; they contain not merely the minutes of his day's 

 sport, but also the results of his observations for the 

 purposes of distinguishing species and identifying them, 

 and of ascertaining their routes in migration, their 

 peculiar diets and habits." 



In the year 1815 the attention of Sir Humphry I 

 was directed towards devising a remedy against the 

 frequent explosions of fire damp in coal-mines, attended 

 as they usually were by fearful loss of life. The result 

 of his investigations was the invention of the Safety 

 Lamp a cage of wire-gauze, which by its cooling 

 action prevents the flame from igniting the explosive 

 atmosphere exterior to the lamp, even though the flame 

 reach as far as the gauze. It is as the inventor of the 

 safety lamp that Sir Humphry is now best known, 

 just as another eminent chemist, Justus von Liebig, owes 

 his fame among the multitude to what he, too, probably 

 thought the least of all his discoveries the familiar 

 extract of meat. The grateful coal-owners presented 

 the inventor of the safety lamp with a magnificent 

 service of plate which cost nearly 2,000, and the Crown 

 rewarded him with a baronetcy. 



During the latter portion of his life his devotion to 

 sport was at least as fervent as his devotion to science. 

 As the guest of the Duke of Sutherland at Dunrobin 

 Castle he enjoyed some of the best salmon-fishing 

 and grouse-shooting in Scotland. Now and then, 

 too, the hospitable laird of Abbotsford showed him 

 excellent sport, for there was no keener sportsman 



