SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. 155 



square, four times as powerful as any that had been 

 constructed, and not long after, one of two thousand 

 plates. Scientific papers were constantly coming 

 from his pen. He soon decomposed boracic acid 

 with the battery. By heating boron in oxygen, it 

 burnt, and was reconverted into boracic acid. In 

 his experiments with muriatic acid gas he found 

 chlorine to be a simple substance, and discovered 

 euchlorine, a compound of chlorine and oxygen. 



He had already been made a fellow of the Royal 

 Society at twenty-five, and at twenty-nine one of 

 the secretaries. His lectures were crowded, as 

 ever, by a thousand people. The Dublin Society 

 now invited him to give courses of lectures in 1810 

 and 1811, which he did, ticket-holders each paying 

 ten dollars for a course. So difficult was it to gain 

 admission to the lectures that many offered from 

 fifty to a hundred dollars for a course ticket ! 



He writes these facts to his mother, and adds, 

 " This is merely for your eye : it may please you 

 to know that your son is not unpopular or useless. 

 Every person here, from the highest to the lowest, 

 shows me every attention and kindness. 



" I shall come to see you as soon as I can. I 

 hear with infinite delight of your health, and I hope 

 Heaven will continue to preserve and bless a mother 

 who deserves so well of her children." 



Trinity College, Dublin, conferred upon him the 

 degree of Doctor of Civil Law. Cuvier said of him : 

 "Davy, not yet thirty-two, in the opinion of all 

 who could judge of such labors, held the first rank 



