SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. 163 



name of their town famous and imperishable as 

 science itself, but who had added lustre to the 

 intellectual character of their country" 



From year to year he continued his experiments. 

 Urged by the commissioners of the navy to remedy 

 the corrosion of copper sheathing on vessels by sea 

 water, he succeeded in rendering the copper nega- 

 tively electrical by small pieces of tin, zinc, or iron 

 nails. Shells and seaweeds adhered to the non- 

 corroded surface, but the principle of galvanic 

 protection has been applied to various important 

 uses. 



In 1824, Sir Humphrey took a journey to Nor- 

 way, Sweden, and Denmark, visiting Berzelius of 

 Sweden, " one of the great ornaments of the age," 

 he said, and Oersted of Denmark, distinguished for 

 his discovery of electro-magnetism. 



Towards the close of 1826, when he was only 

 forty-eight, Davy was attacked by paralysis in the 

 right side, having suffered for a year with numb- 

 ness and pain in his right arm. During his con- 

 finement in his room, he corrected the proof sheets 

 of his " Discourses to the Royal Society," published 

 in January, 1827. 



In this year, having improved, he went through 

 France, Italy, and Switzerland, hunting and fishing 

 as in his boyhood, and writing " Salmonia, or Days 

 of Fly Fishing," giving descriptions of his journey 

 and his observations on natural history. 



In the spring of 1828, he made another journey, 

 to Southern Austria, spending the winter in Italy, 



