CH. xxxvu. SIR -HUMPHR Y DA VY. 391 



In this way Davy's attention was drawn to nitrous oxide, 

 a gas which had been declared by a celebrated physician, 

 Dr. Mitchell, to be very poisonous. Our young chemist 

 wanted to try this for himself, and actually began breathing 

 it in small quantities to see whether it would affect him. 

 He proved that it certainly was not so poisonous as Mitchell 

 had thought, and, growing gradually bolder and bolder in 

 the use of it, he succeeded at last in breathing the gas for 

 several minutes, at the end of which time he lost all con- 

 sciousness, and found himself in a land of delicious dreams, 

 out of which he awoke gradually without being injured in 

 any way. Enchanted at having discovered such a delightful 

 sensation, he carried on his experiments for more than ten 

 months, and when he published the results, and told the 

 world that the mere breathing of a gas could make a man 

 sleep, and dream, and laugh without any cause, it created 

 a great sensation, and Davy's name soon became well 

 known. 



At this time (1801) the Royal Institution had just been 

 founded, and Count Rumford, seeing that Davy was a young 

 man of great talent, offered him the appointment of Assistant- 

 chemist. Davy accepted it, and from that time devoted 

 himself entirely to science. He was young, bright, and 

 enthusiastic, and his lectures were so clear and eloquent, 

 that the Royal Institution soon became famous under his 

 influence, while every new appliance for making chemical 

 experiments was given him in his laboratory. It was here 

 that he made his observations on flame in 1815, and con- 

 structed his Safety-lamp, which has saved so many lives, and 

 for the invention of which he received the title of baronet. 

 It was here also that he made his first experiments in electro- 

 chemistry, which is the only one of his many discoveries of 

 which we can speak. 



