EPOCH OF DAVY AND FARADAY. 181 



then engaged in fierce hostility. Buonaparte hacl 

 proposed a prize of sixty thousand francs " to the 

 person who by his experiments and discoveries 

 should advance the knowledge of electricity and 

 galvanism, as much as Franklin and Volta did;" 

 and " of three thousand francs for the best experi- 

 ment which should be made in the course of each 

 year on the galvanic fluid;" the latter prize was, 

 by the First Class of the Institute, awarded to 

 Davy. 



From this period he rose rapidly to honours and 

 distinctions, and reached a height of scientific fame 

 as great as has ever fallen to the lot of a dis- 

 coverer in so short a time. I shall not, however, 

 dwell on such circumstances, but confine myself to 

 the progress of my subject. 



Sect. 2. Establishment of the Electro-chemical 

 Theory by Faraday. 



THE defects of Davy's theoretical views will be seen 

 most clearly by explaining what Faraday added to 

 them. Michael Faraday was in every way fitted 

 and led to become Davy's successor in his great 

 career of discovery. In 1812, being then a book- 

 seller's apprentice, he attended the lectures of Davy, 

 which at that period excited the highest admira- 

 tion 9 . "My desire to escape from trade," Mr. Fa- 

 raday says, "which I thought vicious and selfish, 



9 Paris, ii. 3. 



