1801. JET. 23.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 323 



The second lecture was given on the 28th, and the 

 others were to be delivered on the Tuesday and Saturday 

 evenings till completed. He gave another short course 

 on Pneumatic Chemistry. ' The lectures were extremely 

 ingenious and excited considerable attention.' The 

 concluding lecture was on June 20, on Respiration, and 

 after the lecture an opportunity was given to such as 

 wished it to breathe some of the nitrous oxide. The 

 reporter said, 'Mr. Grosvenor Bedford, Mr. Stodart, and 

 Mr. Underwood breathed the gas, and the effects it 

 produced, and especially on the last, were truly wonder- 

 ful. Mr. Underwood experienced so much pleasure from 

 breathing it that he lost all sense of everything else, and 

 the breathing bag could only be taken from him at 

 last by force.' ' The irresistible tendency to muscular 

 action produced by this gas was such as cannot be 

 described. It must be witnessed to be conceived.' 



6 Professor Pictet, of Geneva, who is now on a visit in 

 this country, Count Rumford, and other philosophers 

 of eminence were present, and seemed not a little 

 gratified with the exhibition of the gas.' l 



6 Another galvanic course was also given by Mr. Davy, 

 which, being delivered in the fore part of the day, was 

 attended not only by men of science, but by numbers 

 of people of rank and fashion, a proof that the Insti- 

 tution bids fair to promote a taste for philosophical 

 pursuits among those whose wealth has but too often 



1 The substance of these lectures was published in the fourth num- 

 ber of the Journals-of the Royal Institution, p. 49, edited by Dr. Young. 

 The paper is called Outlines of a View of Galvanism. It is dated 

 September 1801. 



Y 2 



