324 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



fostered the idea that such subjects were beneath the 

 notice of independence.' 



At a meeting of managers, held on June 1, it was 

 resolved 'that Mr. Humphry Davy, Director of the 

 Chemical Laboratory and Assistant Lecturer in Chemis- 

 try, since he has been employed at the Institution, has 

 given satisfactory proofs of his talents as a lecturer, and 

 also it was resolved that he be appointed and' in future 

 denominated Lecturer on Chemistry at the Koyal 

 Institution, instead of continuing to occupy the place 

 of Assistant Lecturer, which he has hitherto filled.' 



On June 18 his first paper was read at the Royal 

 Society. It was an account of some galvanic combina- 

 tions formed by an arrangement of single metallic 

 plates and fluids analogous to the galvanic apparatus 

 of M. Volta. 



On June 29 a permanent committee for the general 

 purposes of chemical investigation and analysis was 

 appointed at the Eoyal Institution, and the Minutes 

 say that Mr. Davy was instructed to prepare himself 

 to give in the month of December next a course of 

 lectures on the Philosophical and Chemical Principles of 

 the Art of Dyeing, or on the Arts of Staining or Printing 

 with Colours, Woollen, Linen, and Cotton (roods. < That 

 Mr. Davy have permission to absent himself during the 

 months of July, August, and September for the purpose 

 of making himself more particularly acquainted with 

 the practical part of the business of tanning.' 



Davy first went to Bristol, and thence he wrote to 

 his friend Mr. Underwood to join him for a tour in 

 Cornwall. 



