1806. 2Ex. 28.] PROFESSOR DAVY. 339 



ing the pay proportioned to the work. But I ought 

 not to attempt to say anything on the subject when my 

 limits are so narrow. 



Up to 1806 the lectures given by Davy had brought 

 to him repute and to the Eoyal Institution success. 

 To his high reputation as a lecturer he was now 

 about to add that of a great original discoverer. As 

 early as July 3, 1800, he wrote to Davies Gilbert, 

 6 We have been repeating the galvanic experiments 

 with success.' (See p. 316.) These experiments led 

 him to think that all chemical decompositions might 

 be polar. He electrised different compounds at the 

 different poles of the battery, but he made no great 

 discovery for five years. The assertion that acid and 

 alkali were generated by the action of the voltaic 

 pile in the decomposition of water led him to undertake 

 fresh galvanic experiments in 1806. Before long he 

 was rewarded by his great discoveries regarding chemi- 

 cal electricity, the decomposition of the alkalies, and 

 the composition of chlorine. 



It appears from the Laboratory Books that in 

 September he first made experiments on phosphorus 

 with the galvanic spark, and in the- last week of 

 October he 'tried to decompose phosphorus by the 

 galvanic fluid.' He fused the phosphorus into a tube 

 through which a platinum wire passed. This was the 

 form of the experiment which be made a year after^ 

 wards to compel potash to give up its oxygen. 



On November 20 his first Bakerian lecture was 

 given at the Eoyal Society. It had this long title: 

 On the ' Chemical Agencies of Electricity ; ' on the 



z 2. 



