354 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



present appearances at least, that the period of convales- 

 cence is not very remote.' 1 



The recovery of Davy was slow. 



On February 22 he attended at the request of the 

 Committee of Managers, and informed them that he 

 should be able to commence his course of lectures on 

 Electro-Chemical Science on Saturday, March 12, at 

 two o'clock, and those on Geology on Wednesday 

 evening, the sixteenth of that month. In his opening 

 lecture he thus spoke of electro-chemistry and its power 

 of analysis: 'In this it will be seen that Volta has 

 presented to us a key which promises to lay open 

 some of the most mysterious recesses of nature. Till 

 this discovery our means were limited; the field of 

 pneumatic research had been exhausted, and little 

 remained for the experimentalist except minute and 

 laborious processes. There is now before us a bound- 

 less prospect of novelty in science, a country unex- 

 plored but noble and fertile in aspect, a land of 

 promise in philosophy.' 



In the Laboratory Book, probably about this 

 time, he wrote, ' An instrument for procuring those 

 metals that have not yet been reduced for decompos- 

 ing muriatic acid gas, fluoric, &c., and boracic acid 

 gas: 



1 Some time after his recovery it was said in the Institution that his 

 laboratory experiments caused his illness. 



' Says Davy to Baryt, " I've a strong inclination 



To try to effect your deoxidation ; " 



But Baryt replied, " Have a care of your mirth, 



Lest I should retaliate and change you to earth." ' 



