1812. JET. 34.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 383 



and simple theory to the most intricate and apparently 

 anomalous results derived from previous observation. 



' Until the year 1 806 Sir Humphry Davy had been 

 remarkable for the industrious and ingenious applica- 

 tion of those means of experiment only which had 

 been long known to chemists. He had acquired at a 

 very early period of his life a well-established celebrity 

 among men of science throughout Europe by the 

 originality and accuracy of his researches, and at the 

 same time the fluent and impressive delivery of his 

 lectures had obtained him the most flattering marks of 

 approbation from the public of the metropolis. But 

 it was in the summer of that year that, in repeating 

 some electro-chemical experiments of very doubtful 

 authority (the production of acid and alkali by the 

 decomposition of water), he was led into a new train of 

 reasoning and investigation, which enabled him to 

 demonstrate the important laws of the connection 

 between the electrical affections of bodies and their 

 chemical powers. This was his first great discovery. . . . 

 Our author's next great step was the decomposition of 

 the alkalies, which he effected the succeeding year ; 

 and this, though less interesting and important with 

 regard to the fundamental theory of the science, was 

 more brilliant and imposing from its capability of 

 being exhibited in a visible, tangible form. The third 

 striking feature which distinguishes the system ad- 

 vanced in the present work is the assertion of the 

 existence of at least two empyreal principles oxygen 

 and the elastic fluid called the oxymuriatic acid gas 

 (chlorine). . . . 



