1815-26. .Ex. 37-48.] SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 389 



Earl Spencer moved ' that the thanks of this meeting 

 be returned to Sir H. Davy for the inestimable ser- 

 vices rendered by him to the Eoyal Institution, 

 and that, in order more strongly to mark the high 

 sense entertained by this meeting of the merits 

 of Sir H. Davy, he be elected Honorary Professor of 

 Chemistry.' 



Mr. Brande was then nominated Professor of 

 Chemistry, with a salary of 2001. per annum. 



In October Sir H. Davy went abroad with Mr. 

 Faraday. 



In May 1815 he came back, and Faraday was re-en- 

 gaged as the assistant in the laboratory of the Eoyal In- 

 stitution. Whilst abroad he had sent as many as seven 

 papers to the Eoyal Society on c Fluoric Acid Com- 

 pounds and Hydrogen Acids.' Two papers on ' Iodine,' 

 on ' Combustion of the Diamond,' on ' Ancient Colours,' 

 on a ' Solid Compound of Iodine and Oxygen,' on ' Hy- 

 peroxy-Muriates.' 



When he returned he probably intended to make 

 greater discoveries in chemistry during the following 

 ten years than he had made during the fifteen years that 

 he had been at the Institution. He was in the prime 

 of life. He had won the highest rank as an original 

 inquirer. He had a love of research which, in spite of 

 his marriage, his wealth, and ultimately his ill health, 

 never ceased until his early death. He had Faraday 

 as his assistant, and he soon found a subject more 

 fruitful than the composition of nitrogen, which had so 

 long baffled his genius. 



Many of the details of his work in the laboratory 



