(774.) 
Rewards. 
(775.) 
Davy mo- 
difies La- 
voisier’s 
theory of 
combus- 
tion, 
(776.) 
Davy’s 
protectors 
for ships. 
Cuar. VIL., § 3.] ELECTRICITY.—DAVY. 971 
“ the true and amiable philosopher,” as Davy long 
before described him, thus proclaimed his victory in 
the Edinburgh Review :—After describing the course 
of a discovery “ which is in no degree the effect of ac- 
cident,” he adds, “this is exactly such a case as we 
should choose to place before Bacon were he to re- 
visit the earth, in order to give him, in a small com- 
pass, an idea of the advancement which philosophy 
has made since the time when he had pointed out to 
her the route which she ought to pursue. ‘The re- 
sult is as wonderful as itis important. An invisible 
and impalpable barrier made effectual against a force 
the most violent and irresistible in its operations ; 
and a power that in its tremendous effects seemed 
to emulate the lightning and the earthquake, con- 
fined within a narrow space, and shut up in a net of 
the most slender texture—are facts which must excite 
a degree of wonder and astonishment, from which 
neither ignorance nor wisdom can defend the be- 
holder.” 
For this truly patriotic labour, the only national 
testimony which Davy received was the inadequate 
one of a baronetey, which was conferred on him by 
the Prince Regent in 1818; but his real triumph 
and great reward were in the enthusiastic apprecia- 
tion of his entire success by those on whom he had 
disinterestedly conferred so great a benefit. A tes- 
timonial, in the form of a service of plate, of great 
value, was presented to him by the coal-owners of 
the north of England. 
Davy’s researches on flame were intimately 
connected with his electrical and chemical discove- 
ries. He remodelled Lavoisier’s theory of combus- 
tion, and put an end to the distinction between com- 
bustibles and supporters of combustion. Chemical 
combination, effected with great energy, and accom- 
panied by a high temperature, is essential to com- 
bustion, and either element of the combination is 
equally entitled to the denomination of combustible. 
Guided by the electro-chemical theory, Davy appears 
to have thought that the heat of flame has an elee- 
trical origin. 
But I must hasten to close this section. Among 
the labours of his latter years, there was none which 
interested Davy more, or which reasonably promised 
more useful results, than his plan for protecting the 
copper sheathing of ships from the corrosive action 
of sea water, by affixing plates of zine or iron, which 
shouldrender the copper slightly electro-negative, and 
thus indispose it for combining with acid principles. 
It is a somewhat singular fact that Fabbroni, about 30 
years before, had instanced the corrosion of copper 
sheathing near the contact of heterogeneous metals, 
as an instance of the chemical origin of galvanism.! 
Davy’s experiments were conducted with his usual 
skill and success, and the remedy only failed of 
general adoption on account, it may be said, of 
being too effectual, other and opposite injurious 
effects having been found to arise. 
Davy was elected President of the Royal Society _ (777.) 
in 1820, in the room of Sir Joseph Banks, who had Haar Pat 
held the office for 42 years. It was a distinguished o¢ the 
compliment, for the election was all but unanimous. Royal So- 
He continued to communicate papers for several se a 
years subsequently ; but his energy, his temper, and, “""” 
finally, his health began to give way—showing that 
the ardent labours of his youth and prime had in- 
jured his constitution. Attacked with paralysis in 
1827, he spent his last years chiefly abroad, and 
died at Geneva (where he was buried), on the 29th 
May 1829. 
The character of Davy was a rare and admir- (778.) 
able combination. The ardour of his researches, and Philosophi- 
the deep devotion of his whole being to scientific in- %*! “*™®* 
vestigation, have been already proved. They had the 
effect of completely annihilating every baser passion, 
He valued property only in so far as he could apply 
it usefully ; and his disinterestedness with respect to 
the fortunes which several of his practical discoveries 
might have honourably earned, was one of the most 
striking parts of his character. His fancy was dis- 
cursive to a degree rarely met with in men of science. 
He continued to write poetry nearly all his life, and 
the tone of it was that of grave speculation, always 
reverting to the destiny of man and the beneficence 
of the Creator. His lectures were composed with 
care; and their effect, even as pieces of oratory, was 
striking. Coleridge frequented them “ to increase 
his stock of metaphors ;’’—yet they were always to 
the point, and never degenerated into rhetorical dis- 
play. For a man of such extraordinary liveliness of 
fancy and impetuosity of action, his mistakes were 
astonishingly few. After his very first experience, 
his publications were made with great care and judg- 
ment. His estimates of his contemporaries appear 
generally to have been fair and liberal, though it 
would be incorrect to affirm that he was universally 
popular among them. The combination of isolated 
and intense occupation in his laboratory, with ex- 
citement in the mixed society of an admiring London 
public, was a trial which few, if any, could have 
escaped better than he did; and so far as we can 
judge of a man from his expressed opinion of his 
own successes, whether recorded in his works or in 
his intimate correspondence, Davy must be accounted 
to have acquitted himself gracefully and well. He 
always spoke of the Pile of Volta as the first source 
of his own success. “ Nothing tends so much to the 
advancement of knowledge as the application of a new 
instrument,” he says; and then adds, “‘ The native 
intellectual powers of men in different times are not 
so much the causes of the different success of their 
labours, as the peculiar nature of the means and 
artificial resources in their possession ;” a proposition 
1 There appears, however, to have been something erroneous in the details of Fabbroni’s observations, or at least in the account 
of them given in Nicholson's Journal. 
