380 EEVIEWS — MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



or by narrow interstices between concentric tubes of some length ; or fiually, by 

 rows of parallel partitions of metal, forming rectangular canals extremely narrow 

 in proportion to their length. A similar system of escape apertures was applied 

 at the top of the lantern. 



With characteristic ingenuity, Davy did not stop here. He continued to reduce 

 at once the apertures and length of his metallic guards, until it occurred to him, 

 that wire gauze might, with equal effect, and far more convenience, act upon the 

 temperature of flame, so as to reduce it below the point of ignition, and thus 

 effectually stop its communication. The experiment was successful, and by the 

 9th November, 1815, or wi thin about ten weeks after his first experiments, an 

 account of the safety -lamp defended by wire gauze was presented to the Royal 

 Society. About two months later he produced a lamp entirely enveloped in me- 

 tallic tissue. 



There are none of Davy's researches which will stand a closer scrutiny than 

 those which terminated thus successfully. No fortuitous observation led him to 

 conceive a happy idea and to apply it to practice. A great boon to humanity and 

 the arts was required at his hands ; and, without a moment's delay, he proceeded 

 to seek for it under the guidance of a strictly experimental and inductive philoso- 

 phy. "Without, perhaps, a single false turn, and scarcely a superfluous experiment, 

 he proceeded straight to his goal, guided by the promptings of a happy genius, 

 aided by no common industry. The chemical, the mechanical, and the purely 

 physical parts of the problem were all in turn dealt with, and with equal sagacity. 

 It may be safely affirmed that he who was destitute of any one of these qualifica- 

 tions, must have failed in attaining the object so ardently desired, unless by the 

 aid of some rare good fortune. 



In comparing the biographies of foreign celebrities with those of 

 British origin, we cannot help being struck with a difference that 

 manifests itself in the treatment they receive from their respective 

 countries. Abroad, we find that the successful cultivators of science 

 are raised to places of dignity and trust in the State, adorned with 

 distinctions of crosses and ribands, and liberally provided for, when 

 necessary, by honorable pensions ; not a few of them accomodated with 

 titles of nobility in acknowledgment of their services. At home, on 

 the contrary, with the exception of a few knighthoods (rather indis- 

 criminately conferred), and now and then a solitary baronetcy, or per- 

 haps a small pension grudgingly bestowed, we find no official recog- 

 nition of the status of a man of science. This has sometimes, by 

 foreigners, been made the ground of illiberal comparison, yet surely 

 without due consideration. The indiscriminate bestowal of such honors 

 as are extended to men of science in England, sufficiently [troves how 

 incapable are the political advisers of the Crown to form a court of 

 honor for her intellectual peerage. A Royal Society presidency, or a 

 Wollaston medal, constitute far fitter honors for a Newton or a Lyell 

 than the legislative honors and functions which supply the highest 

 reward for the successful soldier or lawyer ; while the loss is that of the 



