Ixxxi 



volumes just mentioned, the author " carefully abstaining from all that was 

 controversial and vindicatory, trusting that what was before a duty was 

 then superfluous and, thirdly, by the volume of * Fragmentary Remains, 

 Literary and Scientific,' which contained a sketch of his brother's life and 

 was published in 1858. The sixth volume of this edition of Sir Humphry 

 Davy's works, and the second volume of the first of the Biographies of 

 him published by his brother, contain a full statement of the relative claims 

 of Sir H. Davy and George Stephenson respectively to be considered the 

 inventor of the Safety Lamp. Upon another occasion, and as recently as 

 1864-1865, as may be seen by a reference to the pages of the Philosophical 

 Magazine, Dr. Davy engaged himself in a vindication of his brother's repu- 

 tation from certain aspersions which had been cast upon it with reference 

 to his conduct when President of this Society. 



Dr. Davy was the author of two works on Angling, which have the form 

 of colloquies, and are discursive and digressive, especially in the direction of 

 the various biological bearings of the sport. His liking for this pursuit 

 w^as, as is well known from the * Salmonia,' common to him with the 

 author of that work. 



Dr. Davy pursued a regular and methodical course of literary and 

 scientific work up to the latest days of his life. His activity, as seen in 

 his later years at the Meetings of the British Association, which he regularly 

 attended, was the wonder of much younger men. Those who saw him in 

 ordinary life gathered from the sight the moral that regular habits in 

 ordinary life are the best guarantee for the possession of a power for putting 

 forth extraordinary exertions upon extraordinary occasions. 



The great reputation which, in spite of all efforts to the contrary, has 

 settled round the name of Sir Humphry Davy, has necessarily put Dr. John 

 Davy's claims for scientific distinction somewhat at a disadvantage. The 

 younger brother's main deficiencies were deficiencies affecting his power of 

 imagination and his faculty of exposition, and for excellence in these mental 

 qualities the elder brother was not less preeminently distinguished than for 

 his more strictly scientific abilities. It is much to the credit of Dr. Davy's 

 moral nature that no shadow of mortification or jealousy ever darkened his 

 meditations on his brother's achievements, into comparison with which he 

 was so constantly forced to bring his own. Nor can we close this notice 

 more fitly than by saying what is the literal truth, that his sympathy with 

 the cause of his brother's reputation, showing itself as it did in a repeated 

 and successful championship of it, elevated his whole nature and spread 

 through and over his long series of labours the warm light of a sunny 

 memory. 



