President  of  the  Roi/al  Societj/. 
17 
engine-tenter  was  an  independent  searcher  after  a method  of 
protecting  a flame,  it  is  equally  certain  that  he  was  not  the 
discoverer  of  the  true  principle  on  which  the  safety-lamp  is 
constructed,  and  that  the  lamp  associated  with  his  name, 
although  it  hears  the  impress  of  the  crude  ideas  with  which 
he  started,  owes  its  real  merits  to  the  discoveries  of  Davy.” *  * 
The  crowning  public  recognition  of  the  great  merits  of 
Davy’s  discovery  and  his  generous  action  is  to  he  found  in  the 
baronetcy  conferred  hy  the  Prince  Regent  on  October  20,  1818. 
The  reason  for  occupying  so  much  space  on  the  considera- 
tion of  this  invention  is  that  Davy  himself  looked  upon  it  as 
the  greatest  event  of  his  life.  In  his  letter  to  Dr.  (xray, 
October  30,  1815,  he  says:  “T  have  never  received  so  much 
pleasure  from  the  result  of  any  of  my  chemical  labours  ; for  I 
trust  the  cause  of  humanity  will  gain  something  by  it.”^ 
Dr.  Davy  often  heard  him  express  the  satisfaction  which  the 
discovery  of  the  safety-lamp  gave  him.  On  one  occasion  he 
said  : “ T value  it  more  than  anything  I ever  did  ; it  was  the 
result  of  a great  deal  of  investigation  and  labour  ; but  if  my 
directions  be  attended  to  it  will  save  the  lives  of  thousands  of 
poor  men.”* 
In  1820  Davy  succeeded  Sir  Joseph  Banks  as  President 
of  the  Royal  Society.  It  had  been  Banks’s  desire  that  Dr. 
Wollaston  should  take  his  place,  and  of  Davy  he  said  he  “ is 
a lively  and  talented  man  and  a thorough  chemist,  but  . . . 
he  is  rather  too  lively  to  fill  the  chair  of  the  Royal  Society 
with  that  degree  of  gravity  which  it  is  most  becoming  to 
assume.”  This  is  an  insufficient  and  misleading  character, 
such  as  might  he  expected  from  a worthy  but  heavy  and 
unimaginative  man.  Dr.  Thorpe  justly  remarks : “ Oh  ! this 
gravity  ! ‘ La  gravite,’  says  La  Rochefoucauld,  ‘ est  un 
mystere  du  cori)s,  invente  pour  cacher  les  defauts  de 
I’esprit.’  ” ^ 
Wollaston  accepted  the  Presidency  from  the  death  of 
Banks  (June  19)  to  the  annual  meeting  (Nov.  30),  but  he 
refused  nomination  at  the  annual  election,  and  Davy  was 
elected  to  office  with  an  overwhelming  majority.  For  seven 
years  he  held  the  post  until  failing  health  compelled  him  to 
resign. 
‘ Thorpe’s  Hum/j/u’i/  Daru,  page  206. 
^ Ihid.,  page  197. 
’ Davy’s  Life,  page  464. 
* Thorpe’s  Humphry  Davy,  page  214. 
VOL.  65. 
C 
