Part III. ‘The Chemistry of the Arts.’ Div. 1, of Agriculture; Div.

2, of Tanning; Div. 3, of Bleaching; Div. 4, of Dyeing; Div. 5, of Metallurgy; Div. 6, of the Manufactory of Glass and Porcelain; Div. 7, of the Preparation of Food and Drink; Div. 8, of the Management of Heat and Light Artificially Produced.

He gave his introductory lecture to the morning course on General Chemistry on Thursday, January 21, and to the evening course on Outlines of Chemical Science and Chemistry of the Arts on February 9. The allusion to the Royal Institution with which he ended his first lecture was full of poetry.

‘In reasoning concerning the future hopes of the human species we may look forward with confidence to a state of society in which the different orders and classes of men will contribute more effectually to the support of each other than they have hitherto done. This state, indeed, seems to be approaching fast; for, in consequence of the multiplication of the means of instruction, the man of science and the manufacturer are daily becoming more assimilated to each other.

‘The arts and sciences also are in high degree patronised by the rich and privileged orders.

‘The unequal division of property and of labour, the differences of rank and condition amongst mankind, are the sources of power in civilised life--its moving causes and even its very soul. In considering and hoping that the human species is capable of becoming more enlightened and more happy we can only expect that the different parts of the great whole of society should be intimately united together by means of knowledge and the useful arts, that they should act as the children of one great parent with one determinate end, so that no power may be rendered useless, no exertions thrown away.

‘In this view we do not look to distant ages or amuse ourselves with brilliant though delusive dreams concerning the infinite improvability of man, the annihilation of labour, disease, and even death; but we reason by analogy from simple facts; we consider only a state of human progression arising out of its present condition; we look for a time that we may reasonably expect, FOR A BRIGHT DAY OF WHICH WE ALREADY BEHOLD THE DAWN.’

The following day Sir H. Englefield wrote to Mr. Underwood from Tilney Street, ‘Davy, covered with glory, dines with me at five to-day. If you could meet him it would give me great pleasure.’

At this dinner Sir Henry wrote a request to Davy to print his lecture.

A friend of Davy’s some years afterwards thus mentioned the success of his lectures to Dr. Paris:

‘The sensation created by his lectures at the Institution and the enthusiastic admiration which they obtained is at this period scarcely to be imagined. Men of the first rank and talent, the literary and the scientific, the practical and the theoretical, blue-stockings and women of fashion, the old and the young, all crowded, eagerly crowded, the lecture room. His youth, his simplicity, his natural eloquence, his chemical knowledge, his happy illustrations and well-conducted experiments excited universal attention and unbounded applause.

‘Compliments, invitations, and presents were showered upon him in abundance from all quarters. His society was courted by all, and all appeared proud of his acquaintance.’

On February 5 he again dined with Sir H. Englefield at his house at Blackheath. Eighteen long years afterwards, looking back through Davy’s career, Sir H. Englefield said of this evening, ‘It was the last flash of expiring nature.’

On May 31, 1802, at the managers’ meeting, it was resolved that Mr. Humphry Davy be for the future styled Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Institution. In July ‘he respectfully requested leave of the managers that he may be permitted to spend a few weeks during the summer in the country. It is not amusement alone that he hopes to gain during his short absence, but he believes that he may be able to collect some information that may be useful in the lectures to be given on Agriculture in the spring, and which may be in other ways connected with the views of the Institution. He will take care that his absence shall not interfere with the regular publication of the Journals, and he will never be so far from town but that he can speedily return whenever his presence may be necessary.’

He wrote to Davies Gilbert, October 26:

DEAR FRIEND,--The anxieties and hopes connected with a new occupation have prevented me from paying sufficient attention even to the common duties and affections of life.... Your correspondence is to me a real source of pleasure, and, believe me, I would suffer no opportunity to escape of making it more frequent and regular.

My labours in the theatre of the Royal Institution have been more successful than I could have hoped from the nature of them. In lectures the effect produced upon the mind is generally transitory; for the most part they amuse rather than instruct, and stimulate to inquiry rather than give information. My audience has often amounted to four or five hundred and upwards, and amongst them some promise to become permanently attached to chemistry. This science is much the fashion of the day.

I mentioned to you in a former letter the great powers of galvanism in effecting the combustion of metals. I have lately had constructed for the laboratory of the Institution a battery of immense size; it consists of four hundred plates of five inches in diameter and forty of a foot in diameter.

I am now examining the agencies of it upon certain substances that have not as yet been decomposed.

* * * * *

Have you seen the theory of my colleague, Dr. Young, on the undulations of an ethereal medium as the cause of light? It is not likely to be a popular hypothesis after what has been said by Newton concerning it. He would be very much flattered if you could offer any observations upon it, whether for or against it.

* * * * *

We are publishing at the Royal Institution a ‘Journal of Science,’ which contains chiefly abridged accounts of what is going on in different parts of Europe, with some original papers; and, in hopes that its diffusion may become more general, we have fixed its price at one shilling.

* * * * *

I am beginning to think of my course of lectures for the winter. In addition to the common course of the Institution, I have to deliver a few lectures on Vegetable Substances, and on the Connexion of Chemistry with Vegetable Physiology, before the Board of Agriculture.

* * * * *

I am, dear Sir, with affection and respect, yours, H. DAVY.

In April Davy joined Dr. Young in editing the eighth number of the Journal. Count Rumford had edited the three first and Dr. Young the four following numbers. In the third number Davy had given an account of a new eudiometer, and in the fourth outlines of a view of galvanism. In another number he gave an account of a method of copying paintings upon glass, and of making profiles by the agency of light upon nitrate of silver, invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. He says, ‘Nothing but a method of preventing the unshaded parts of the delineation from being coloured by exposure to the day is wanting to render the process as useful as it is elegant.’

On February 24, 1803, an account of some experiments and observations on the constituent parts of certain astringent vegetables, and on their operation in tanning, was read by Davy at the Royal Society.

He was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society on April 20, and elected on November 17.

A letter from Coleridge to Mr. Purkis, dated February 17, 1803, from Nether Stowey, thus speaks of Davy at this time:

I rejoice in Davy’s progress. There are three suns recorded in Scripture--Joshua’s, that stood still; Hezekiah’s, that went backward; and David’s, that went forth and hastened on his course like a bridegroom from his chamber. May our friend prove the latter! It is a melancholy thing to see a man, like the sun in the close of the Lapland summer, meridional in his horizon, or like wheat in a rainy season, that shoots up well in the stalk, but does not kern. As I have hoped and do hope more proudly of Davy than of any other man, and as he has been endeared to me more than any other man by the being a thing of hope to me (more, far more, than myself to my own self in my most genial moments), so of course my disappointment would be proportionably severe. It were a falsehood if I said that I think his present situation most calculated of all others to foster either his genius or the clearness and uncorruptness of his opinions and moral feelings. I see two serpents at the cradle of his genius--dissipation with a perpetual increase of acquaintances and the constant presence of inferiors and devotees, with that too great facility of attaining admiration which degrades ambition into vanity; but the Hercules will strangle both the reptile monsters. I have thought it possible to exert talents with perseverance, and to attain true greatness wholly pure even from the impulses of ambition, but on this subject Davy and I always differed.... My book is not, strictly speaking, metaphysical, but historical. It, perhaps, will merit the title of a history of metaphysics in England, from Lord Bacon to Mr. Hume inclusive. I confine myself to facts in every part of the work, excepting that which treats of Mr. Hume; _him_ I have assuredly besprinkled copiously from the fountains of bitterness and contempt. As to this and the other works which you have mentioned, ‘have patience, lord, and I will pay thee all.’

Mr. T. Wedgwood goes to Italy in the first days of May. Whether I accompany him is uncertain; he is apprehensive that my health may incapacitate me. If I do not go with him, I shall go off myself in the first week of April if possible.

Davy himself wrote, on May 5, to his friend Mr. Thomas Poole:

Be not alarmed, my dear friend, as to the effect of worldly society on my mind. The age of danger has passed away; there are in the intellectual being of all men permanent elements, certain habits and passions that cannot change. I am a lover of nature with an ungratified imagination; I shall continue to search for untasted charms, for hidden beauties.

My _real_, my _waking_ existence is amongst the objects of scientific research; common amusements and enjoyments are necessary to me only as dreams to interrupt the flow of thoughts too nearly analogous to enlighten and to vivify. Coleridge has left London for Keswick. During his stay in town I saw him seldomer than usual; when I did see him it was generally in the midst of large companies, where he is the image of power and activity. His eloquence is unimpaired; perhaps it is softer and stronger. His will is probably less than ever commensurate with his ability. Brilliant images of greatness float upon his mind like the images of the morning clouds upon the waters: their forms are changed by the motions of the waves, they are agitated by every breeze, and modified by every sunbeam. He talked in the course of one hour of beginning three works, and he recited the poem of ‘Christabel’ unfinished and as I had before heard it. What talent does he not waste in forming visions sublime, but unconnected with the real world! I have looked to his efforts as the efforts of a creating being, but as yet he has not even laid the foundation for the new world of intellectual forms.

When my agricultural lectures are finished I propose to visit Paris, and perhaps Geneva.

On May 10 the first lecture was given before the Board of Agriculture, and five others on succeeding Fridays and Tuesdays. They were corrected and published in 1813.

Later he wrote again to Mr. Poole:

Often, very often, in the midst of the tumults of the multitude in this great city has my spirit turned in quietness and solitude towards you.

I hope soon to see you in Somersetshire, where we may worship nature and the Spirit that dwells in nature in your green fields and under your tranquil sky. My communications with you, and Coleridge, and Southey, and other ornaments of the great existing Being have excited feelings which cheer me in the apathy of London, and which make me love human nature.

In December 1803 Dr. Dalton gave a course of lectures at the Royal Institution. Early in January he wrote to a friend from the Royal Institution:

I was introduced to Mr. Davy, who has rooms adjoining mine; he is a very agreeable and intelligent young man, and we have interesting conversations in the evening; the principal failing in his character as a philosopher is that he does not smoke. Mr. Davy advised me to labour at my first lecture; he told me the people here would be inclined to form their opinion from it. Accordingly I resolved to _write_ my first lecture wholly; to _do_ nothing, but to tell them what I would do and enlarge upon the importance and utility of science. I studied and wrote for near two days, then calculated to a minute how long it would take me reading, endeavouring to make my discourse about fifty minutes. The evening before the lecture Davy and I went into the theatre; he made me read the whole of it, and he went into the farthest corner. Then he read it, and I was the audience. We criticised each other’s method. Next day I read it to an audience of about 150 or 200 people, which was more than were expected. They gave a very general plaudit at the conclusion, and several came up to compliment me upon the excellence of the introduction. Since that I have scarcely written anything; all has been experiment and verbal explanation. In general my experiments have uniformly succeeded, and I have never once faltered in the elucidation of them; in fact, I can now enter the lecture room with as little emotion nearly as I can smoke a pipe with you on Sunday or Wednesday evening.

Before Coleridge left for Malta Davy wrote to him:

Twelve o’clock, Monday (probably March 1804).

MY DEAR COLERIDGE,--My mind is disturbed and my body harassed by many labours, yet I cannot suffer you to depart without endeavouring to express to you some of the unbroken higher feelings of my spirit, which have you at once as their cause and object.

Years have passed away since we first met, and your presence, and recollections with regard to you have afforded me continued sources of enjoyment.

Some of the better feelings of my nature have been elevated by your converse, and thoughts which you have nursed have been to me an eternal source of consolation.

In whatever part of the world you are you will often live with me, not as a fleeting idea, but as a recollection possessed of creative energy, as an imagination winged with fire, inspiring and rejoicing.

You must not live much longer without giving to all men the proof of power which those who know you feel in admiration. Perhaps, at a distance from the applauding and censuring murmurs of the world, you will be best able to execute those great works which are justly expected from you; you are to be the historian of the philosophy of feeling. Do not in any way dissipate your noble nature. Do not give up your birthright. May you soon recover perfect health, the health of strength and happiness! may you soon return to us confirmed in all the powers essential to the exertion of genius! You were born for your country, and your native land must be the scene of your activity. I shall expect the time when your spirit, bursting through the clouds of ill-health, will appear to all men, not as an uncertain and brilliant flame, but as a fair and permanent light, fixed, though constantly in motion, as a sun which gives its fire not only to its attendant planets, but which sends beams from all its parts into all worlds.

May blessings attend you, my dear friend! Do not forget me; we live for different ends and with different habits and pursuits, but our feelings with regard to each other have, I believe, never altered. They must continue; they can have no natural death. I trust they can never be destroyed by fortune, chance, or accident.

H. DAVY.

In October Davy thus wrote to a friend on the death of Gregory Watt, the son of James Watt:

We are deceived, my dear Clayfield, if we suppose that the human being who has formed himself for action, but who has been unable to act, is lost in the mass of being. There is some arrangement of things which we can never comprehend, but in which his faculties will be applied.

The caterpillar, in being converted into an inert scaly mass, does not appear to be fitting itself for an inhabitant of the air, and can have no consciousness of the brilliancy of its future being. We are masters of the earth, but perhaps we are the slaves of some great but unknown beings. The fly that we crush with our finger or feed with our viands, has no knowledge of man and no consciousness of his superiority. We suppose that we are acquainted with matter and with all its elements, and yet we cannot even guess at the cause of electricity or explain the laws of the formation of the stones which fall from meteors.

There may be beings--thinking beings--near us, surrounding us, which we do not perceive, which we can never imagine. We know very little, but, in my opinion, we know enough to hope for the immortality--the _individual immortality_--_of the better part of man_.

I have been led into all this speculation, which you may well think wild, in reflecting upon the fate of Gregory; my feeling has given erring wings to my mind. He was a noble fellow and would have been a great man.

His letters to me only three or four months ago were full of spirit, and spoke not of any infirmity of body, but of an increasing strength of mind. Why is this in the order of nature, that there is such a difference in the duration and destruction of her works? If the mere stone decays, it is to produce a soil which is capable of nourishing the moss and the lichen; when the moss and the lichen die and decompose, they produce a mould which becomes the bed of life to grass and to a more exalted species of vegetables. Vegetables are the food of animals, the less perfect animals of the more perfect, but in man the faculties and intellect are perfected; he rises, exists for a little while in disease and misery, and then would seem to disappear without an end and without producing any effect.

Another mention of Coleridge occurs in February, when Davy wrote to Mr. Poole:

There has been no news lately from Coleridge; the last accounts state that he was well in the autumn and in Sicily. On that poetic ground we may hope and trust that his genius will call forth some new creations, and that he may bring back to us some garlands of never-dying verse. I have written to urge him strongly to give a course of lectures on Poetry at the Royal Institution, where his feeling would strongly impress and his eloquence greatly delight.

In January 1805 Davy presented his collection of minerals to the Royal Institution. They were valued at one hundred guineas.

On February 4, as Director of the Laboratory, he received an addition of 100_l._ to his salary.

He had two papers read at the Royal Society, one on a ‘New Mineral, consisting of Alumine and Water,’ and the other on a ‘New Mode of Analysing Minerals containing Fixed Alkali by Boracic Acid,’ and for these and his other papers he received the Copley medal.

In September he thus wrote to Davies Gilbert:

I came from Ireland by the Western Road about a fortnight ago.

The Irish are a noble race degraded by slavery and bearing the insignia of persecution--extreme savageness or the lowest servility. Yet they are ingenious and active, and seem to me to possess all the elements of power and usefulness; but amongst the lower orders there is a most unfortunate equality, destructive of all great and efficient exertion, and amongst the higher classes the greatest degree of activity is awakened only by the desire of imitating the English, and that not so much in their virtues as in their luxuries and follies.

And to his friend Poole he wrote, October 9:

I have very much to say about Ireland. It is an island that might be made a new and a great country. It now boasts a fertile soil, an ingenious and robust peasantry, and a rich aristocracy, but the bane of the nation is the equality of poverty amongst the lower orders. All are slaves without the probability of becoming free. They are in the state of equality which the sans-culottes wished for in France, and until emulation and riches and the love of clothes and neat houses are introduced amongst them there will be no permanent improvement.

Changes in political institutions can at first do little towards serving them; it must be by altering their habits, by diffusing manufactures, by destroying middle men, by dividing farms, and by promoting industry, by making the pay proportioned to the work. But I ought not to attempt to say anything on the subject when my limits are so narrow.

Up to 1806 the lectures given by Davy had brought to him repute and to the Royal Institution success. To his high reputation as a lecturer he was now about to add that of a great original discoverer. As early as July 3, 1800, he wrote to Davies Gilbert, ‘We have been repeating the galvanic experiments with success.’ (See p. 316.) These experiments led him to think that all chemical decompositions might be polar. He electrised different compounds at the different poles of the battery, but he made no great discovery for five years. The assertion that acid and alkali were generated by the action of the voltaic pile in the decomposition of water led him to undertake fresh galvanic experiments in 1806. Before long he was rewarded by his great discoveries regarding chemical electricity, the decomposition of the alkalies, and the composition of chlorine.

It appears from the Laboratory Books that in September he first made experiments on phosphorus with the galvanic spark, and in the last week of October he ‘tried to decompose phosphorus by the galvanic fluid.’ He fused the phosphorus into a tube through which a platinum wire passed. This was the form of the experiment which he made a year afterwards to compel potash to give up its oxygen.

On November 20 his first Bakerian lecture was given at the Royal Society. It had this long title: On the ‘Chemical Agencies of Electricity;’ on the ‘Changes Produced in Water by Electricity;’ on the ‘Agencies of Electricity;’ on the ‘Decomposition of various Compound Bodies;’ on the ‘Transfer of certain Constituent Parts of Bodies by the Action of Electricity;’ on the ‘Passage of Acids, Alkalies, and other Substances through various Attracting Chemical Menstrua by Means of Electricity;’ ‘Some General Observations on these Phenomena, and on the Mode of Decomposition and Transition;’ on the ‘General Principles of the Chemical Changes Produced by Electricity;’ on the ‘Relations between the Electrical Energies of Bodies and their Chemical Affinities;’ on the ‘Mode of Action of the Pile of Volta, with Experimental Elucidations;’ on ‘Some General Illustrations and Applications of the Foregoing Facts and Principles.’

This was the first dawn of light regarding the inseparable union between chemical and electrical motions. The two ends of the pile of metals gave in quantity and quality different chemical results, and the chemical products varied with the variations of the liquid into which the poles were put. The identity of chemical affinity and electricity was imagined, and a new division of elements was made into electro-positive and electro-negative, according as the one or other end of the pile attracted them. The kind of polarity of each matter was thought to determine the electrical and chemical actions shown by it.

Napoleon had founded a prize of 2,400_l._ for a discovery comparable to that of Franklin or Volta, and at the same time he founded with the interest a medal, of 120_l._ value yearly, for the best experiment on the galvanic fluid. This medal for the year 1807 was given to Davy for this paper, which was then printed. Davy wrote to Mr. Poole, ‘Some people say I ought not to accept this prize, and there have been foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect; but if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would indeed be a civil war of the worst description; we should rather, through the instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities of national hostility.’

On January 22, 1807, Davy was elected secretary of the Royal Society.

Dr. Young wrote to a friend:

I believe your pheasants have assisted in bringing my friend Davy into a hundred a year and the office of secretary of the Royal Society. It had never occurred to him to offer himself till I suggested it to him one day when he dined with me. The next day he heard of poor Gray’s death, and, upon applying to the President, he was, after some deliberation, approved, although another person had before been encouraged. If I had not been a member of an _illiberal_ profession I should have liked the situation myself, but perhaps the public is right in discouraging a divided attention.

At the end of August Davy wrote to Mr. Poole:

I am obliged to be in the neighbourhood of town during the greater part of the summer for the purpose of correcting the proofs for the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’

If Coleridge is still with you, be kind enough to say to him that I wrote nearly a week ago two letters about lectures, and, not knowing where he was, I addressed them to him at different places. I wish very much he would seriously determine on this point. The managers of the Royal Institution are very anxious to engage him, and I think he might be of material service to the public and of benefit to his own mind, to say nothing of the benefit his purse might also receive. In the present condition of society his opinions in matters of taste, literature, and metaphysics must have a healthy influence; and, unless he soon becomes an active member of the living world, he must expect to be hereafter brought to judgment for hiding his light.

Seven months afterwards Davy again wrote to Mr. Poole:

Coleridge, after disappointing his audience twice from illness, is announced to lecture again this week. He has suffered greatly from excessive sensibility, the disease of genius. His mind is a wilderness in which the cedar and the oak, which might aspire to the skies, are stunted in their growth by underwood, thorns, briars, and other parasitical plants. With the most exalted genius, enlarged views, sensitive heart, and enlightened mind he will be the victim of want of order, precision, and regularity. I cannot think of him without experiencing the mingled feelings of admiration, regard, and pity.

Why do you not come to London? Many would be happy to see you, but no one more so than your very sincere Friend, my dear Poole,

H. DAVY.

The Laboratory Books show that the last week in September 1807 he exposed magnesia upon a glass plate at the positive pole with distilled water. Four days afterwards he put oxide of zinc in a coagulated state round the positive pole.

On October 6 he began ‘a new series of experiments on polarity.’

From the account he gives of one experiment, it appears that he exposed different substances on a glass plate to the action of the platinum wires from a galvanic battery of 100 plates of 6 inches.

He tried the following substances: oxalic acid, dry; succinic acid; oxalic acid; soap; alcohol; water; carbonate of ammonia; nitrate of potash. He wrote, ‘Pure potash, as dry as it can be made, discharges the negative in a remarkable degree and insulates the positive.’

‘_Remarkable Phenomena with Potash._ It soon--’ Here the laboratory note ends, but his paper in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ says--‘fused, became a conductor, and gave brilliant light with the appearance of flame at the negative wire. When it was slightly moistened, to make it a better conductor, the potash began to fuse at both its points of electrisation; there was a violent effusion at its upper or positive surface, while at the lower or negative surface there was no liberation of an elastic fluid, but a formation of small granules resembling quicksilver, which occasionally burst with explosion.’

He then tried carbonate of ammonia, sulphuric acid and water, soap, and the flame of a candle.

The following day carbonate of ammonia and oxalic acid were tried, sulphuric acid, water, and alcohol.

From the 7th to the 16th no experiments were entered in the Laboratory Book; but to the substance that produced the gas and globules he gave the name first of alkaligen; for on the 16th he says, ‘Gas from alkaligen in alcohol;’ also ‘gas from ether and gas from oil of turpentine.’

On the 17th he again experimented on this gas from the alkaligen in ether and turpentine, and says, ‘The gas which had been collected from the globules under oil of turpentine by the action of water burnt in contact with the air. Does it (the matter of the globules) not form gaseous compounds with ether, alcohol, and the oils?’

Then he notes the action of the alkaligen on mercury. ‘Forms with it a solid amalgam, which soon loses its alkaligen in the air.’ ‘This amalgam amalgamates with platina and iron, but soon flies off on exposure to the air.’ ‘Query, Does it amalgamate with phosphorus?’

‘Probably whenever it meets with hydrogen it dissolves in it.’ ‘Probably forms an æriform compound with ether.’

On October 19 he made his famous experiment by which he showed beyond question that potash can give up its oxygen. ‘When potash was introduced into a tube having a platina wire attached to it, so (fig.), and fused into the tube so as to be a conductor--_i.e._ so as to contain just water enough, though solid--and inserted over mercury, when the platina was made negative, no gas was formed and the mercury became oxydated, and a small quantity of the alkaligen was produced round the platina wire, as was evident from its quick inflammation by the action of water. When the mercury was made the negative, gas was developed in great quantities from the positive wire, and none from the negative mercury, and this gas proved to be pure oxygen--a capital experiment, proving the decomposition of potash.’ ‘A small quantity of alkaligen was produced round the platina wire.’

‘The gas produced from alkaligen confined under mercury by the contact of water seemed to be hydrogen nearly pure. Soda decomposed with different phenomena.’

Davy made no more notes on that day.

On the 20th he worked on the gas obtained from sodagen and potagen, and writes, ‘Barytes gave at the oxygen side, when touched with the wire, an appearance like combustion--a bright rose-coloured light. Mem.: To try what effect the hydrogen side will have upon it.’

On the 21st he again worked on the gas, and says the gas from ether, when properly washed, seemed to be pure hydrogen.

He then says, ‘Examined the effect of heat this day and last night of the peculiar substance.’ Then he notes the results, and then he continues, ‘what can be the reason if the metallic globule is composed of A and H (alkaligen and hydrogen)--What is the reason that water and ether and alcohol saturated with potash still act on it so energetically?’

On the 24th he tried the substance with sulphur and phosphorus.

On the 25th, 26th, and 27th he worked on barytes, &c.

On the 27th barytes heated to whiteness did not become a conductor.

On October 30 he was still at work on the gas.

On October 31 he says, ‘When the substance amalgamated with mercury, was distilled in a glass retort, and the contents received over mercury, no air was generated; nor over water till the sublimed substance came in contact with the water, when hydrogen was evolved.’

On November 2 he was still working on potagen.

‘Probably this substance combines with oxygen in two proportions, the _red colour_ owing to this; and it is owing to this that it acts upon plate-glass.’

‘The first oxide a peculiar substance capable of being procured with much difficulty, the second potash.’

In the midst of his discovery the condition of the laboratory made him write in the book ‘some regulations with regard to the state of the laboratory.’

‘1. Everything is to be put in its proper place in the evening, and everything to be arranged for the next day’s operations.

‘2. The fire to be lighted at eight o’clock, and the apparatus for the experiments to be prepared by nine.’

On November 4 he writes, ‘The result of the distillation of as pure a piece (of potagen) as I could obtain seemed to be hydrogene nearly pure.

‘The gas given out from an amalgam of it with mercury likewise hydrogene.’

On November 5 many experiments were made.

On November 6 he still worked on the gas. His notes say ‘on the combustion of sodagen and potagen with oxygen.’

‘Potagen certainly sublimes unaltered at a temperature below red heat. It is twenty times lighter than mercury.’

On November 13 he wrote to his friend Mr. Pepys:

I have decomposed and recomposed the fixed alkalies and discovered their bases to be two new inflammable substitutes very like metals, but one of them lighter than ether and infinitely [more] combustible; so that there are two bodies decomposed and two new elementary bodies found.

The Bakerian lecture was read on November 19, only four days before Davy was obliged to take to his bed by illness. The first sketch of this famous paper was thus made in the Laboratory Book:

‘The substance is analogous to some of those imagined to exist by the alchemical visionaries.

‘Possessing all the physical properties of metals except high specific gravity, it seems to combine with all of them, and form with them truly metallic amalgams; but in all cases it is capable of being separated from them by its greater facility of oxidation.’

Then he gives the action on water and ice.

The theory of its operation upon water is extremely simple.

3. ‘When,’ he says, ‘the peculiar substance was brought in contact with a thin piece of phosphorus and pressed upon, there is a considerable action.’

4. ‘When it was brought in contact with sulphur in fusion in tubes filled with the vapour of naphtha, they combine with varied ignition.’

5. ‘The new substance produces some beautiful results with mercury.’

Then he describes the alloys.

‘The basis of potash, when thrown into the strong mineral acids, inflames and burns on the surface.’

Then he describes the effects with sulphuric acid, and nitrous acid.

‘The action of the basis of potash on fat and volatile oils, and on various bodies, is less violent than on any other class of compound substances containing oxygen, as might have been expected from the small quantity of this principle which they hold in combination.

‘The application of naphtha to its preservation I have already mentioned. On the colourless and perfectly transparent naphtha distilled from petroleum or from brown naphtha at a low heat, and defended from air, it has scarcely any action at common temperatures.’

Then he describes the further action on naphtha.

‘The fat and volatile oils closely related to naphtha in composition resemble it likewise in their habitudes with the basis of potash. The lightest naphtha that I have been able to procure by double distillation was of spec. gr. 770, water being 1,000, and was almost colourless. In this fluid, confined in close vessels, the globules swam for hours without apparently affecting it, but by degrees a yellow film formed upon them, the naphtha became brown at its point of contact, and the globules sank to the bottom of the vessel. After some days the fluid surrounding the globule appeared black and turbid.

‘The fat and volatile oils approach to naphtha in their habitudes with respect to the basis of potash.

‘The fat oils follow naphtha in the order of bodies that slightly act upon it; and the volatile oils, the fat oils; but they all contain sufficient oxygen to render the basis of potash alkaline, if it is exposed to them for a sufficient time and in proper quantities, and that more or less rapidly, according to the circumstances. When naphtha or the oils are exposed to air they soon alkalise the basis. Oxygen is absorbed from the air, and a soap is formed, brown from the decomposition of the compound fluid during the time of the alkalisation. If air be excluded the process is a much longer time in taking place; no gas is emitted in the fixed oils or in naphtha; but in the volatile oils hydrocarbonate is produced in small quantities, and in all these cases charcoal is deposited. In oil of turpentine the process is more rapid than in any other oil I have tried, and this oil contains either water or the elements of water, and perhaps a larger proportion of oxygen to its inflammable matter.

‘Nor ought we to be surprised that these substances have never been produced in nature. Their strong attraction for oxygen renders it impossible.’

‘The division into two poles:

‘The basis of potash, by its strong attraction for oxygen, decomposes all the metallic oxides which I _have_ exposed to it by a gentle heat.

‘The oxides of lead it instantly acts upon, and the metal is revived and alkali formed. In consequence of this operation it cannot be preserved in tubes of flint glass.

‘Are the bases of the fixed alkalies simple bodies? I perhaps shall be asked.

‘But are these singular bodies themselves compounds? Have we reached the limits of our analysis--More capable of combining with oxygene than the basis of water?

‘The basis of potash serves almost as an accurate indication of the proportion of oxygene in bodies and exactly in proportion--camphor, spermaceti, wax, volatile oils.

‘In the course of my inquiries many circumstances arose at first anomalous, but which soon were capable of being explained, and which, when understood, seemed to extend the general facts which had been detailed.’

A long break here occurs in the Laboratory Notes. On November 23, 1807, Davy was taken ill with fever.

On December 7 the Managers’ Minutes say, ‘Mr. Davy having been confined to his bed for the last fortnight by a severe illness, the managers are under the painful necessity of giving notice that the lectures will not commence until the first week in January next.’

On January 18 the managers of the Royal Institution ordered 500 copies of the following paper to be printed:

NEW DISCOVERY IN CHEMISTRY.

January 18, 1808.

For the satisfaction of those proprietors who were not present at the opening of the Rev. Mr. Dibden’s introductory lecture on Wednesday last the managers have obtained and printed the following note of it:

‘Before I solicit your attention to the opening of those lectures which I shall have the honour of delivering in the course of the season, permit me to trespass upon it for a few minutes by stating the peculiar circumstances under which this Institution is now again opened, and how it comes to pass that it has fallen to me rather than to a more deserving lecturer to be the first to address you.

‘The managers of this Institution have directed me to impart to you that intelligence which no one who is alive to the best feelings of human nature can hear without the mixed emotions of sorrow and delight.

‘Mr. Davy, whose frequent and powerful addresses from this place, supported by his ingenious experiments, have been so long and so well known to you, has for the last five weeks been struggling between life and death. The effects of those experiments recently made in illustration of his late splendid discovery, added to consequent bodily weakness, brought on a fever so violent as to threaten the extinction of life. Over him it might emphatically be said, in the language of the immortal Milton, that--

Death his dart shook, but delayed to strike.

If it had pleased Providence to deprive the world of all _further_ benefit from his original talents and intense application there has certainly been sufficient _already_ effected by him to entitle him to be classed among the brightest scientific luminaries of his country. That this may not appear to be unfounded eulogium I shall proceed, at the particular request of the managers, to give you an outline of the splendid discovery just alluded to, and I do so with the greater pleasure as that outline has been drawn in a very masterly manner by a gentleman of all others perhaps the best qualified to do it effectually (Cavendish?)

‘In the course of the last twenty-five or thirty years the science of chemistry has undergone great changes and has been astonishingly augmented by various important discoveries, amongst which the most remarkable have been the decomposition and recomposition of water and of nitric acid, discovered by Mr. Cavendish, and the consequent knowledge of the nature of metallic calces (now called oxides) with that of acids in general.

‘But although the two fixed alkalies called soda and potash were attacked by the most eminent chemists with every known chemical agent and by every method which the improved state of science could suggest, not the smallest effect could be produced on them; so that the nature of these two common substances remained totally unascertained and became a grand desideratum of chemical science. When, however, M. Volta had communicated to the Royal Society his great discovery of the galvanic pile, and when this had been modified into the more convenient form of troughs by Crookshank of Woolwich, the electro-galvanic power was found by various philosophers to produce surprising effects when applied to different substances, and Mr. Davy in particular distinguished himself in these researches and made a number of valuable experiments and observations, some of the more remarkable of which he communicated to the Royal Society in the Bakerian lecture read in November 1806. Mr. Davy conceived, however, from what he had then accomplished, that much more might be done; and with equal skill and perseverance he performed a new series of experiments, in the course of which, by various means, he again tried the effect of the powerful galvanic batteries belonging to the laboratory of the Royal Institution, and particularly devoted his attention to the two fixed alkalies (soda and potash), with the view of effecting their decomposition and of ascertaining the nature of them by means of that powerful agent galvanism.

‘This great discovery he at length effected; and, to the high gratification of all men of science, he proved that soda and potash are compound bodies, each consisting of a peculiar metal, which has so great a tendency to combine with oxygen that no agent but galvanism can separate them. The two metals, therefore, of soda and potash have always hitherto been presented to us in this state of combination with oxygen, forming the two alkalies. But some of the primitive earths (as they are called), such as barytes and strontites, have many alkaline properties, which induced Mr. Davy to subject them to similar experiments; and in like manner he discovered that these consisted of metallic bases united to oxygen, forming compound bodies analogous to the two fixed alkalies. These may justly be placed amongst the most brilliant and valuable discoveries which have ever been made in chemistry, for a great chasm in the chemical system has been filled up; a blaze of light has been diffused over that part which before was utterly dark; and new views have been opened so numerous and interesting that the more any man who is versed in chemistry reflects on them, the more he finds to admire and to heighten his expectation of future important results. Mr. Davy’s name, in consequence of these discoveries, will be always recorded in the annals of science amongst those of the most illustrious philosophers of his time. His country, with reason, will be proud of him; and it is no small honour to the Royal Institution that these great discoveries have been made within its walls, in that laboratory and by those instruments which, from the zeal of promoting useful knowledge, have with so much propriety been placed at the disposal and for the use of the Professor of Chemistry.

‘This recital [said Dr. Dibden] will be sufficient to convince those who hear of the celebrity which the author of such a discovery has a right to attach to himself; and yet no one, I am confident, has less inclination to challenge it. To us and to every enlightened Englishman it will be a matter of just congratulation that the country which has produced the two Bacons and Boyle has in these days shown itself worthy of its former renown by the labours of Cavendish and Davy.

‘The illness of the latter, severe as it has been, is now beginning to abate,[35] and we may reasonably hope, from present appearances at least, that the period of convalescence is not very remote.’[36]

The recovery of Davy was slow.

On February 22 he attended at the request of the Committee of Managers, and informed them that he should be able to commence his course of lectures on Electro-Chemical Science on Saturday, March 12, at two o’clock, and those on Geology on Wednesday evening, the sixteenth of that month. In his opening lecture he thus spoke of electro-chemistry and its power of analysis: ‘In this it will be seen that Volta has presented to us a key which promises to lay open some of the most mysterious recesses of nature. Till this discovery our means were limited; the field of pneumatic research had been exhausted, and little remained for the experimentalist except minute and laborious processes. There is now before us a boundless prospect of novelty in science, a country unexplored but noble and fertile in aspect, a land of promise in philosophy.’

In the Laboratory Book, probably about this time, he wrote, ‘An instrument for procuring those metals that have not yet been reduced--_for decomposing muriatic acid gas_, fluoric, &c., and _boracic acid gas_.’

On April 19 and 20 Davy was again at work with the battery of 520 pair of plates.

He began thus: ‘Indications of the decomposition of muriatic acid. To use every effort to ensure accuracy in the results.’

‘A given quantity of muriatic acid gas was acted upon by dry charcoal; there was continued vivid light in the galvanic circuit. The action was continued for ten minutes; when a little water was added no absorption took place, so that all the muriatic acid gas was decomposed. Some other experiments were made with dry muriate of lime and mercury and with a solution of muriate of lime, strontium, and soda.’

On June 30 he had a paper read at the Royal Society on the ‘Decomposition of the Earths Strontia, Lime, Magnesia, by Means of Iron at the Negative End of the Battery.’ Berzelius having mentioned in a letter that he had succeeded by using mercury as the negative pole, Davy repeated Berzelius’s experiment, and decomposed alumina and silica by an amalgam of mercury and potassium at the negative end of the battery.

On July 11 he laid before the managers of the Royal Institution the following paper:

A new path of discovery having been opened in the agencies of the electrical battery of Volta, which promises to lead to the greatest improvements in chemistry and natural philosophy and the useful arts connected with them; and since the increase of the size of the apparatus is absolutely necessary for pursuing it to its full extent, it is proposed to raise a fund by subscription for constructing a powerful battery, worthy of a national establishment and capable of promoting the great objects of science.

Already in other countries public and ample means have been provided for pursuing these investigations. They have had their origin in this country, and it would be dishonourable to a nation so great, so powerful, and so rich if, from the want of pecuniary resources, they should be completed abroad.

An appeal to enlightened individuals on this subject can scarcely be made in vain. It is proposed that the instrument and apparatus be erected in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where it shall be employed in the advancement of this new department of science.

The Managers’ Minutes then say:

The above paper having been laid before the board of managers, they felt it their indispensable duty instantly to communicate the same to every member of the Institution, lest the slightest delay might furnish an opportunity to other countries for accomplishing this great work, which originated in the brilliant discoveries recently made at the Royal Institution.

Lord Dundas, W. Watson, Thomas Bernard, and C. Hatchett, the managers present, agreed to subscribe to this undertaking, and ordered that a book be opened at the steward’s office for the purpose of entering the names of all those who may wish to contribute towards this important national object.[37]

The sum wanted was soon raised, and Davy thus described the battery:

‘It consists of 200 instruments, connected together in regular order, each composed of ten double plates, arranged in cells of porcelain, and containing in each plate thirty-two square inches; so that the whole number of double plates is 2,000, and the whole surface 128,000 square inches. This battery was charged with sixty parts water and one part of nitric acid. It gave a spark from charcoal points through four inches of air.’

On July 12 the Laboratory Notes say, ‘Tried the experiments upon the decomposition of the earths by iron wire with the happiest results.’ These were obtained with the battery of only twenty pair.

On July 18 he wrote, ‘In pursuit of the researches on the deoxygenation of diamond and charcoal.

‘Is not diamond the 2-oxide of carbon, charcoal the 1-oxide, the gaseous oxide of carbon a triple compound of hydrogen, nitrogen, and charcoal?’

On September 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 experiments were tried on the production of cold by induced electricity. He tried the decomposition of sulphur ‘with success.’ He tried to decompose mercury in the Torricellian vacuum ‘with success apparently.’

‘Sulphur, after giving out hydrogen by electricity, had lost its yellow colour and _was became brownish_, but still non-conducting, crystalline, and transparent.’

Numberless experiments were made on the action of potassium on ammonia and on nitrogen.

In November he must have injured his right hand, for his notes are made with his left hand on the 19th and 20th of this month.

On December 15 he gave another Bakerian lecture on New Analytical Researches on Alkalies, Phosphorus, Sulphur, &c. In this paper he says his chief object was to show that there was oxygen in ammonia, and that potassium was not a compound of the metal and hydrogen. He made further experiments also on the decomposition of boracic, fluoric, and muriatic acids.

On December 27, 1808, Davy wrote to Coleridge:

Alas, poor Beddoes is dead! He died on Christmas Eve. He wrote to me two letters on two successive days--22nd and 23rd. From the first, which was full of affection and new feeling, I anticipated his state. He is gone at the moment when his mind was purified and exalted for noble affections and great works.

My heart is heavy. I would talk to you of your own plans, which I shall endeavour in every way to promote; I would talk to you of my own labours, which have been incessant since I saw you and not without result; but I am interrupted by very melancholy feelings, which, when you see this, I know you will partake of. Ever, my dear Coleridge, very affectionately yours,

H. DAVY.

On December 28 he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘We have tried a number of experiments within the last few days on the muriatic and fluoric acids, heating them with potassium.’

Early in 1809 Davy sent an appendix to his last Bakerian lecture to the Royal Society. In it he spoke ‘of the general results being decisive with regard to a decomposition of nitrogen having been effected.’

In a letter at this time he told his friend Mr. Children ‘he hoped to show him nitrogen as a complete wreck, torn to pieces in different ways.’

On January 18 he wrote, ‘Capital result from the action of potassium on ammonia. Nitrogen was lost. If the nitrogen is to be considered as converted into oxygen and hydrogen, it must be regarded as containing much more oxygen than water; and if we do not adopt this supposition, the only alternative is that water is the ponderable matter which, under different modifications of electro-chemical existence, constitutes oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and the nitrous compounds.’

On February 15 he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘Were a description, indeed, to be given of all the experiments I have made, of all the difficulties I have encountered, of the doubts that have occurred, and the hypotheses formed--’ The sentence was not finished, and more time was lost on the investigation.

Throughout the spring and summer more experiments were made on ammonia and nitrogen.

He ignited potassium by the voltaic spark in nitrogen, and found that some hydrogen was evolved and some nitrogen lost; but when the potassium was free from potash this did not occur, and at last he gave up trying to show that nitrogen was a compound of oxygen and a metallic basis.

At the end of August he was working on tellurium and made telluretted hydrogen.

To his mother he wrote in August:

At present, except when I resolve to be idle for health’s sake, I devote every moment to labours which I hope will not be wholly ineffectual in benefiting society, and which will not be wholly inglorious for my country hereafter; and the feeling of this is the reward which will continue to keep me employed.

On September 13 he wrote in the Laboratory Book this verbal picture of his laboratory:

Objects much wanted in the laboratory of the Royal Institution: Cleanliness, neatness, and regularity.

The laboratory must be cleaned every morning when operations are going on before ten o’clock.

It is the business of W. Payne[38] to do this, and it is the duty of Mr. E. Davy to see that it is done and to take care of and keep in order the apparatus.

There must be in the laboratory pen, ink, paper, and wafers, and these must not be kept in the slovenly manner in which they usually are kept. I am now writing with a pen and ink such as was never used in any other place.

There are wanting small graduated glass tubes blown here and measured to ten grains of mercury.

There are wanting four new stopcocks fitted to our air-pump.

There are wanting twelve green glass retorts.

There are wanting most of the common metallic and saline solutions, such as acetate of copper, nitrate of silver, nitrate of barytes--most of these made in the laboratory.

All the wine-glasses should be cleaned.

And, as all operation ceases at six o’clock in the evening, there is plenty of time for getting things in order before night; but if they are not got into order the same night, they must be by ten o’clock the next day.

The laboratory is constantly in a state of dirt and confusion.

There must be a roller with a coarse towel for washing the hands and a basin of water and soap, and every week at least a whole morning must be devoted to the inspection and ordering of the voltaic battery.

For Thursday--_i.e._ to-morrow--the experiments in the morning are on the excitation of radiant heat and electricity in different gases. For the experiments on Friday, which will be on tellurium, there are wanting very pure hydrogen; two bottles of _new_, very pure oxymuriatic gas; two new stopcocks cemented into retorts, with stoppers, either green or white; some tubes of this bore [Illustration] or near it, closed at one end and six inches long; a spirit lamp made from a phial of large bore and the tube larger than that at present used.

On September 14 he tried various experiments on the excitation of electricity. The Laboratory Book says, ‘Present in these and the former experiments, Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Herschel, Mr. Herschel, Sir Charles Blagden (not in the second set on electricity); Dr. Wollaston, Mr. Warburton.’

The repulsion of the machine was compared to the repulsion in a partial vacuum, in hydrogen, in carbonic acid, and in rarefied carbonic acid. The former experiments the same day were on the rise of a thermometer heated by a coil of platinum wire in different gases.

On September 21 the Note-Book says:

_An Experiment to Decompose Muriatic Acid Gas._--A balloon having three openings, to one of which a stopcock was cemented, and in the other two were corks containing wires, so adapted to each other that a contact might be made. Pieces of well-burnt charcoal were fastened to the ends of the wires. The apparatus, being air-tight, was exhausted and filled with hydrogen; another exhaustion being made, the balloon was filled with oxymuriatic gas from a gas-holder, with which it was connected by means of a stopcock. The two wires being joined to the voltaic apparatus and a contact of the charcoal made, the ignition was brilliant without any apparent combustion; white fumes were presently produced, which in a short time disappeared again, and were afterwards, during the remaining time the experiment was in hand, only formed when two new points of charcoal came in contact, or when the flame played on the copper wire which fastened the charcoal. The light emitted was a brilliant yellowish colour, frequently assuming a fine lake. After an hour’s time the gas appeared unaltered, of its original colour. The higher parts of the pieces of charcoal were covered with a fine greenish-yellow powder, otherwise unaltered.

Tin-leaf thrown in through one of the openings began immediately to form with the oxymuriatic acid gas the fuming liquor of Libavius. When shook it inflamed.

On September 23, 1809, in a letter to Mr. Children, he mentions this experiment, and says ‘it is as difficult to decompose as nitrogen, except when all its elements can be made to enter into new combinations.’

On October 3, among ‘the hints for experiments’ in the Note-Book is this, to detonate together hydrogen and oxymuriatic acid.

Another Bakerian lecture was given, and then he continued his researches on ammonia.

On November 24 ‘experiments to be in progress’ are thus entered in the Laboratory Book:

1. To decompose sulphuretted hydrogen by electricity in an apparatus by which the results can be accurately known.

2. To pass potassium through ignited powdered quartz.

3. To decompose muriatic acid gas by potassium, so as to ascertain the quantity of hydrogen formed.

4. To weigh ammonia, hydrogen, and nitrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen and gaseous fluoric acid, nitrous oxide, and oxymuriatic acid gas.

5. To make a series of experiments upon the ores and products of cast iron.

6. To ascertain with greater precision than has been yet obtained the nature of the acid matter formed in pure water, oxygenated or not.

7. To decompose fluoric acid gas, and to ascertain the source of the hydrogen which it gives by the operation of potassium.

8. To make various experiments on the amalgamation of ammonia, using different amalgams of mercury and different modes of excluding water.

9. To endeavour to bring the ὑδὼρ theory to a test of producing oxygen from water without hydrogen.

10. To decompose muriate of soda and litharge and other bodies that contain no water by electricity, and to see what happens.

In the early part of 1810 the experiments were chiefly on the action of potassium on sulphur and phosphorus.

From analogy oxygen had been considered as the acidifying principle of the muriatic acid, or spirit of salt. It was thought to combine with more oxygen, and then was called oxygenated muriatic acid, although its powers as an acid were weakened and it became more volatile and bleached.

Davy sent two papers to the Royal Society, on this subject. The first was on July 12, ‘Researches on Oxymuriatic Acid and the Elements of Muriatic Acid; with Experiments on Sulphur and Phosphorus,’ and the second, on November 15, was the ‘Bakerian Lecture on Some of the Combinations of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygen, and on the Chemical Relations of these Principles to Inflammable Bodies.’

In the first paper he says, ‘Scheele considered oxymuriatic acid as more simple than muriatic acid, and that it became muriatic acid by union with phlogiston. Berthollet said it contained oxygen. The vivid combustion of many bodies in this gas has favoured the presumption that it contained oxygen very loosely combined, and ready to exert its utmost power of affinity; but it is mere presumption, since heat and light result also from the intense agency of any other combination without the presence of oxygen.’

On July 3 he wrote, ‘Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid and hydrogene, both dried, were detonated. There was a diminution equal to about 1/12, and muriatic gas was formed; and this was over mercury, and some of the oxymuriatic acid burnt the mercury, and there was an excess of 1/4 hydrogene. Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid and sulphuretted hydrogene, diminution about 1/12. Muriatic gas formed; sulphuretted hydrogene apparently in excess.’

A most important experiment had been made on September 21, 1809, on the resistance of oxymuriatic acid to galvanic decomposition; and as long previously as April 19, 1808, he had decomposed muriatic acid with a battery of 520 pair of plates.[39]

The experiments which were detailed in the Bakerian lecture read during the absence of Davy on November 15, were made in July and August.

On August 30, after entering things wanted, he wrote in the Laboratory Book:

‘No experiments are to be made or carried on in the laboratory without the consent and approbation of the Professor of Chemistry. The attempt at original experiment, unless preceded by knowledge, merely interferes with the progress of discovery. There are a sufficient number of new and interesting objects which a modest student would wish to pursue, and in which the path is marked and distinct.’

On September 8 he was again experimenting on the decomposition of nitrogen. He wrote, ‘And if it be said that no air and no water were present (in the potassium, boracic acid, and ammonia), the experiment is decisive as to the destruction of nitrogen and its containing the same kind of elementary matter as water.’

To the like experiment, September 13, he wrote, ‘This experiment seems almost decisive on the decomposition of nitrogen.’

Soon after he wrote, ‘Query, Does not the general tenor of the last experiments lead to the suspicion of the decomposition of nitrogen?’

On September 16 he made this note: ‘Objects to be attempted during the next week: To-morrow, oxymuriatic acid pure, to try absorption by two grains of different metals--tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, copper, platina, lead, zinc.’

On October 4, when he was about to start for Dublin, he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘The principal thing, the laboratory in complete order.’ He was absent from October 4 to the middle of December. No experiments were entered until October 27; then there are some on oxymuriatic acid by E. Davy.

On November 15 the action of oxymuriatic gas on dried nitrous gas was repeated.

The next experiment was on November 24. ‘Two grains of silver were entirely converted into horn-silver; the absorption of chlorine gas was 9/10 of a cubic inch.’ This was the first use of the word CHLORINE in the Note-Book; it occurs daily afterwards. Oxymuriatic gas continued the chief subject of the experiments in the laboratory up to the end of February in the following year.

This year Davy was invited to deliver a course of lectures on Electro-Chemical Science, and another course of six lectures on the Application of Chemistry to Agriculture, in the new laboratory of the Dublin Society. Having obtained permission as secretary to be absent from the meetings of the Royal Society, he commenced his course on November 8 and finished it on the 29th, and the Society requested his acceptance of 500 guineas.

In 1811 he again delivered two courses, one on the Elements of Chemical Philosophy and the other on Geology. For these he received 750_l._, and Trinity College made him a Doctor of Laws. Such consideration for lectures on this side of the Atlantic sounds fabulous.

He wrote to his mother:

Balina, Ireland, October 24, 1811.

The laboratory in Dublin, which has been enlarged, so as to hold 550 people, will not hold half the persons who desire to hear my lectures. The 550 tickets issued for the course by the Dublin Society at two guineas each were all disposed of the first week, and I am told now that from ten to twenty guineas are offered for a ticket.

This is merely for your eye; it may please you to know that your son is not unpopular or useless. Every person here, from the highest to the lowest, shows me every attention and kindness.

I shall come to see you as soon as I can. I hear with infinite delight of your health, and I hope Heaven will continue to preserve and bless a mother who deserves so well of her children.

I am, your very affectionate Son, H. DAVY.

During 1811 he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Appreece, the daughter and heiress of Charles Carr, of Kelso, and about the end of the year probably he wrote to his mother:

MY DEAR MOTHER,--You possibly may have heard reports of my intended marriage. Till within the last few days it was mere report. It is, I trust, now a settled arrangement. I am the happiest of men in the hope of a union with a woman equally distinguished for virtues, talent, and accomplishments.

* * * * *

You, I am sure, will sympathise in my happiness. I believe I should never have married but for this charming woman, whose views and whose tastes coincide with my own, and who is eminently qualified to promote my best efforts and objects in life.

I am, your affectionate Son, H. DAVY.

He wrote to his brother, at that time a medical student at Edinburgh:

MY DEAR JOHN,--Many thanks for your last letter. I have been very miserable. The lady whom I love best of any human being has been very ill. She is now well and I am happy. Mrs. Appreece has consented to marry me, and when the event takes place I shall not envy kings, princes, or potentates.

I am, my dear Brother, ever most affectionately yours,

H. DAVY.

The Laboratory Note-Book at this time contains very little work.

On February 21, 1811, he had a paper read to the Royal Society on a ‘Combination of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygen Gas, called Euchlorine.’

In July the action of chlorine on carbonic oxide, exposed for hours to bright sunshine, was examined. He wrote, ‘The new gas seems to consist of equal volumes of chlorine and carbonic oxide condensed to one volume.’

On August 7 Davy wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘To get nitrous oxide, nitrous gas, and very pure chlorine for experiments. To try to decompose nitrogen or to combine it with _chlorine_.’

On the 10th the exposure to the light had been continued two days without result.

In the middle of August he experimented on the action of potassium on silicated fluoric gas.

From September 2 to December 20 there are no entries in the Laboratory Book. That day--the first after his return from Ireland--there are experiments on the electrolization of water.

Early in the following year Sir Joseph Banks wrote to Sir George Staunton (in China):

* * * * *

We are going on here as usual, but I think the taste for science is on the increase. The Royal Society has been well supplied with papers, and continues to be so. Davy, our secretary, is said to be on the point of marrying a rich and handsome widow, who has fallen in love with science and marries him in order to obtain a footing in the academic groves; her name is Apreece, the daughter of Mr. Carr, who made a fortune in India, and the niece of Dr. Carr, of Northampton. If this takes place, it will give to science a kind of new éclat; we want nothing so much as the countenance of the ladies to increase our popularity.

Very little laboratory work was done in 1812. It appears from Davy’s notes that a few experiments on euchlorine were made in January. In February he was again working on sulphur and phosphorus and chlorine. In March he was experimenting on borum with oxygen, and with chlorine.

In August an experiment was made to ascertain whether there is, according to the received belief, a neutral part in the voltaic circle.

The battery consisted of forty double plates, thus arranged: Each trough, excepting the end ones, was separately connected with a glassful of mercury by polished copper wire, and each pair of glasses was connected by very fine polished iron wire.

The effects took place at the moment of contact at all the wires, so that there could have been no _neutral point_.

For the last time, after innumerable failures, he returned to the decomposition of nitrogen.

On August 13 ‘experiment very cautiously made of the action of potassium on nitrogene. Light green when mercury is employed, red when potassium.’

On October 23 the Laboratory Book says:

‘A series of experiments to attempt to decompose hydrofluoric acid, and to ascertain the constitution of the _fluoric combinations_.

‘1. To obtain pure hydrofluoric acid.

‘2. To obtain silicofluoric acid gas, and to decompose it by potassium and by potash, and to ascertain the quantity of fluate of lime they will give.

‘3. To make pure prussic acid.

‘4. To act upon pure prussic acid by chlorine.’

On November 5 a new detonating compound was formed; this was the chloride of nitrogen.

This year Davy gave his last course of lectures on Chemical Philosophy at the Royal Institution.

An account of four of these lectures ‘was taken off from notes by Mr. Faraday.’ The subjects were Radiant Matter, Chlorine, Simple Inflammables, and Metals. After the report of each lecture he gave the experiments as a sequel, illustrated with drawings; the whole made a small quarto of 386 pages, with an index of twenty-five pages. The volume was bound by Mr. Faraday, and was sent to Davy as an evidence of Faraday’s ‘knowledge, diligence, and order,’ when he asked for an engagement at the Royal Institution.

Davy gave the lecture on Radiant Matter on February 29. He said, ‘With respect to radiant or ethereal substances all our knowledge of it is obtained from the effect it produces on us and terrestrial bodies when in motion.

‘In our consideration of this subject it will be essentially necessary that we distinguish between knowledge and speculation. These terms in their meaning are palpably different, but yet have been intermixed and _combined_ together in a very singular manner. The French chemists in particular speak of the materiality of heat, and of the nature of the compounds it forms, as confidently and as fluently as if they had undeniably proved it to be a body. They have blended their knowledge with speculation, and formed a theory that is very possibly untrue. The most eminent phenomena of radiation are to be observed in light.’

And then he passed on to the laws of light and dwelt on Herschel’s discovery that the heating power of red rays was to the green as fifty-five to sixteen, and that he had himself found the thermometer rose still higher beyond the red, and that heating rays are less refrangible than light rays; then he showed a wire heated by the voltaic battery in air and in vacuo, and said that he had proved ‘that the radiating power is three times as strong in an exhausted receiver as in the open air,’ and, ‘fully proves that radiation is not caused by undulations in the atmosphere. It is strongest when no atmosphere is present.’ He ends his account of the effects of radiant heat thus: ‘Were it not for this terrestrial radiation of earthly bodies, the heat would accumulate from the rays of the sun until at last the whole world would be uninhabitable.

‘But, besides the effects produced by the two species of radiant matter--radiant light and radiant heat--there are other effects--chemical effects--that take place caused by the action of some radiant matter that comes to us from the sun, perhaps a single substance that, independent of light and heat, causes effects by its own power.’ And then he showed an experiment of chlorine and hydrogen exposed to light.

He says, ‘There is a very singular analogy that exists between the rays at the violet end of the spectrum, hydrogen gas, and the negative pole of the voltaic battery; and opposed to it stands the analogy of the rays at the red end of the spectrum to positive electricity; they produce opposite effects to the first-mentioned arrangement, but act similar to each other.

‘If that sublime idea of the ancients that there is only one species of matter in the universe, and that its different properties depend on the difference of size, shape and other qualities should be confirmed, it would simplify the science in a most eminent degree, and at the same time it would raise it to the acme of perfection.’

Opposing the view that oxygen gas contained light combined with it, and gave light out in oxidation, he contrasted slowly oxidised iron with an iron turning burnt in oxygen.

‘When the laws which govern in chemical science are fully known, there is no doubt it will become a much more simple science. It cannot fail to be so, since then it will be complete. Already it is one of the most useful of the whole circle to man, and when in its utmost state of improvement it will be one of the most sublime. It will, I have no doubt, connect mechanical and chemical sciences together; it will concentrate them into one and in that one comprehend the whole universe.

‘The first step to truth is the confession of ignorance. No man could have made the immortal discoveries of Newton unless he had first thrown up the ridiculous doctrines of Des Cartes. To attend to our errors and own them, to sacrifice all selfishness to the science, not to support errors for the sake of vanity, ought to be the leading precepts of a philosopher. He should turn his endeavour to the advancement of science and not to the increase of his reputation. Let him fix steps for others to rise on, and he does more real good to science than if he had spent years in controversy on an equivocal point. Let him turn his thoughts to general views and try to contain the whole science in his grasp; he will then be calculated to arrange it, improve it, and reform it and place it in that order which tends so materially to its advancement.’

His lecture on Chlorine was given on Saturday, March 14; the previous week he had given a lecture on Oxygen, which was not reported by Faraday.

‘I will demonstrate what I affirm in a positive and satisfactory manner.

‘Accustomed for years to consider the chemical principles of the French School of Physical Sciences as correct, I had adopted them and put faith in them until they became prejudices, and I even felt unwilling to give them up when my judgment was fully convinced by experiment that they were erroneous. I know that this is the case in some degree with almost every person; he is unwilling to believe that he is wrong, and therefore feels averse to adopt what is right when it opposes his principles.

‘Pelletier died from inhaling this gas (chlorine). It supports combustion of a taper [experiment]; it does not contain oxygen.’ He showed by experiment that pure dry chlorine and hydrogen, when exploded, caused no moisture; no water was formed. This was the synthetical proof. Decomposition of muriatic acid gas by potassium was shown as the analytical proof. Compounds with phosphorus, ammonia, and sulphur all free from oxygen. ‘Oxygen does combine with chlorine. I have ventured to name the compound euchlorine; it is of a very bright yellow green colour. Names should represent things, not opinions, for in the last case they often tend to misrepresent and mislead.

‘As chlorine contained no oxygen, it became an inquiry well worth investigation to ascertain the part which chlorine acted in bleaching. It decomposes water and forms hydrochloric acid.’

‘Had Mr. Berthollet obtained oxygen from chlorine there would have been no error in his theory, but by not attending to the minute circumstances of his experiment, by not ascertaining that the water present acted no part and was not decomposed, he fell into an error, and of course all the conclusions he drew were false and erroneous. Nothing should be allowed but what can be proved by experiment, and nothing should be taken for granted upon analogy or supposition.’

Faraday concludes this lecture thus: ‘Mr. Davy now proceeded to comment and make observations on the former theory of chlorine gas. Here I was unable to follow him. The plan which I pursue in taking of notes is convenient and sufficient with respect to the theoretical and also the practical part of the lecture, but for the embellishments and ornaments of it it will not answer. Mr. Davy’s language at those times is so superior (and indeed throughout the whole course of the lecture) that then I am infinitely below him and am incapable of following him even in an humble style. Therefore I shall not attempt it; it will be sufficient to give a kind of contents of it.

‘He said that hypotheses should not be considered as facts and built upon accordingly. Nevertheless, if cautiously pursued, they might lead to mature fruit. That nothing should be taken for granted unless proved. By considering oxygen as contained in chlorine the whole chemical world had been wrapped in error respecting that body for more than one-third of a century.

‘He noticed that all the truly great scientific men were possessed of great humility and diffidence of their own opinions and powers. He spoke of Scheele, the discoverer of chlorine; observed that he possessed a truly philosophical spirit, gave up his opinions when he supposed them to be erroneous, and without hesitation or reluctance adopted those of others which he considered more correct; admired his spirit and recommended it to all philosophers; compared it to corn, which looked but simple and insignificant in blossom and asked for little praise, yet was the support of man.’

In this lecture Faraday gives the details of twenty experiments.

On April 8 Professor Davy lectured on Simple Inflammable Bodies. ‘Their number, excepting the metals, is six, which unite with oxygen and chlorine, the subjects of the two last lectures.’ He showed a jet of oxygen burning in hydrogen, and said, ‘In the burning of tallow, wax, oil, and wood it is the hydrogen of their bodies that causes the flame; though in most cases it is also combined with carbon, yet it is the hydrogen that produces the flame....

‘I have here a bladder filled with nitrous oxide gas; I will breathe it once or twice, but not so far as to incapacitate me from continuing the lecture. It produces a very pleasing sensation (far superior to the most exquisite liquors, such as champagne), and I have no doubt that if I were to continue it a few minutes longer I should make a very interesting exhibition to the company; but I would rather be excused....

‘If we suppose that the diamond is pure carbon, and is therefore the same as charcoal, we have a very strong presumptive reason to suppose that all matter is alike in all substances. If substances so opposite and so different as charcoal and diamond are in reality the same kind of matter, then the difference in other bodies is no proof that they also are not of the same kind of matter; and this would lead us to suppose that there is but one matter in nature, and that the difference in different bodies is owing to variety in the distance of the particles, to shape, and to size....

‘In conclusion several of these six simple combustibles I suspect to be compounds, and perhaps their nature may shortly be discovered....

‘What gives a strong colour to the idea of the compound nature of nitrogen is the quantity of it that can be obtained from animal bodies, whereas they imbibe none, they combine with none.

‘Sulphur and phosphorus both appear to be compound bodies when they are subjected to the power of a voltaic battery. A great quantity of hydrogen gas is evolved, so that it appears hydrogen is one of their constituent parts....

‘Whether these bodies are compound or not, they are objects of new research; they present new fields for the great, the industrious, the scientific, and the penetrating mind. Our horizon extends the higher we rise. The result of future inquiries will probably lay a foundation on which future ages and future generations may erect an edifice that will reach from earth to heaven.’

In this lecture Faraday noted twenty-two experiments.

The next day, April 9, Davy was knighted by the Prince Regent.

On April 10 Sir Humphry Davy gave his last lecture at the Royal Institution; it was on the Metals.

‘All the volatile metals burn with flame, and all those that are not volatile with sparks....

‘These, with the metals of the alkalies and the alkaline earths which I have had the good fortune to discover, make up the number to about forty.’

He shewed the mode of obtaining alkaline metals by voltaic decomposition; and earths by potassium.

The mode of obtaining the alkaline metals by chemical action alone was shown, but the experiment was not made. A quantity of potassium from common potash by iron was on the table.

‘The combustion of metals is according to their electricity, those containing the most electricity burning with the most energy. All those metals that are positive to others are also more inflammable than those others, and burn more readily....

‘That the metals of the earths and alkalies cannot exist at the surface of our globe we are well assured, but they may exist in the interior, and if so they will offer a very complete and a very probable solution of the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes; and perhaps, considered thus, they may lay the foundation of a new and perfect system of geology.

‘We have here a small volcano formed of clay, &c., in the shape of a mountain, and having two or three pieces of the alkaline metals introduced here and there. Now by adding a little water to this volcano I shall be able to inflame it and cause it to burn briskly....

‘Meteors consist of alkaline metals and iron; the iron burns last if it be burnt at all.

‘What I conceive is, that there are certain bodies that revolve round our earth--a kind of satellites--and are the same with respect to our globe that comets are to the sun. Their orbits are ellipses, whose longer diameters, like those of the comets, far exceed their shorter ones. They must move with very great velocity to counteract the attraction of the earth....’

Regarding transmutation of metals he said ‘the beginning was deceit, the progress falsehood, and the end beggary, said Lemery.’

‘It was supposed till lately that the fixed alkalies were simple bodies, but I have had the good fortune to prove them compounds; and that pure potash should contain a metal, oxygen, and water is not more probable than that the metals are compounds, yet it not only is probable but it is possible, and in reality is so....

‘From the mercurial amalgam and from the quantity of hydrogen given out by metals when exposed to the action of a vigorous voltaic battery, either this hydrogen is combined with the metal or it is one of its constituent parts....

‘If, then, we suppose that hydrogen constitutes a part of all metals, they will be compounds of it and a base. The hydrogen will give them their genuine characters and make them metals, and their base will bestow on them their own peculiar properties.

‘I should wish particularly on this point to be understood rightly. I am not an advocate for alchemy and its attendant frauds; that will appear from the tenor of my discourse; but I conceive it to be a noble and glorious object to follow up the paths trod by those chemists who wish for the improvement of science to ascertain the compound nature of metals. It is a subject well worthy of pursuit, and whenever the discovery is made it will confer immortal honour on the discoverer, the age, and the country that it is made in.’

Faraday then says, ‘Having thus given the general character of the metals, Sir H. Davy proceeded to make a few observations on the connection of science with the other parts of polished and social life. Here it would be improper for me to follow him. I should merely injure and destroy the beautiful, the sublime observations that fell from his lips. He spoke in the most energetic and luminous manner of the advancement of the arts and sciences, of the connection that had always existed between them and other parts of a nation’s economy. He noticed the peculiar congeries of great men in all departments of life that generally appeared together, noticed Anaximander, Anaximenes, Socrates, Newton, Bacon, Elizabeth, &c., but, by an unaccountable omission, forgot himself, though I will venture to say no one else present did.

‘During the whole of these observations his delivery was easy, his diction elegant, his tone good, and his sentiments sublime.’

Faraday ends his volume with the notes of eighteen experiments that were made in this lecture.

The same day Davy wrote to his brother. It was the eve of his wedding.

Friday, April 10, 1812.

MY DEAR BROTHER,--You will have excused me for not writing to you on subjects of science. I have been absorbed by arrangements on which the happiness of my future life depends. Before you receive this these arrangements will, I trust, be settled, and in a few weeks I shall be able to return to my habits of study and scientific research. I am going to be married to-morrow, and I have a fair prospect of happiness with the most amiable and intellectual woman I have ever known.

The Prince Regent, unsolicited by me or by any of my intimate friends, was pleased to confer the honour of knighthood on me at the last levée. This distinction has not often been bestowed on scientific men, but I am proud of it, as the greatest of human geniuses bore it; and it is at least a proof that the world has not overlooked my humble efforts in the cause of science.

* * * * *

I am, my dear Brother, most affectionately yours, H. DAVY.

On June 12 he published his ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy.’ It is dedicated to Lady Davy, ‘as a pledge that he shall continue to pursue science with unabated ardour.’

Dr. Thomas Young, in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for September 1812, enables us to see what was thought of Sir H. Davy and of his book at this time.

‘In attempting a review of this work we cannot avoid professing that we are far from entertaining the impression of sitting down as competent judges to decide upon the merits or demerits of the author; on this point the public voice, not only within our own islands, but wherever science is cultivated, has already pronounced too definite a sentence to be weakened or confirmed by anything that we can suggest of exception or approbation. Our humble labours on such an occasion must be much more analytical and historical than critical; at the same time we are too well acquainted with the author’s candour to suppress any remark which may occur to us as tending to correction or improvement. It has most assuredly fallen to the lot of no one individual to contribute to the progress of chemical knowledge by discoveries so numerous and important as those which have been made by Sir Humphry Davy; and, with regard to mere experimental investigation, we do not hesitate to rank his researches as more splendidly successful than any which have ever before illustrated the physical sciences in any of their departments. We are aware that the “Optics” of Newton will immediately occur to our readers as an exception; but, without attempting to convince those who may differ from us on this point, we are disposed to abide by the opinion that for a series of well-devised experiments and brilliant discoveries the contents of Davy’s “Bakerian Lectures” are as much superior to those of Newton’s “Optics” as the “Principia” are to those or to any other human work for the accurate and refined application of a sublime and simple theory to the most intricate and apparently anomalous results derived from previous observation.

* * * * *

‘Until the year 1806 Sir Humphry Davy had been remarkable for the industrious and ingenious application of those means of experiment only which had been long known to chemists. He had acquired at a very early period of his life a well-established celebrity among men of science throughout Europe by the originality and accuracy of his researches, and at the same time the fluent and impressive delivery of his lectures had obtained him the most flattering marks of approbation from the public of the metropolis. But it was in the summer of that year that, in repeating some electro-chemical experiments of very doubtful authority (the production of acid and alkali by the decomposition of water), he was led into a new train of reasoning and investigation, which enabled him to demonstrate the important laws of the connection between the electrical affections of bodies and their chemical powers. This was his first great discovery.... Our author’s next great step was the decomposition of the alkalies, which he effected the succeeding year; and this, though less interesting and important with regard to the fundamental theory of the science, was more brilliant and imposing from its capability of being exhibited in a visible, tangible form. The third striking feature which distinguishes the system advanced in the present work is the assertion of the existence of at least two empyreal principles--oxygen and the elastic fluid called the oxymuriatic acid gas (chlorine)....

‘A fourth peculiarity, which, however, is less exclusively and originally a doctrine of Sir Humphry Davy, is the theory of the simplicity of the proportions in which all bodies combine--a theory the explicit illustration and general and minute application of which the science is principally indebted to our countryman Mr. Dalton.’

How far later discoveries have advanced our knowledge can be seen in the strange words, as they now sound, which Dr. Young uses when he mentions the first researches of Davy.

‘Certain bodies which attract each other chemically, and combine when their particles have freedom of motion, when brought into contact still preserving their aggregation, exhibit what may be called electrical polarities, and by certain combinations these polarities may be highly exalted; and in this case they become subservient to chemical decompositions, and, by means of chemical arrangements, the constituent parts of bodies are separated in uniform order and in definite proportions.’

* * * * *

The review then gives the account of the discovery of potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, magnesium, aluminum, glycinium, zirconium, silicium, and itrium and boron.

On the subject of oxymuriatic acid gas Dr. Young says ‘we cannot help thinking his tone somewhat more decisive than the present state of the investigation altogether authorises,’ and he strongly objects to Davy’s terminology; which never was adopted by chemists.

As no table of the proportional weights of chemical substances entering into combination is to be found in Sir H. Davy’s work, Dr. Young says he took the liberty of inserting one formed from Davy’s numbers and from the experiments of Berzelius and Richter.

He thus ended his review, ‘The character of Sir Humphry Davy’s researches has always been that of the most interesting originality, and we have certainly no reason to complain that he has in his experiments very commonly forsaken the beaten path.

* * * * *

‘With all its excellences this work must be allowed to bear no inconsiderable marks of haste, and we would easily have conjectured, even if the author had not expressly told us so in his dedication, that the period employed on it “has been the happiest of his life.” In that and in every other happiness which may have befallen him we shall ever most sincerely rejoice; nor shall we think the public will have any reason to reproach him with having done too little for science, even if he should fail at any future time in his avowed resolution of pursuing it “with unabated ardour;” that he has not yet so failed is become from a late accident a matter of public notoriety, and if we may expect perseverance to be at all commensurate to success, we have no reason to be apprehensive of his passing any part of his life in inactivity.

‘The style and manner of this work are nearly the same with those of the author’s lectures delivered in the theatre of the Royal Institution. They have been much admired by some of the most competent judges of good language and good taste, and it has been remarked that Davy was born a poet, and has only become a chemist by accident. Certainly the situation in which he was placed induced him to cultivate an ornamented and popular style of expression and embellishment, and what was encouraged by temporary motives has become natural to him from habit. Hence have arisen a multitude of sentimental reflections and appeals to the feelings, which many will think beauties and some only prettinesses; nor is it necessary for us to decide in which of the two classes of readers we wish ourselves to be arranged, conceiving that in matters so indifferent to the immediate object of the work a great latitude may be allowed to the diversity of taste and opinion.’

On June 18 Davy sent a paper to the Royal Society on ‘Some Combinations of Phosphorus and Sulphur,’ and in July two other papers--‘Further Observations on Chloride of Nitrogen; and on Fluorine and Hydrofluoric Acid.’

Late in August he wrote to a friend, ‘I have just published a volume of the ‘Elements of Chemistry,’ and I hope to publish another in the course of the spring. Having given up lecturing, I shall be able to devote my whole time to the pursuit of discovery.’

On October 14, from Edinburgh, he wrote to Mr. Children:

‘I have received a very interesting letter from Ampère. He says that a combination of chlorine and azote has been discovered at Paris, which is a fluid and explodes by the heat of the hand, the discovery of which cost an eye and a finger to the author. He gives no details as to the mode of combining them. I have tried in my little apparatus with ammonia cooled very low and chlorine, but without success.’

On October 24 he writes, ‘On Wednesday we are to have a meeting at the Institution, to try to make this compound of azote and chlorine.’

On November 5 a letter was read at the Royal Society from Davy to Sir Joseph Banks on this compound, which had been formed by exposing chlorine to a solution of nitrate of ammonia. During his investigation the substance exploded in a tube, and he received a severe wound in the eye.

On November 16 he wrote to his brother, ‘It is not safe to experiment upon a globule larger than a pin’s head. I have been severely wounded by a piece scarcely bigger.’

In January 1813 he had another severe attack of inflammation in the wounded eye, and it was not perfectly well till April.

On April 4 he wrote to his brother, ‘I am now quite recovered, and Jane is very well, and we have both enjoyed the last month in London. I have been hard at work (on fluorine). We have now a triad of supporters of combustion.

‘I have just finished printing my “Agricultural Lectures.”’

Soon after he again wrote to his brother:

I communicated to you in a former letter my plans as far as they were matured. I have neither given up the Institution nor am I going to France, and, wherever I am, I shall continue to labour in the cause of science with a zeal not diminished by increase of happiness and (with respect to the world) increased independence.

I have just finished the first part of my ‘Chemistry’ to my own satisfaction, and I am going to publish my ‘Agricultural Lectures,’ for which I am to get 1,000 guineas for the copyright and fifty guineas for each edition, which seems a fair price. As I shall see you so soon I shall not write about any matters of science.

I was appointed professor (honorary) to the Institution at the last meeting (April 5). I do not pledge myself to give lectures. Brande gives twelve.

If I lecture it will be on some new series of discoveries, should it be my fortune to make them, and I give up the routine of lecturing merely that I may have more time to pursue original inquiries and forward more the great objects of science. This has been for some time my intention, and it has been hastened by my marriage.

I shall have great pleasure in making you acquainted with Lady D. She is a noble creature (if I may be permitted so to speak of a wife) and every day adds to my contentment by the powers of her understanding and her amiable and delightful tones of feeling. God bless you!

Believe me to be your affectionate brother, H. DAVY.

In the minutes of the monthly meetings of members of the Royal Institution, April 5, 1813, it is stated that Sir H. Davy rose and begged leave to resign his situation of Professor of Chemistry; ‘but he by no means wished to give up his connection with the Royal Institution, as he should ever be happy to communicate his researches in the first instance to the Institution in the way he did in the presence of the members last Wednesday (on hydrofluoric acid), and to do all in his power to promote the interest and success of this Institution.’

Earl Spencer moved ‘that the thanks of this meeting be returned to Sir H. Davy for the inestimable services rendered by him to the Royal 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 200_l._ per annum.

In October Sir H. Davy went abroad with Mr. Faraday.

In May 1815 he came back, and Faraday was re-engaged as the assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution. Whilst abroad he had sent as many as seven papers to the Royal Society--on ‘Fluoric Acid Compounds and Hydrogen Acids.’ Two papers on ‘Iodine,’ on ‘Combustion of the Diamond,’ on ‘Ancient Colours,’ on a ‘Solid Compound of Iodine and Oxygen,’ on ‘Hyperoxy-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 until his last experiment on the diffusion of gases, in February 1826, are to be found in the ‘Life of Faraday.’ It will be sufficient to give here a statement of the original researches which he communicated to the Royal Society.

In November 1815 and January 1816 his papers on Fire-damp were read. He then worked upon flame, and in January 1817 his researches on flame and his splendid invention of the Davy Lamp were laid before the Royal Society. At this time the popular reputation of Davy reached its climax, and, looking back, we can now see that his life should have ended here; he was then only 38 years old. He was presented with a service of plate as a token of his invaluable invention by the coal owners of the Tyne and Wear. He bequeathed this to the Royal Society for the foundation of a medal, to be given yearly to the chemist who made the greatest discovery. This prize should be looked on as a lasting memorial of the countless lives which Davy and other chemists, by the application of their scientific researches, have preserved.

Year after year, from 1817 to 1826, Davy communicated new investigations to the Royal Society. He worked on chlorine, on phosphorus, on mists. He went abroad again, and he tried chemically to unfold the Herculanean papyri. He returned in 1820, and was elected President of the Royal Society after the death of Sir Joseph Banks. Then he worked on magnetic phenomena produced by electricity, on electric phenomena in vacuo, on water in the cavities of crystals, on new phenomena of electro-magnetism. He became jealous of the discoveries of Faraday, and he sent a paper to the Royal Society on the ‘Application of Liquids Formed by the Condensation of Gases as Mechanical Agents.’

In 1823 he began to work on the defence of the copper sheathing of ships, and in 1824 he had two papers published on this subject. He went in a Government steamboat to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark for the purpose of trying the influence of motion on his protectors. He had already suffered for a year at this time from ill health. In 1825 his paper on the ‘Preservation of Metals by Electrochemistry’ was published. In practice his plan failed, and he was too ill to bear lightly the disappointment of his expectations. In 1826 he had a paper read on the ‘Relations of Electrical and Chemical Changes.’ It contained but little new matter. On November 30 he was elected President of the Royal Society for the last time. He was dangerously ill on the day of election.

In the middle of December 1826 he was struck with paralysis of the right side.

With the restlessness of disease on January 22, about a month after his attack, he set out for Italy. He had the worst possible journey across Mont Cenis, and, after being three weeks at Ravenna, in the middle of March he wrote to Mr. Poole:

I am, thank God, better, but still very weak and wholly unfit for any kind of business and study. I have, however, considerably recovered the use of all the limbs that were affected, and, as my amendment has been slow and gradual, I hope in time it may be complete. But I am leading the life of an anchorite, obliged to abstain from flesh, wine, business, study, experiments, and all things that I love; but this discipline is salutary, and, for the sake of being able to do something more for science, and I hope for humanity, I submit to it, believing that the Great Source of intellectual being so wills it for good.

One of the last thoughts in his note-book, written at Ravenna, shows his mind:

‘Our _real knowledge_ is but to be sure that we know nothing, and I can but doubt if this be a curse or blessing. Those who hope, trust, and believe are surely happier far than those who doubt; and the submissive child, who of his father’s goodness is secure, is far more blessed than the froward one, who sets himself against his powerful will, which, after all his struggles and vain efforts, he must at last obey, rebelling against the love which would have made him happy. Is not this the history of man?--of that bright and beauteous garden where in innocence and ignorance he lived and loved till the false taste of knowledge made him wretched and he knew that he must die. And is not this the glory and the consummation of the Christian faith, which gives him back his innocence, his hopes, his confidence in God, which through his life still gilds the future with a golden blessing of an expected immortality? Man fell in Adam; knowledge was his bane; man rose in Christ, recovering his ignorance or substituting hope for what was doubt.’

Four or five days before he left Ravenna he wrote, April 6, ‘Did not shoot, but returned thanks to the Great Cause of all being for all His mercies to me, an undeserving and often ungrateful creature, but now most grateful. May I become better and more grateful and more humble-minded every day!’

‘Valde miserabilis’ is not an unfrequent expression at this time, commonly accompanied with mention of diminished power of limbs and general feebleness, with pain and numbness. Sometimes he was in despair of recovery and resigned to his fate, at other times indulging in hope, thankful for feeling better, and expressing thanks (and he does it very often) by the use of letters; as G. G. D. (Thanks and glory to God); O. O. O.; or more fully thus, G. O. O. O. D.

On July 1 he wrote to his friend Mr. Davies Gilbert, who was on the council of the Royal Society. He says that the expectations of his complete and rapid recovery have not been realised.

Under these circumstances I feel it would be highly imprudent, and perhaps fatal, for me to return and to attempt to perform the official duties of President of the Royal Society; and as I had no other feeling for that high and honourable situation except the hope of being useful to the society, so I would not keep it a moment without the security of being able to devote myself to the labour and attention it demands. I beg, therefore, you will be so good as to communicate my resignation to the council and to the Society at their first meeting in November, stating the circumstances of my severe and long-continued illness as the cause. At the same time I beg you will express to them how grateful I feel for the high honour they have done me in placing me in the chair for so many successive years. Assure them that I shall always take the same interest in the progress of the grand objects of the Society, and throughout the whole of my life endeavour to contribute to their advancement and to the prosperity of the body.

He continued his notes thus:

‘_September 2._--I took my exercise well with less fatigue, and certainly feel better. Offered up my thanksgiving to the O. O. O. with tears of gratitude and feelings of intense adoration,

‘_September 27_, ST. GOAR.--A very beautiful and glorious evening. I thought I was going to be quite well, as the weakness of the left wrist, which put an end to my shooting at Spiers, is quite gone; but I found my stiff leg as bad as ever. Yet I can hardly be lower or live lower. Dubito fortissime restaurationem meam.

‘As I have so often alluded to the possibility of my dying suddenly, I think it right to mention that I am too intense a believer in the Supreme Intelligence, and have too strong a faith in the optimism of the system of the universe, ever to accelerate my dissolution. The laurel-water and laudanum and opium that are in my dressing-case are medicines. I have been and am taking a care of my health which I fear it is not worth, but which, hoping it may please Providence to preserve me for wise purposes, I think my duty. G. O. O. O.’

He arrived in London on October 6. Not finding his health improve, on March 29, 1828, he left England again. Before he went he sent a paper on Volcanoes to the Royal Society.

In his ‘Consolations in Travel’ he says, ‘I was desirous of again passing some time in Southern Austria and Italy, in the hope of re-establishing a broken constitution, and though this hope was a feeble one, yet at least I expected to spend a few of the last days of life more tranquilly and more agreeably than in the metropolis of my own country. Nature never deceives us. The rocks, the mountains, the streams, always speak the same language. A shower of snow may hide the verdant woods in spring, a thunder-storm may render the blue, limpid streams foul and turbulent; but these effects are rare and transient; in a few hours, or at least days, all the sources of beauty are renovated; and Nature affords no continued trains of misfortunes and miseries, such as depend upon the constitution of humanity, no hopes for ever blighted in the bud, no beings full of life, beauty, and promise taken from us in the prime of youth. Her fruits are all balmy, bright, and sweet; she affords none of those blighted ones so common in the life of man and so like the fabled apples of the Dead Sea, fresh and beautiful to the sight, but when tasted full of bitterness and ashes.’

On May 22 he writes, ‘To my old haunt, Wurzen, which is sublime in the majesty of Alpine grandeur. The snowy peaks of the Noric Alps rising above thunder-clouds, whilst spring in all its bloom and beauty blooms below, its buds and blossoms adorning the face of nature under a frowning canopy of dark clouds, like some Judith beauty of Italy--a Transteverene brow and eye and a mouth of Venus and the Graces.’

On June 3 he wrote to his brother, Dr. Davy:

Aussee, in Styria.

Notwithstanding the long, severe, and depressing malady under which I still labour I am not entirely without hope of ultimate recovery, and the few pleasures which I retain in this my state of earthly purgatory have principally reference to the enjoyments and prospects of my friends; and I indulge in the idea that you are well and happy and enjoying a life which I can say I only support, supposing that it pleases Omniscience to preserve me for some ends which I cannot understand, but which I trust belong to the great plan of goodness and mercy belonging to the Divine mind.

It suits me better to write away my days in this solitary state of existence in the contemplation of nature than to attempt to enter into London society, where recollections call up the idea of what I was, and the want of bodily power teaches me what a shadow I am. I make notes in natural history, fish, and prepare for another edition of my ‘Salmonia;’ ride amongst the lakes and mountains; and attach the loose fringe of hope as much as possible to my tattered garments. I am now going to Ischel, where there are warm salt baths, to try if they will renovate the muscular power of my leg and arm.

I wish to go to Trieste in October, to make the experiments I have long projected on the torpedo. God bless you, my dear John!

Your affectionate Friend and Brother, H. DAVY.

On June 24 he says:

I have used the baths. I have nearly recovered the flexibility of the affected limbs, but not their former strength, and this I can hardly hope to do as long as I am obliged to live so low and to use so much medicine; but I shall go on. Speranza!

In November he sent his last paper to the Royal Society. It was on the Torpedo.

On December 21 he wrote to his brother:

Rome.

Perhaps in the spring you could see me in Illyria. I would then show you my kind little nurse, to whom I owe most of the little happiness I have enjoyed since my illness.

He had stopped his treatment for four months and had lived rather more freely, but in ‘every respect I have continued extremely temperate.’

On January 30, 1829, he was still at Rome. He said, ‘The palpitation of the heart has increased almost alarmingly, and I do not think I have gained any strength in the weak limbs.’

On February 1 he wrote in his journal, ‘Finished the dialogues fifth and sixth’ (these ended the ‘Consolations in Travel’). ‘Si moro, spero che ho fatto il mio dovere, e che la mia vita non e stata vana ed inutile.’

On February 6 he wrote to his friend Poole from Rome:

Would I were better, I would then write to you an agreeable letter from this curious city; but I am here wearing away the winter, a ruin amongst ruins.

I write and philosophise a good deal, and have nearly finished a work with a higher aim than the little ‘Salmonia,’ which I shall dedicate to you. It contains the essence of my philosophical opinions and some of my poetical reveries. I sometimes think of the lines of Waller:

The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.

I have, notwithstanding my infirmities, attended to scientific objects whenever it was in my power, and I have sent to the Royal Society a paper, which they will publish, on the ‘Peculiar Electricity of the Torpedo,’ which I think bears remotely on the functions of life. I attend a good deal to natural history.

I fight against sickness and fate, believing I have still duties to perform, and that even my illness is connected in some way with my being made useful to my fellow-creatures. I have this conviction full on my mind, that intellectual beings spring from the same breath of Infinite Intelligence, and return to it again, but by different courses, like rivers born amidst the clouds of heaven and lost in the deep and eternal ocean; some in youth rapid and short-lived torrents, some in manhood powerful and copious rivers, and some in age by a winding and slow course, half lost in their career and making their exit by many sandy and shallow mouths. [And then he asks him if he will come and travel with him.] But I write as if I were a strong man, when I am like a pendulum, as it were, swinging between death and life. God bless you, my dear Poole!

Your grateful and affectionate Friend, H. DAVY.

A fortnight afterwards he had another severe attack of paralysis of the right side.

On February 23, three days after the attack, he dictated a letter to his brother.

MY DEAR JOHN,--Notwithstanding all my care and discipline and ascetic living I am dying from a severe attack of palsy, which has seized the whole of the body with the exception of the intellectual organ. I am under the usual severe discipline of bleeding and blistering, but the weakness increases, and a few hours or days will finish my mortal existence. I shall leave my bones in the Eternal City. I bless God that I have been able to finish all my philosophical labours....

God bless you, my dear brother! may you be happy and prosperous!

Your affectionate Friend and Brother, H. DAVY.

The 25th he dictated another letter, chiefly on the torpedo; it ends:

Pray do not neglect this subject, which I leave to you as another legacy. God bless you, my dear brother!

Your affectionate Friend, H. DAVY.

He tried to write a postscript, and he did write ‘My dear John;’ then he dictated, ‘I am dying; come as quickly as you can. You will not see me alive, I am afraid. God bless you!’

On March 16 Dr. Davy reached him. ‘Never shall I forget,’ he says, ‘the manner in which he received me, the joy which lighted up his pale and emaciated countenance, his cheerful words and extreme kindness, and his endeavours to soothe a grief which I had not the power of controlling on finding him so ill, or rather at hearing him speak as if he were a dying man, who had only a few hours to live, and who wished to use every moment of such precious time. With a most cheerful voice, a smile on his countenance, and most warm pressure of the hand, he bade me not be grieved, but consider the event as a philosopher. He expressed his pleasure at seeing me so soon and in having me with him in his last hours, and firmly rejected all expectation and hope of recovery. He had lost all the irritable feeling to which he was very liable, and which generally accompanies paralytic complaints. His own conviction that he was a dying man almost persuaded me that the brilliancy of his mind was a lightening before death.’

The next day he was not only amused but interested deeply with the dissection of a torpedo made by Dr. Davy in an adjoining room.

On the night of March 31, having gradually got worse, he told Dr. Davy he was sure he should die. ‘He took leave of me most tenderly, kissed my cheek, and bade God bless me. I believed that now indeed I was about to lose him and that I should never again hear his voice of kindness. During the night when I went to him he still breathed. The following morning, when I drew back his curtains, he expressed great astonishment at being alive. He said that he had gone through the whole process of dying, and that when he awoke he had difficulty in convincing himself by experiments that he was in his earthly existence. He added that his being alive was quite miraculous, and that he now began to think his recovery not impossible, and that it might be intended by Divine Providence that his life should be prolonged for purposes of usefulness.

‘From this day he pretty rapidly improved; as he mended the sentiment of gratitude to Divine Providence was overflowing.’ On April 20 he wrote his last note at the end of a letter of Dr. Davy’s.

‘MY DEAR SISTER,--I am very ill, but, thanks to my dearest John, still alive. God bless you all!--H. DAVY.’ ‘He would have said more, but his feeble hand failed him.’

On April 30 he was able to leave Rome for Switzerland. He stayed a week at Genoa and on May 28 he reached Geneva, and there first heard of the death of Dr. Young, ‘which affected him in a manner almost unaccountable.’ He dined early and was read to afterwards; at half-past nine he wished to be left alone, ‘and I took leave of him,’ says Dr. Davy, ‘for the night. At half-past two his servant called me. He was insensible, and in a few minutes he expired.’

For the last half-century general opinion has been so charmed by the simple greatness of Faraday, that even the genius of Davy with his love of original research has been partially eclipsed. But, as time lessens the effect of the contrast, the reputation of Davy will recover its former brightness, and the picture drawn of him by Mr. Poole will not be looked on as due to the partiality of his oldest and most attached friend.

‘Although the most friendly intercourse existed between us for thirty years, I fear I have little else to communicate than to bear testimony to his general intellectual elevation and to the warmth, sincerity, and simplicity of his heart. I was first introduced to him at the Medical Pneumatic Institution at Clifton in, I think, 1799, where I inhaled his nitrous oxide with the usual extraordinary and transitory sensations; but the interesting conversation, manners, and appearance of the youthful operator were not transitory--nay, riveted my attention--and we soon became friends.

‘From that time to his death no interruption of the most cordial goodwill and affection occurred between us. Neither the importance of his discoveries nor the attentions of the exalted in rank or science, whether as individuals or bodies, nor the honour conferred on him by his sovereign, made the least alteration in his personal demeanour or in the tone of his correspondence. No man was ever less spoiled by the world. The truth is, though he conformed to the world and paid due deference to those men and things which are deferred to by the world, his delight was in his intellectual being. He felt that he had the power of investigating the laws of nature beyond that entrusted to the generality of men, and the success with which he acted on this impulse increased his confidence. During his last visit to me in November 1827, when in a very weak state of health, he more than once said, “I do not wish to live as far as I am personally concerned; but I have views which I could develope, if it please God to save my life, which would be useful to science and to mankind.” Indeed, to be useful to science and to mankind was that in which he gloried, to use a favourite word of his. He was enthusiastically attached to science and to men of science, and his heart yearned to be useful to mankind, and particularly to the humblest of mankind. How often have I heard him express the satisfaction which the discovery of the safety lamp gave him. “I value it,” he said, “more than anything I ever did.”

‘However his circumstances and situation in society altered, his labours and zeal in the pursuit of science were throughout his life undiminished.

‘What from my earliest knowledge of my admirable friend I considered his most striking characteristic was the quickness and truth of his apprehension. It was a power of reasoning so rapid when applied to any subject, that he could hardly himself be conscious of the process, and it must, I think, have been felt by him as it appeared to me pure intuition. I used to say to him, “You understand me before I half understand myself.”

‘If his mind had been given in that direction he would probably have ranked high among our poets. I recollect hearing perhaps the greatest living poetic genius (Coleridge) say, “Had not Davy been the first chemist, he probably would have been the first poet of his age.”

‘No man was less a sectarian, if I may use the expression, in religion, in politics, or in science. He regarded with benevolence the sincere convictions of any class on the subject of religion, however they might vary from his own. In politics he was the ardent friend of rational liberty; he gloried in the institutions of his country and was anxious to see them maintained in their purity by timely and temperate reform. Men of science, wherever situated, he considered fellow-subjects of one great republic spread over the world. As to his amusements he would say, “It is not the sport only, though there is a great pleasure in successful dexterity, but it is the ardour of the pursuit, the pure air, the contemplation of the fine country, the exercise, all which invigorate the body and excite the mind to its best efforts.”

‘When he made his last visit to me in 1827, on his arrival he said, “Here I am, the ruin of what I was.” But nevertheless the same activity and ardour of mind continued, though directed to different objects.

‘He was not only one of the greatest but one of the most benevolent and amiable of men.’

APPENDIX I.

CONTAINING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS IN THE LIBRARY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION REGARDING THE SERVICE OF COUNT RUMFORD IN THE AMERICAN WAR.

As early as 1782 Sir Guy Carleton had requested permission to return home ‘in consequence of his repugnance to a situation merely defensive.’ The King’s ministers had just determined that active operations should be carried on under his command in the West Indies against the French, and the King had appointed him to the chief command of the army destined to act there on the day he asked for his dismissal. Late in the autumn the Right Hon. T. Townsend, then Secretary of State, directed that 1,500 British troops should be sent to reinforce the islands, but Sir Guy Carleton considered this would be attended with such serious consequences that he determined ‘to deviate from a measure so explicitly directed to be carried into execution.’ The Secretary suggested that a number of provincials and foreign troops should be sent, and he authorised that every provincial corps embarking for the West Indies should immediately be put upon the British establishment.

On March 14, 1783, Colonel Thompson sent a memorial for himself, brother officers, and men to Sir Guy Carleton. He said

‘That the officers were chiefly young men of the first families and connections, and that except the adjutant they were all Americans, and had suffered very considerably by the Rebellion, that in the event of peace and the independency of the provinces all their hopes of returning to their former situations will be at an end, and they will be reduced to the greatest distress. That they are ready to go anywhere. That the regiment is completely appointed to the fall establishment of six troops of sixty men each, together with four field-pieces, with their harness, &c., complete for a troop of flying artillery.’

The memorial then begs for employment in the West Indies, or in any other part of his Majesty’s dominions, and states, that in case more troops should be wanted Colonel Thompson undertakes to raise a very fine battalion of light infantry from amongst the men then serving in his Majesty’s provincial forces.

On the 21st of March Sir Guy Carleton authorised and empowered Colonel Thompson to raise four companies of light infantry, consisting of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, and fifty-two privates each, to be attached to the King’s American Dragoons, the whole to be put on the British establishment upon their embarking for the West Indies.

He said, ‘All officers, civil and military, particularly the officers commanding provincial corps, and all others his Majesty’s liege subjects are hereby required to be aiding and assisting to you and all concerned in the execution of the above services, for which this shall be to you and to them a sufficient warrant and authority.’

* * * * *

The following paper is in Rumford’s writing:

_Proposed Establishment of a Corps of Light Troops to be raised for his Majesty’s Service, to be commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, Commandant of the King’s American Dragoons._

Key to table columns:

A Majors B Captains C Capt.-Lieutenant D Lieutenants E Cornets F Ensigns G Chaplain H Adjutant I Qr.-Masters J Surgeon K Mate L Sergeants M Corporals N Trumpeters O Drummers P Fifers Q Privates R Total S Total Officers and Men

Key to table rows:

X Dismounted Cavalry: King’s American Dragoons, 6 troops of 60 men each Y Light Infantry: 4 companies of 60 men each Z Artillery: 1 company of 60 men each

+-----+-----------------++--------------++----------------------++---+ | | Commission || Staff || Non-Commissioned || | | | Officers || Officers || Officers and Privates|| S | | +--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++ | | |A |B |C |D |E |F ||G |H |I |J |K ||L |M |N |O |P | Q | R || | +-----+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+ | X | 2| 3| 1| 5| 6| || 1| 1| 6| 1| 1||18|18| 6| | |318|360||388| | Y | | 4| | 4| | 4|| | | | | ||12|12| | 4| 4|208|240||252| | Z | | | | | | || | | | | || 4| 4| | 2| | 50| 60|| 60| | +--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+ |Total| 2| 7| 1| 9| 6| 4|| 1| 1| 6| 1| 1||34|34| 6| 6| 4|576|660||700| +-----+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+

‘Distribution of the six quarter-masters, two to remain with the six troops of dragoons, one to act as adjutant and one as quarter-master to the four companies of light infantry, two to serve with the company of artillery.

‘The four pieces of cannon to be on the flank of the battalion, two on the right and two on the left, and the company of artillery to be formed in two divisions. Each division to be under the command of a quarter-master.

‘The privates of the company of artillery to be _blacks_. To have no other arms but swords, and to be accoutred for drawing the guns. The non-commissioned officers to be _whites_, and to be armed with muskets and bayonets. The whole to have infantry pay. Permission to be granted to take one private from each troop of dragoons for a drummer to receive pay as a private. As the trumpeters of the King’s American Dragoons are _blacks_, permission to be granted for the drummers and the fifers to be _blacks_ also.

‘The officers of the four companies of light infantry to be Americans, and to be all taken from the Provincial Line, and the men to be volunteers from the different provincial regiments.’

Peace with France put an end to all these plans, and also to another proposal to raise two regiments of infantry complete to the present establishment of the British regiments of foot; viz. ten companies, 595 officers and men. On April 4 Colonel Thompson wrote to Sir Guy Carleton to return his unfeigned thanks for all the distinguished marks of his Excellency’s goodness to him, particularly for the last most flattering proof of his Excellency’s approbation in appointing him to the command of light troops, which were to have served in the West Indies had not peace taken place. He begs that the King’s American Dragoons may go to some part of Nova Scotia, there to do duty or to be discharged if any wish it, and that he may go to England, there to solicit, in behalf of himself and the corps, that they may be employed in the East Indies or in some other part of his Majesty’s dominions where their services may be wanted.

* * * * *

Extract of a letter from an officer of rank in the Provincial Line to Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, dated April 2, 1783:

‘If our petition for half-pay, which I understand is strongly recommended by Sir Guy Carleton, should be disregarded, or, what would be still more grievous to us, if the applications of the refugees in London should be brought into Parliament, and ours and all our faithful services should be neglected! But I will not suppose a case so painful to my feelings, and which I trust is so very unlikely to happen. Sir Guy Carleton has repeatedly said that he has not a doubt but we shall be taken care of; indeed, it would be the height of cruelty as well as injustice in Great Britain to forsake us in this hour of our distress. We have shed our blood in her cause. She surely does not mean to make us the sacrifice of peace. She will not leave us to perish for want, now that she has no longer any occasion for our services; nor will she insult our misfortunes by referring us to the mercy of our enemies. Be assured we must expect no mercy from them.

‘I flatter myself before you reach England our petition will have been taken into consideration and our request granted. If this should not be the case, we must depend upon you to solicit for us. You know the ways of office, and can get access to ministers, while others less acquainted with public business and less known, though equally zealous in our cause, would have it much less in their power to assist us. You know our services and our sufferings, and can give every information that can be wanted relative to our present situation.’

As soon as Colonel Thompson arrived in England he sent the following letter to Lord North:

‘Pall Mall Court, June 8, 1783.

‘MY LORD,--Having assisted in drawing up the representation and petition of the commanding officers of his Majesty’s provincial regiments in North America, and having been desired by them to solicit for them in this country, that the prayer of their petition be granted, I take the liberty of troubling your Lordship upon that subject.

‘The situation of the provincial officers, particularly such of them as are natives or were formerly inhabitants of the American colonies, is truly distressing. Having sacrificed their property and all their expectations from their rank and connections in civil society, and being now cut off from all hope of returning to their former homes by the articles of the peace, they have no hope left but in the justice and the humanity of the British nation.

‘I will not trouble your Lordship with an account either of their services or their sufferings; their merit, as well as their misfortunes, are known to the whole world, and I believe their claim upon the humanity and upon the justice of this country will not be disputed.

‘They have stated their situation in a strong but at the same time in a most respectful manner in their representation, which I am informed has been transmitted to his Majesty’s Secretary of State by Sir Guy Carleton, and strongly recommended. As they are extremely anxious to know their fate, I am to request of your Lordship that I may be informed whether any and what resolutions have been taken relative to their petition, and whether their claims of permanent rank in America and half-pay upon the reduction of their regiments will meet with the countenance and support of his Majesty’s ministers.

‘I know your Lordship will excuse the liberty I take in troubling you upon this occasion, particularly as you will see by the enclosed extract of a letter I have just received from New York how anxious the provincial officers are, and how much they expect that I should exert myself in their behalf.

‘If your Lordship should wish for any further information respecting the provincial troops, I will do myself the honour of attending you at any time you may appoint.

‘Enclosed I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship two memorials, one from the Muster-Master General of his Majesty’s Provincial Forces in North America, the other from his deputy. I know them both to be very deserving of the favour and protection of Government. The former, Colonel Winslow, signed the general representation in behalf of the Provincial Line, and of course was included in Sir Guy Carleton’s recommendation. As his is a military appointment by commission from the Commander-in-Chief in America, as well as that of the Inspector General of the Provincial Forces, I should suppose they would both be included with their deputies, should half-pay be given to the provincial officers in general.

‘I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, my Lord, your Lordship’s most obedient and most humble servant,

‘B. THOMPSON.’

In three days Lord North wrote to Sir Guy Carleton to approve of his recommendation (made nine months previously) of permanent rank and half-pay for the officers of the King’s American Dragoons, and in a week he wrote another despatch, to say that his Majesty was extremely disposed to show every possible attention to the remaining provincial corps, although they may not have literally complied with the engagements which entitled them to rank and half-pay, and he made known his Majesty’s gracious intention that all the provincial regiments should be disbanded at Halifax. On the 27th of June Parliament voted half-pay to the officers of the different corps which in the course of the year had been raised in America. Colonel Thompson then wrote to Sir Guy Carleton:

‘Pall Mall Court, July 6, 1783.

‘SIR,--I beg leave to congratulate with your Excellency upon an event which I am confident will afford you great satisfaction--the resolution of Parliament to give half-pay to the provincial officers. We all feel ourselves under infinite obligations to your Excellency upon this occasion. As you have had the goodness to interest yourself so much in our behalf, I think it my duty to acquaint your Excellency with all the steps I have taken in this country relative to the provincial business since my arrival from New York.

‘Soon after my arrival in London, finding the session of Parliament drawing near to a conclusion, and that no resolution had been taken by his Majesty’s ministers relative to the memorial of the provincial officers recommended by your Excellency, I took the liberty of writing a letter to Lord North upon the subject (copy of which is enclosed) and made personal applications to General Conway, Lord Sheffield, and other gentlemen of the House of Commons, who assisted in bringing the business forward.

‘I then, at Lord North’s desire, set about to prepare estimates of the expense of half-pay for the provincial officers with other information relative to that matter, copies of which I put into the hands of General Conway and Lord Sheffield, who both interested themselves very warmly in our behalf.

‘Enclosed I have the honour to transmit to your Excellency for your information copies of all the papers I took the liberty of laying before Lord North. I earnestly hope they will meet with your approbation, but if I have made any mistakes, your Excellency, being fully acquainted with what I have done, will have it in your power to rectify them.

‘The paper No. 1 contains copies of all the letters between the Secretary of State and the Commander-in-Chief in North America relative the provincial corps; to which are added a few observations and a copy of the memorial of commanding officers of provincial regiments. No. 2 is a list of the provincial corps in North America, which was made out from your Excellency’s return of the army under your command, dated New York, April 11, 1783. The establishment of the officers of the different corps were taken principally from the printed list of the provincial army published at New York this year. Your Excellency will observe that in this list, as well as in the list No. 3, there is a colonel and a lieutenant-colonel put down to the King’s American Dragoons. This was done with the knowledge and consent of Lord North and General Conway, and upon this ground: Being disappointed of getting my regiment put upon the British establishment, I took the liberty of soliciting the rank of Colonel of the King’s American Dragoons, and that Major Murray might be promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the same; which request I flattered myself would not be thought unreasonable, as it was originally intended that there should be a colonel and a lieutenant-colonel to the regiment, and as your Excellency had given me reason to hope that you would have honoured me with the provincial rank of colonel had I embarked for the West Indies with the corps to the command of which you had appointed me.

‘I took the liberty of writing to your Excellency upon the subject by the last packet, since which his Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve of the King’s American Dragoons having the full establishment of field officers, as was originally intended, and that I should be promoted to the rank of colonel. I cannot help flattering myself that this arrangement will be agreeable to your Excellency, and that I shall be returned in your list of the provincial officers for half-pay as colonel.

‘The rank to me is of infinite importance, as I am going abroad in a short time with a view to foreign service; but the half-pay is also an object, as I have little else left to depend on except my industry.

‘The paper No. 3 will explain itself. I wished much that the House of Commons would have voted the full or complete establishment of the different corps, but Lord North seemed very desirous of bringing the sum wanted for the provincial staff pay as low as possible, that it might pass the easier. With that view the calculation of the savings of part of the chaplain’s half-pay, the adjutants, quarter-masters, &c., were made. But all these regulations will depend entirely upon your Excellency. Whatever you think right I am confident will be done without any kind of objection or difficulty.

‘As it was impossible to lay correct estimates before the House at the time, none of the corps have been voted specifically, but their claim to half-pay in general is substantiated by the vote of a certain sum _on account of half-pay_, and so the matter must rest till your Excellency can furnish his Majesty’s ministers with such returns of the different provincial regiments and corps as may be proper to lay before Parliament.

‘I hope your Excellency will approve of my having made no separate claim or interest between the three provincial corps that are established with permanent rank (of which the King’s American Dragoons is one) and the rest. I thought it would have a better appearance if we were all unanimous, and would be more pleasing to the rest of the corps that we should take our chance in common with them and stand or fall together. At the end of the paper No. 3 your Excellency will observe that Major Rooke is returned for half-pay as Deputy Inspector General of Provincial Forces. This was done at the desire of Colonel Innes, who arrived in London after all the papers were prepared. I know nothing of Major Rookes’ pretensions, and therefore cannot answer for the propriety of his being included for half-pay, but, as it is a matter that must finally be determined by your Excellency, I am sure nothing but what is perfectly right will be done respecting it.

‘In the vote of the House of Commons no mention is made of half-pay for the Muster-Master General or his deputies; but it is by no means intended to exclude them, and, if your Excellency returns their names, the vote for their half-pay will pass of course. I have spoken to Lord North upon the subject, and he thinks it perfectly right that they should be included, as also Mr. Bridgham, Colonel Innes’ deputy.

‘With regard to the _seconded_ provincial officers who are mentioned in the memorandums contained in the papers No. 4 both General Conway and Lord Sheffield strongly advised against bringing their claims before Parliament at the same time with the application of the officers of the provincial corps, as the largeness of the sum wanted for the whole might prevent our success, whereas, if what we then asked should be granted, it would strengthen the claim of the _seconded_ officers, and their application would afterwards be brought before Parliament with greater propriety and with a much better prospect of success. I conceal no part of the transaction from your Excellency, and I hope what I have done will meet with your approbation. I am certain that the motives which induced me to take the steps I have followed in the prosecution of this business are such as cannot fail to be approved by your Excellency. I have been indefatigable in my endeavours to carry what I thought your wishes respecting the provincials into execution, and if what I have done meets with your approbation and with the approbation of my deserving countrymen, in whose behalf you have so generously and so nobly interested yourself, I shall amply be repaid for all the trouble and anxiety I have had in the course of my solicitations.

‘I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, and with unfeigned gratitude for all your goodness to me, Sir, your Excellency’s most obedient and most faithful Servant,

‘B. THOMPSON.

‘His Excellency Sir Guy Carleton, K.B.’

On the 8th of August, 1783, Lord North wrote to Sir Guy Carleton:

‘Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson having been particularly distinguished by you in the appointment to the command of the corps of provincial troops intended to be sent upon service in the West Indies (which corps, had it embarked, would, agreeably to the King’s commands signified by the late Secretary of State in his letter of the 3rd of January last, have been placed upon the British establishment), and as it appears by your letter of the 15th of June that his conduct has met with your full approbation, and that you consider him to be an officer possessing an uncommon share of merit in his profession, the King for these reasons has consented to his being appointed by commission from you Colonel of the King’s American Dragoons upon the American provincial establishment.’

Sir Guy Carleton wrote to Colonel Thompson:

‘New York, October 10, 1783.

‘SIR,--I have received your letter of July 6, with the several enclosures therein mentioned, and you may be assured that the resolution of Parliament to give the British-American officers half-pay (with which also I find they will all have permanent rank in America) affords me a very sincere satisfaction. Your zeal and assiduity on this occasion appear to have been such as your friends might have expected, and I am sensible of your attention to me in writing so fully on the subject.

‘The American officers have, in my opinion, so fair a claim to half-pay that I hope the grant will finally be made for the full establishment of their several regiments without the least exception.’

APPENDIX II.

CONTAINING A LETTER FROM DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD, WHEN THE OFFER OF THE PROFESSORSHIP AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION WAS MADE TO HIM; AND TWO LETTERS TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS ON THE INVENTION OF A MICROMETER TO BE USED FOR MEASURING WOOL. THE ORIGINALS OF THESE LETTERS ARE AMONGST THE PAPERS OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD.

Welbeck Street, Thursday, July 9, 1801.

SIR,--I have received your obliging letter, and beg leave to return you and the managers thanks for the honour you do me.

I am willing to undertake the various charges which you have the goodness to detail, and I flatter myself that you will have no reason to complain of any want of zeal on my part in the service of the Royal Institution.

But I confess I think it would be in some measure degrading both to me and to the Institution that the salary, which appears to me to have been no more than moderate before, should now be reduced one-fourth,[40] at the same time that the labour and responsibility of the employment are rather increased than lessened. For, whatever might have been expected of the late professor respecting the Journals and the superintendence of the house, I do not apprehend that any specific stipulation was made on the subject; and, as I am determined to devote a greater share of attention to the Institution than he ever appears to have done, I do not see that my education and opportunities of literary acquirement have been such as to render me less worthy than he was of a salary which, when compared with the emoluments of other situations of a similar nature, is by no means exorbitant.

It would not be my wish, and the duties of the professorship would certainly render it impossible for me, to attempt any extent of medical practice; but I should be sorry to bind myself to reject the little that might accidentally fall in my way, I do not mention this as a matter of any consequence, but to avoid having it understood, from the conversation I had with you, that I should be obliged to refuse my advice to a friend who might consult me.

As to the Journals, I should not much object to engage that a sheet or more should be ready for publication every week; but I conceive that it would give them additional importance if it were left to the direction of the professor, with the approbation of the committee, with proper notice, to publish a number at the end of a fortnight, instead of a week, whenever there might appear to be a real deficiency of matter to fill it. And I think I should want little or no assistance, either in translating or in transcribing, except what Mr. Davy might have the goodness to give me.

I hope that, when you have reconsidered what I have stated, you will not much differ from me in opinion, and that you will favour me with a further communication of your sentiments on the subject.

I am, Sir, your obliged and obedient humble Servant,

THOMAS YOUNG.

Count Rumford, Royal Institution.

DR. THOMAS YOUNG TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

Worthing, September 10, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Observing from the papers that you have been interesting yourself respecting the arrangement of a micrometer for the purpose of measuring the diameter of the fibres of different kinds of wool, I beg leave to trouble you with the description of a very simple instrument which I invented some time ago for a similar purpose, and which I propose to call an agricultural micrometer. I should imagine it to be sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes, and the great facility and cheapness of its construction may perhaps render it useful to a class of persons who would object to the expense of providing themselves with a more complicated apparatus. If it appear to you in the same point of view, you will be pleased to make any use that you may think proper of this communication. When we look at a distant candle through a lock of wool it appears surrounded by rings of colours, and these rings are invariably so much the larger as the wool is the finer. The cause of these appearances I have endeavoured to explain in my lectures and elsewhere; but for the present purpose the principal object is to ascertain their comparative magnitude. In order to perform this I take a card blackened on one side, describe on it two concentric circles, the outer exactly one inch in diameter, the inner 11/20, make at the centre a hole about 1/20 of an inch in diameter, and pierce the card at the circumference of the inner circle, in 10 or 12 points at equal distances, with a small pin, and at that of the larger in 7 or 8 points, at unequal distances, with a large one. I then take a small rod of wood about a yard long and divide it into half-inches, numbering them from one end, at which I fix two or three pins side by side and wind round it a piece of wire--for instance a common knitting needle--in such a form as to hold the card upright between its ends and to slide on the rod. This is the whole apparatus. It is to be used by candle-light in this manner: Attach to the fixed pins a small lock of the wool to be examined, containing 20 or 30 single fibres, and look through them and through the central hole at a candle not very remote from the card, the blackened side of the card being turned towards the eye. The hole will appear to be surrounded by a bright surface, reddish at the margin, by a dark circle or ring, and again by a brighter ring, bluish-green within and red without. If the colours are not seen distinctly, we may conclude that the wool is mixed and not perfectly fit for examination; but in this case we may generally form an estimate of its quality by means of the bright surface only, moving the card along the rod until the holes of the inner circle appear exactly at the extreme margin of that surface, where it is of a reddish hue, the place of the card as indicated by the scale showing the number which characterises the wool. It will also be most convenient to begin by producing this coincidence of the inner circle in other cases where the outer ring of colours is more distinctly seen, and then to adjust the card more accurately; so that the holes in the circumference of the outer circle may appear to coincide with the middle of the coloured ring at the common limit of the red and greenish portions. If the holes be seen in the red ring, the card must be brought nearer to the edge; if in the blue, it must be moved farther off, and the number of the scale must be observed as before. It will require very attentive observation, and perhaps some practice, to obtain always precisely the same number for the same substance, but by taking the mean of several trials we may be perfectly certain of coming within a unit of the true place of the slider, and perhaps even of avoiding any error at all.

I have not yet had an opportunity of examining any great variety of substances, but I send you the result of such observations as I have made, which will be sufficient to enable you to judge of the accuracy of the instrument.

Fibres of coarse wool from green baize, 52. Southdown, 35. Anglo-merino from a flock of Mr. Henty Tarring, 27. A lock taken from a Paular ewe by Mr. Sheppard, 25 (varying from 24 to 30). Another specimen from the same flock brought by another gentleman as a test of the instrument, 25. Cotton, mixed but about, 19. Vigonia from the Rev. P. Wood, very distinct 14½. Beaver from a hat, 11. Blood diluted with saliva and rubbed on glass, beautifully distinct 5. Milk diluted with water, very indistinct 3. I have sometimes thought of employing the instrument as a nosological test of the state of the blood, of pus, and of other animal fluids.

It is of little consequence to the farmer to know the actual dimensions indicated by these numbers, nor can I at present ascertain them with perfect accuracy. They express, however, very nearly the diameters of the fibres in the 45,000th of an inch. Thus Mr. Henty’s wool, standing at No. 27, must measure about 27/45000 or 1/1667 of an inch in diameter, and the globules of the blood reduced to spheres about 1/9000. Probably these results are a little too small, and especially the latter, but by a comparison of a few measurements, made by means of other micrometers with these numbers, it would be easy to form a correct table of their true value, and it may safely be asserted that this instrument will enable us in some cases to be secure of avoiding any error amounting to the hundred-thousandth of an inch, and almost in all of being far within one ten-thousandth of the truth, without the use of any microscope, simple or compound.

In order to render the instrument still more portable we may employ a piece of tape as a measure, fixing to one end of it a double piece of card with an aperture, and with some pins projecting from its edge for holding the wool either between its folds or on the pins, and to the other end a small weight, serving to draw the tape tight through a hole in the blackened card. I enclose you the whole apparatus arranged in this manner, together with a few fibres of the Vigonia wool, which exhibit the colours in great perfection, constantly giving 14½ as the characteristic number. The directions for the use of the instrument might be engraved and printed on the card if it were thought desirable.

I also take the liberty of forwarding to you a letter which I have just received from a French gentleman, who claims the protection of the Royal Society. You will best judge whether the case requires or admits any exertion of your well-known liberality and kindness.

Believe me, dear Sir, with the highest respect and esteem, your faithful and obedient Servant.

DR. THOMAS YOUNG TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

Worthing, October 6, 1810.

MY DEAR SIR,--I shall be most happy in assisting you to form a judgment from your own observation of the utility of my little instrument; but I cannot forbear to trouble you with a few specimens of wool, which I imagine will exhibit the appearances so obviously as at least to convince you of the perfect practicability of the method. You will observe, by merely looking through them at a candle, that there is a manifest difference in the size of the rings, and if the colours are not sufficiently conspicuous when the card is used, the central hole may be made a little larger with a bodkin; and a common pair of spectacles, such as you would use in mending a pen, will be amply sufficient for remedying the flatness of the eye.

I do not apprehend that the different magnitude of the different fibres of the same fleeces is any _objection_ to the use of the instrument; on the contrary, it possesses the singular advantage of detecting at once the inequality where it exists, and of giving the mean dimensions of the whole at the same time where the difference is not too great. I have mixed together, for example, two small specimens, which measured separately 21 and 31. The mixture, though evidently irregular, gave the dimensions of about 24, varying from 23 to 27, according to the part of the lock which was to be examined, and this is surely a much greater inequality than can ever exist in any _contiguous_ part of the same fleece. But, however this may be, the fact is that the circumstance does not actually destroy the validity of the indications of my micrometer, as I shall further exemplify to you by an account of my examinations of some specimens of the finest wool, with which I have been favoured by Mr. H. Sheppard, an ingenious manufacturer at Frome, Somersetshire. You are, perhaps, better acquainted than I am with the history of Mr. Western’s flock, which stands in so elevated a situation between the Saxon and the Spanish productions.

_Specimens of Wool from Mr. Sheppard, as measured by the Agricultural Thermometer._

Grey beaver wool No. 11½ to 12 Angola about 14 Prime Vigonia 14½ Foreign coney 15 American rabbits 15 Yellow rabbits 15 Scotch hares 15 Siberian hares 15, 16 British coney 16 Finest seal about 18 Alpaca (a single long hair) 18½-20 Goats 19 Saxon 20 Peruvian black 21, 22 Mr. Western’s Southdown, ‘reckoned the finest in the kingdom’ 23½ Lioneza 24-29 Peruvian light brown 29 Peruvian dark brown 31 Dust of the puff-ball (_Lycoperdon borista_) rubbed on glass, very distinct, giving about 1/12000 inch diameter 3½

APPENDIX III.

TABLE OF THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION TO 1814, _OMITTING SHILLINGS AND PENCE_.

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | INCOME. | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+ | | | | |Miscellaneous | | | | |Life |Annual |Ground Rents, |Grand | | Year |Proprietors|Subscribers|Subscribers|Dividends, &c.|Total | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+ | | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |1799 | 5,827 | 514 | 37 | -- | 6,379| |1800 | 8,047 | 2,280 | 719 | -- |11,047| |1801 | 2,323 | 363 | 456 | 331 | 3,474| |1802 | 1,417 | 503 | 1,003 | 75 | 2,999| |1803 | 1,134 | 245 | 1,624 | 512 | 3,516| |1804 | 808 | 437 | 2,271 | 248 | 3,765| |1805 | 1,837 | 387 | 3,845 | 434 | 6,504| |1806 | 1,134 | 126 | 2,691 | 190 | 4,141| |1807 | -- | -- | 1,426 | 13 | 1,560| |1808 | -- | 126 | 1,615 | 138 | 1,880| |1809[41]| -- | 279 | 1,778 | 289 | 2,347| |1810 | -- | 812 | 1,723 | 2,334 | 4,869| |1811 | -- | 1,731 | 1,869 | 719 | 4,319| |1812 | -- | 913 | 2,172 | 244 | 3,329| |1813 | -- | 584 | 1,978 | 542 | 3,104| |1814 | -- | 710 | 1,763 | 1,937 | 4,410| +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXPENDITURE. | +----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+ | | | | | | | Surplus, | | | | | | | | | Funds, | | | | | | | | | Exchequer | | | | | | | | | Bills, | | | | | | | | | Given to the| Grand| |Year|House|Lectures|Library|Printing|Workshop| Library, &c.| Total| +----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+ | | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |1799|5,147| -- | 15 | 184 | -- | -- | 5,777| |1800|4,193| 802 | 174 | 216 | 1 | 4,471 |10,115| |1801|4,868| 812 | 269 | 376 | 708 | -- | 7,078| |1802|5,113| 844 | 255 | 344 | 502 | -- | 7,059| |1803|1,667| 1,014 | 250 | 478 | 326 | 157 | 3,894| |1804|1,777| 872 | 210 | 181 | 118 | 420 | 3,579| |1805|1,999| 1,096 | 287 | 193 | 320 | 813 | 4,710| |1806|1,739| 1,493 | 464 | 384 | 47[42]| 1,805 | 5,935| |1807|1,816| 1,451 | 440 | 258 | -- | -- | 3,967| |1808|1,834| 1,128 | 422 | 99 | -- | -- | 3,484| |1809|1,905| 1,326 | 420 | 375 | -- | Debts, 2,068| |1810| 562| 499 | 220 | 375 | -- | 2,524 | 4,180| |1811|1,796| 886 | 322 | 157 | -- | 1,784 | 4,945| |1812|1,080| 533 | 190 | 172 | -- | 1,165 | 3,140| |1813| 872| 783 | 222 | 150 | -- | 1,175 | 3,202| |1814|1,322| 727 | 352 | 180 | -- | 1,870 | 4,451| +----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following unpublished letter from General Howe to General Washington, written from Philadelphia in 1776, shows what the tyranny of the committees and people was:

‘You are not ignorant that numbers even of the most respectable gentlemen in America have been torn from their families, confined in gaols, and their property confiscated; that many of those in this city, whose religious tenets secured them from suspicion of entertaining designs of hostility, have been ignominiously imprisoned, and without even the colour of a judicial proceeding, banished from their tenderest connections into the remotest part of another province. Nor can it be unknown to you that many have suffered death from tortures inflicted by the unrelenting populace under the eye of usurped yet passive authority; that some have been dragged to trial for their loyalty and, in cruel mockery of law, condemned and executed; that others are now perishing in loathsome dungeons, and that penal edicts are daily issuing against all who hesitate to disavow, by a solemn oath, the allegiance they owe and wish to pay to their sovereign.’

General Howe shows the exasperation of the Royalists also. He says:

‘Members of committees, collectors of arbitrary fines, &c., oppressors of the peaceable inhabitants, have been seized by the exasperated inhabitants of different parts of the country and delivered into my hands.’

[2] The pamphlet here referred to was Lord Sheffield’s ‘Observations on the Commerce of the American States.’

[3] So great was the economy practised that the daily expense for fire-wood in the kitchen, where dinner was provided for 1,000 people, was only twelve Kreutzers, or fourpence halfpenny. Sometimes 1,500 were fed in one day.

[4] The great mistake which has been committed in most of the attempts to introduce a spirit of industry where habits of idleness have prevailed, has been the too frequent use of coercive measures. Force will not do. It is address which must be used on those occasions. The children in the House of Industry at Munich who, being placed on elevated seats round the hall where other children worked, were made to be idle spectators of that amusing scene, cried most bitterly when their request to descend from their seats and mix in that busy crowd was refused; but they would most probably have cried still more had they been taken abruptly from their play and forced to work. Men are but children of a larger growth, and those who undertake to direct them ought ever to bear in mind that important truth.

[5] This was the prospectus of the Royal Institution.

[6] This was a model one quarter of the full size of the new Bavarian six-pounder with its ammunition waggon. The Elector permitted him to present it to the United States.

[7] The President wrote to Secretary McHenry: ‘I should not scruple to give him any of the appointments you mention, and leave it with you to make such proposals to him through Mr. King within the limits you have drawn in your letter as you should think fit.’

[8] Notwithstanding this his daughter said her father objected to her marrying Sir C. Blagden.

[9] Probably the caricature by Gilray of the Royal Institution and Sir John Hippesley, published on May 23. Count Rumford was caricatured on June 12, 1800.

[10] Blagden himself had just been accused of being a spy.

[11] It was not until May 1, 1807, that King Maximilian Joseph, ‘having extended the bounds of his kingdom, gave a new constitution to the Bavarian Academy, proportioned to the existing state of science and to his new empire.’ The first public meeting was held on July 27.

[12] The gentlemen chosen were the Earl of Winchelsea, Mr. Wilberforce, the Rev. Dr. Glasse, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Richard Sulivan, Mr. Colquhoun, Mr. Parry, and Mr. Bernard.

[13] If any other season should be thought more convenient for these elections, it will of course be chosen instead of that here proposed.

[14] No notice of workshops exists in the first number of the Journal, dated April 1800. In the second number, containing the report to the managers on May 25, 1801, it is said that eighteen or twenty young men are to be boarded and lodged in the house (p. 27, Journal).

[15] This gallery staircase has left its mark in the Institution, and is drawn in the old plans of the house. There was originally no door into the theatre under the gallery.

[16] Sir J. Hippesley, elected May 19.

[17] Now the anteroom.

[18] Now the lecturers’ room.

[19] This was part of the front area.

[20] Now the chemical laboratory, 1871.

[21] This and a line below are the only traces of praise of Count Rumford that are to be found in the records of the Institution.

[22] _Edinburgh Review_, Nos. II. and IX., 1803, 1804.

[23] See Appendix II.

[24] See p. 205.

[25] See p. 210.

[26] Hippesleys and Bernards.

[27] Where Mr. Sharpe, Sydney Smith’s friend, lived.

[28] Mr. E. Davy, his cousin.

[29] See below, p. 350, _Life of Professor Davy_.

[30] This lecture was given. In it Mr. Coleridge made a violent personal attack on Mr. Joseph Lancaster, and a year afterwards, at the annual meeting of proprietors, a resolution was carried unanimously that ‘this attack was in direct violation of a known and established rule of the Royal Institution, prohibiting any personal animadversions in the lectures there delivered.’

[31] Probably Mr. Boulton of Birmingham.

[32] Present, Sir Joseph Banks, Earl of Morton, Count Rumford, and Richard Clark, Esq.

[33] The substance of these lectures was published in the fourth number of the Journals of the Royal Institution, p. 49, edited by Dr. Young. The paper is called _Outlines of a View of Galvanism_. It is dated September 1801.

[34] This was the first memoir on the _Theory of Light and Colours_, read Nov. 12, 1801.

[35] Davy always thought he caught the fever during an experiment for disinfecting Newgate Prison.

[36] Some time after his recovery it was said in the Institution that his laboratory experiments caused his illness.

‘Says Davy to Baryt, “I’ve a strong inclination To try to effect your deoxidation;” But Baryt replied, “Have a care of your mirth, Lest I should retaliate and change you to earth.”’

[37] The voltaic subscriptions amounted to 520_l._

[38] The predecessor of Mr. Faraday.

[39] The discovery of the simplicity of chlorine was claimed by the French chemists; Davy afterwards said of Gay-Lussac’s paper in the _Annales de Chimie_ for July 1814, ‘The historical notes attached to it are of a nature not to be passed over without animadversion. M. Gay-Lussac states that he and M. Thénard were the first to advance the hypothesis that chlorine was a simple body, and he quotes M. Ampère as having entertained that opinion before me. On the subject of the originality of the idea of chlorine being a simple body I have always vindicated the claims of Scheele, but I must assume for myself the labour of having demonstrated its properties and combinations and of having explained the chemical phenomena it produces, and I am in possession of a letter from M. Ampère that shows he has no claims of this kind to make.’

[40] Count Rumford must have proposed a salary of 225_l._ (p. 238).

[41] Expenditure to June 12.

[42] Abolished in August.

INDEX.

Academy, American, of Arts and Sciences, 53; Bavarian, of Arts and Sciences, 89

Accounts of the Royal Institution, 180, 203, 304, 425

Agriculture, Board of, 201, 202, 215

Alkalies, decomposition of, 279

Alloys, experiments on, proposed, 192

Astle, T., his library bought, 259

Baldwin, Loammi, 6, 8, 41, 59, 62, 65, 67, 68

Banks, Sir Joseph, 3, 29, 73, 75, 77, 78, 80, 134, 153, 215, 261, 263, 275, 369

Bavaria, Elector of, his introduction to Rumford, 28; made Fellow of Royal Society, 29

Beggars at Munich, 31, 32

Bernard, Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas), 46, 115, 138; report on the Institution, 203, 301; death, 302

Blagden, Sir C., 42, 69, 71, 77, 81, 84, 93

Böekman, Mr., 181

Brande, Mr., 308, 309, 389

Carleton, Sir Guy, 24, 25, 260, 405

Chemical operator, 172

Clinton, Sir Henry, 15, 19

Coleridge, Mr., his lectures, 277, 284, 342

Committee of Science, 215, 302, 309; committees for investigation, 154, 186, 138, 192, 280

Concord, formerly Rumford, 3, 113

Cooper, Astley, 259

Crotch, Dr., 260

Curwen, Judge, his sketch of Thompson, 18

Cuvier, Baron, his éloge on Rumford, 13, 29, 36, 109

Dalton, Mr., 216, 290

Dartmouth, Lord, 12

Davy, Sir H., 70, 83, 113, 176, 180, 281, 300, 304, 307, 310; his birth, 312; at Bristol with Dr. Beddoes, 313; his first work, 314; opinion of by Southey, 315; his first galvanic experiments, 316; first interview with Rumford, 317; his engagement at the Institution, 318, 320; his first lectures, 321, 323; his second year’s lectures, 326; his success as a lecturer, 328; his lectures on Agriculture, 329; edited the Journal, 331; made F.R.S., 331; opinion of him by Coleridge, 332; his own opinion, 333; Dr. Dalton’s account of him, 334; his letter to Coleridge, who was leaving England, 335; his letter on the death of G. Watt, 337; received the Copley medal, 338; his picture of Ireland, 338; his electrical discoveries, 339; his first Bakerian lecture, 340; secretary of the Royal Society, 341; his account of Coleridge’s lectures, 342; his laboratory notes of the decomposition of the alkalies, 343, 344, 345, 346; his first sketch of the Bakerian lecture on the New Metals, 347, 348, 349; his illness, 350; Mr. Dibden’s account of his discoveries, 351, 352; his lectures after his illness, 354; his work, 355; his new electric battery, 356; tries to decompose nitrogen, 358; his picture of the laboratory, 360; his work on Chlorine, 363, 364; his lectures at Dublin, 366; his marriage, 367, 368, 369, 381; his last lectures at the Royal Institution, 370; on Radiant Matter, 371; on Chlorine, 374; on Simple Inflammable Bodies, 376; on the Metals, 378; his ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy,’ 381; reviewed by Dr. Young, 382, 384, 386; his agricultural lectures, 387; his work on Fluorine, 388; elected honorary professor, 389; his researches on flame, 390; President of Royal Society, 390; on the protection of ships, 391; his first attack of paralysis, 391; resignation of the presidentship, 393; his last paper on the Torpedo, 396; his last illness, 398; his death, 400; his picture by his friend Mr. Poole, 401, 403

Dibden, Mr., 213, 273, 283, 351, 352

Dragoons, King’s American, regiment, 16, 25, 26, 407

Elector of Bavaria, Theodore, 28, 29, 40, 41, 59, 60, 62; Maximilian, 72, 77, 82, 97

Essays, Count Rumford’s, 43, 49, 76

Faraday, Michael, 307, 308, 310, 311, 389, 391

Fluoric principle, Davy on, 307, 308

Gage, Governor, 6, 11

Garden, English, at Munich, 37

Garnett, Dr., 141, 148, 157; his life, 163 _et seq._

Germain, Lord George, 12, 17, 18; introduces Thompson to Sir. H. Clinton, 19; praises Thompson to General Leslie, 21

Gibbon, his account of Rumford, 27

Gilray, caricature of Rumford and Royal Institution, 78

Guizot, M., his éloge on Madame de Rumford, 101

Harris, Mr., first librarian, 213

Hatchett, Mr., 154, 159, 204, 213

Heat, on the source of, 49; motion, 51

Hippesley, Sir John, 146, 148, 152, 156, 180

Howe, General, 10, 11, 13

Huntingdon, barracks at Long Island, 25

Industry, House of, at Munich, 33

Institution, London, the, 274, 275

Institution, Royal, the, germ of, 44; Proposals, 66; caricature of, 78; foundation, 114; objects, 121; funds, 125; privileges of proprietors, 126; subscribers, 128; government, 129; managers, 130; visitors, 132; first meeting of proprietors, 134; first meeting of managers, 136; charter, 138; new prospectus, 147; new theatre, 148; abstract of the accounts, 180; report of, in 1801, 181; Davy appointed assistant lecturer at, 181; lecturer, 186; Young appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at, 188; report on in 1802, 195; Rumford’s last report on, 197; committee on the state of, 201; the first report of the committee on, 203; description of by Young, 206; progress of, 258 _et seq._; compared with the London Institution, 275; difficulties of, 281; value of the property, 282; described by Davy, 280, 292 _et seq._; income and expenditure of, from the commencement to 1814, 425

Jenner, Dr., 303

Journal of the Royal Institution, 153, 155, 181, 187, 188, 197, 210

King Rufus, 63, 66

Kitchens, 151

Laboratory, 152, 155, 159, 160, 204, 269

Landseer, Mr., 272, 273

Lavoisier, Madame, 83, 88, 92, 97, 101, 113, 189

Lawrence, Mr., 277, 303

Lectures, first, at the Institution, 167, 170; of Davy and Young, 191; of Dalton, 219

Leslie, General, 21, 23

Library, foundation of, 204, 212

Light, experiments on, 40

Long Island, 25

Magneto-electricity, discovery of, 279

Marion, General, defeated by Thompson, 22

Master of the Workshops, 181

Mechanics’ School, 142, 162

Mellish, his house bought, 138

Military Academy, Munich, 36

Mineralogical collection, 266, 267, 268, 270

Model room, 155

Motion heat, 51

Munich, 28, 31, 34, 39, 50, 59, 82, 99, 113

Napoleon, First Consul, description of, 73, 79

National Institute, 75

Nova Scotia, 25, 26

Parliament, Act of, 288, 291

Payne, William, 281, 305, 306

Pictet, Professor, his account of Rumford, 27, 145

Printing press, 153, 189, 260

Proposals for founding the Royal Institution, 114, 121

Proprietors, 271, 273, 285, 287, 296, 303

Pupils in the laboratory, 269

Resignation of Dr. Garnett, 177

Report on the Institution, 181

Repository, 152

Rolfe, Mrs. Colonel, the first wife of Rumford, 4

Rumford, Benjamin Thompson, Count, 1; his education, 2; his first note-book, 3; his first marriage, 4; major of militia, 5; persecuted as Royalist, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; leaves his wife, child, and country, 11; made Secretary of Georgia, 13; volunteer in British fleet, 14; Fellow of the Royal Society, 15; Under Secretary of State, 17; Deputy Inspector General of Provincial Forces, 17; Lieut.-Colonel of King’s American Dragoons, 19; embarks for New York, 20; arrives in Carolina, 21; commands the cavalry there, 21; his action on the Santee river, 22; mentioned in the general orders by General Leslie, 23; arrives at New York, 24; consulted by Sir H. Clinton, 24; commands at Huntingdon, Long Island, 25; volunteers to serve in West Indies, 26; returns to London, 26; leaves England for the Austrian service, 27; meets the nephew of the Elector of Bavaria, 28; goes to Munich, 28; knighted and enters Bavarian service, 28; aide-de-camp and colonel in Bavaria, 29; his reforms in Bavaria, 30-37; experiments on conduction of heat, 38; experiments on light, 40; his honours, 41; his essays, 43, 49; on Heat, 50; his medals in America, 53; in England, 54; awarded the first Rumford medal, 54; his work and honours in Ireland, 55; his picture by his daughter, 57; saves Munich, 59; Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to England, 61; not received, 62; invited to America, 64; founds the Royal Institution, 69; revisits Munich, 71; first visits Paris, 73; leaves England, 77; returns to Munich, 81; his engagement to Madame Lavoisier, 87; his marriage, 90; further scientific researches, 93; his wretched married life, 94; goes to Auteuil, 96; his separation, 97; returns to Munich, 99; further researches, 104; visited by Davy, 105; his life at Auteuil, 106; his death, 109; his will, 112; his bequest to Harvard College, 112; to Davy, 113; founds the Royal Institution, 114 _et seq._; his last report on the Institution, 197; causes of his departure from England, 200; state of the funds when he left the Institution, 201; original documents regarding his service in the American war, 405 _et seq._

Savage, Mr., 155, 189

Simonds, Miss, Rumford’s mother, 1

Smith, Sir James, 259

Smith, Sydney, 260, 264, 265, 272, 273, 277

Society for bettering the condition of the poor, 46, 118, 138, 147

Subscribers to lectures only, 193; ladies recommending subscribers, 209

Subscription for Dr. Garnett’s children, 179

Tanning, Davy to lecture on, 186, 190

Theatre of Institution, 149, 152

Thompson, Benjamin, Ebenezer and James, ancestors of Count Rumford, 1

Underwood, Mr., 105

Ventilation, 273

Verona, hospitals at, 42

Volta, experiments on animal electricity, 43, 73, 74, 84, 156, 278

Walker, Rev. T., the father-in-law of Rumford, 3, 7

Webster, Mr., 138, 141, 148, 172, 185, 193, 195

Wentworth, Governor, 4

Winchelsea, Earl of, first president, 141

Woburn, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Rumford, 1, 8

Wollaston, Dr., 300, 303

Workhouse at Munich, 31

Workshops at the Institution, 198

Young, Dr. Thomas, 112; made Professor, 188; his lectures, 191, 205, 240, 244; his preface to the second volume of the Journal of the Institution, 206, 246; his reply to the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ 211; his early history, 223 _et seq._; made F.R.S., 225; at Edinburgh, 226; ceased to be a Quaker, 227; his Highland tour, 228; at Göttingen, 229; at Cambridge, 232; his discoveries on light, 235; reviewed by Lord Brougham, 236; his reply, 237; professor at the Royal Institution, 238; his editing of the Journals, 239; his introductory lecture on the objects of the Institution, 242; foreign secretary of the Royal Society, 246; leaves the Royal Institution, 246; elected a life subscriber, 246; published his lectures on Natural Philosophy, 247; physician of St. George’s Hospital, 248; began his hieroglyphical researches, 249; his articles in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 250; his article on Egypt, 250; superintendent of the ‘Nautical Almanac,’ 250; comparison of Young and Fresnel, 251; his interviews with Champollion, 253; abuse for the ‘Nautical Almanac,’ 254; his death, 255; his character drawn by Sir H. Davy, 256; by Davies Gilbert, 257; his answer to Rumford when offered the professorship at Royal Institution, 417; his invention of a micrometer, 419 _et seq._

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