NEW DISCOVERY IN CHEMISTRY.

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 theplatina 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, thered colourowing 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 bodiesthat 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 Ihaveexposed 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 underwhich 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 allfurtherbenefit from his original talents and intense application there has certainly been sufficientalreadyeffected 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 andstrontites, 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, frompresent appearances at least, that the period of convalescence is not very remote.’[36]

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 underwhich 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 allfurtherbenefit from his original talents and intense application there has certainly been sufficientalreadyeffected 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 andstrontites, 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, frompresent 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., andboracic 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 powerfulbattery, 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.

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]

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 eachplate 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 andwas 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 objectwas 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.

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 theaction 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 themorning 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 ofnew, very pure oxymuriatic gas; two new stopcocks cemented into retorts, with stoppers, either green or white; some tubes of this boreor 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.

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 themorning 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 ofnew, very pure oxymuriatic gas; two new stopcocks cemented into retorts, with stoppers, either green or white; some tubes of this boreor 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 meansof 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.

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.

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 andOxygen, 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 about1⁄12, 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 ¼ hydrogene. Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid and sulphuretted hydrogene, diminution about1⁄12. 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 was9⁄10of a cubic inch.’ This was the first use of the wordCHLORINEin 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 theElements of Chemical Philosophy and the other on Geology. For these he received 750l., 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.

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.

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.

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 withchlorine.’

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 noneutral 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 thefluoric 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 theexperiments 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 andcombinedtogether 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, March14; 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 menwere 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 threepieces 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 charactersand 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 deliverywas 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.

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 sublimeand 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 judgesof 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.’

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