The Liquefaction of Chlorine Gas first effected by Mr. Faraday, and witnessed by the Author. -Sir H. Davy continues the investigation.-His paper on the application of liquefiable Gases as mechanical agents.-Other probable uses of these bodies. He proposes several methods to pre- `vent the fumes which arise from Smelting Furnaces.-Importance of the subject.-His Letters to Mr. Vivian. The Government solicit the advice of the Royal Society on the subject of protecting the Copper Sheathing of Ships from the action of sea water.-Sir H. Davy charges himself with this enquiry. He proposes a plan of protection founded on Voltaic principles. His numerous experiments. He embarks on board the Comet steam-vessel bound to Heligoland, in order to try his plan on a vessel in motion. He arrives at Mandal, lands, and fishes in the lakes.—The Pro- tectors washed away. He teaches the inhabitants of Christiansand to crimp fish. He remains a few days at Arendal.-A Norwegian dinner.-The Protectors are examined and weighed.-Re- sults of the experiment.-The steam vessel proceeds up the Glommen. He visits the great water- fall.-Passes into Sweden.-Has an interview with the Crown Prince of Denmark, and afterwards with Prince Christian at Copenhagen. He visits Professor Oersted.-He proceeds to Bremen to see Dr. Olbers.-Returns to England. His third paper read before the Royal Society.-Voltaic influence of patches of rust.-A small quantity of fluid sufficient to complete the circuit. He re- ceives from the Royal Society the Royal Medal.-The Progress of Voltaic discovery reviewed.— The principle is of extensive application.-The Author's researches into the cause of the solution of Lead in spring water.-An account of the numerous trials of Protectors.-Failure of the plan. -Report of the French on the state of the protected frigate, La Constance.-Dr. Riviere's new The failure of the Ship protectors a source of great vexation to Davy. - His Letters to Mr. Poole. He becomes unwell. He publishes his Discourses before the Royal Society. - Critical Remarks and Quotations.-He goes abroad in search of health.-His Letter to Mr. Poole from Ravenna.-He resigns the Presidency of the Royal Society.-Mr. Gilbert elected pro tempore.-Davy returns to England, and visits his friend Mr. Poole.-" Salmonia, or Days of Fly-fishing.”—An Analysis of the Work, with various extracts to illustrate its character. Sir H. Davy's Paper on the Phenomena of Volcanoes.-His experiments on Vesuvius.-Theory of Volcanic action. His reception abroad.-Anecdotes.-His last Letter to Mr. Poole from Rome. -His Paper on the electricity of the Torpedo.-" Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher."-Analysis of the work.-Reflections suggested by its style and composition.-Davy and Wollaston compared.-His last illness.-Arrival at Geneva.-His Death. MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, BART. &c. &c. CHAPTER I. Birth and family of Sir H. Davy.-Davy placed at a preparatory school. His peculiarities when a boy.-Anecdotes.-He is admitted into the grammar-school at Penzance.-Finishes his education under Dr. Cardew at Truro.-Death of his father. He is apprenticed by his mother to Mr. John Bingham Borlase, a surgeon and apothecary.-He enters upon the study of Chemistry, and devotes more time to Philosophy than to Physic.-The influence of early impressions illustrated. His poetical talent.-Specimens of his versification.-An Epic Poem composed by him at the age of twelve years.-His first original experiment in chemistry.— He conceives a new theory of heat and light.-His ingenious experiment to demonstrate its truth. He becomes known to Mr. Davies Gilbert, the founder of his future fortunes.-Mr. Gregory Watt arrives at Penzance, and lodges in the house of Mrs. Davy.-The visit of Dr. Beddoes and Professor Hailstone to Cornwall.-The correspondence between Dr. Beddoes and Mr. Davies Gilbert, relative to the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol, and the proposed appointment of Davy.-His final departure from his native town. HUMPHRY DAVY was born at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 17th of December, 1778.* His ancestors had long possessed a small estate at Varfell, in the parish of Ludgvan, in the Mount's Bay, on which they resided: this appears from tablets in the church, one of which bears a date as far back as 1635. We are, however, unable to ascend higher in the pedigree than to his paternal grandfather, who seems to have been a builder of considerable * I have been favoured by the Rev. C. Val. Le Grice, of Trereiffe, with the following extract from the Parish Register, kept at Madron:-" Humphry Davy, son of Robert Davy, baptized at Penzance, January 22, 1779.” B repute in the west of Cornwall, and is said to have planned and erected the mansion of Trelissick, near Truro, at present the property and residence of Thomas Daniel, Esq. His son, the parent of the illustrious subject of our history, was sent to London, and apprenticed to a carver in wood, but, on the death of his father, who, although originally a younger son, had latterly become the representative of the family, he found himself in the possession of a patrimony amply competent for the supply of his limited desires, and therefore pursued his art rather as an object of amusement than one of necessity in the town and neighbourhood of Penzance, however, there remain many specimens of his skill; and I have myself seen several chimney-pieces curiously embellished by his chisel.* I am not able to discover that he was remarkable for any peculiarity of intellect; he passed through life without bustle, and quitted it with the usual regrets of friends and relatives. The habits, however, generally imputed to him were certainly not such as would have induced us to anticipate a high degree of steadiness in the son. His wife, whose maiden name was Grace Millett, was remarkable for the placidity of her temper, and for the amiable and benevolent tendency of her disposition: she had been adopted and brought up, together with her two sisters, under circumstances of affecting interest, by Mr. John Tonkin, an eminent surgeon and apothecary in Penzance; a person of very considerable natural endowments, and whose Socratic sayings are, to this day, proverbial with many of the older inhabitants. To withhold a narrative of the circumstances that led Mr. Tonkin to the adoption of these orphan children, would be a species of historical fraud and literary injustice, by which the world would not only lose one of those bright examples of pure and disinterested benevolence, which cheer the heart and ornament our nature, but the medical profession would be deprived of an additional claim to that public veneration and regard, to which the kind sympathy of its professors has so universally entitled it. * Soon after the days of Gibbons, the art of ornamental carving in wood began to decay, and it may now be considered as nearly lost. Its decline may be attributed to two causes. In the first place, to the change of taste in fitting up the interior of our mansions; and in the next, to the introduction of composition for the enrichment of picture-frames and other objects of ornament. "Robert Davy," says a correspondent, "has been considered in this neighbourhood as the LAST OF THE CARVERS, and from his small size, was generally called The little Carver. The parents of these children, having been attacked by a fatal fever, expired within a few hours of each other: the dying agonies of the surviving mother were sharpened by her reflecting on the forlorn condition in which her children would be left; for, although the Milletts were originally aristocratic and wealthy, the property had undergone so many subdivisions, as to have left but a very slender provision for the member of the family to whom she had united herself. The affecting appeal which Mrs. Millett is said to have addressed to her sympathising friend, and medical attendant, was not made in vain: on her decease, Mr. Tonkin immediately removed the three children to his own house, and there they continued with their kind benefactor, until each, in succession, found a home by marriage. The eldest sister, Jane, was married to Henry Sampson, a respectable watchmaker at Penzance; the youngest, Elizabeth, to her cousin, Leonard Millett of Marazion; neither of whom had any family. The second sister, Grace, was married to Robert Davy, from which union sprang five children, two boys and three girls, the eldest being Humphry, the subject of our memoir, and the second son, John, now Dr. Davy, a Surgeon to the Forces, and a gentleman distinguished by several papers in the Philosophical Transactions. Humphry Davy was nursed by his mother, and passed his infancy with his parents; but his childhood, after they had removed from Penzance to reside on their estate at Varfell, was spent partly with them and partly with Mr. John Tonkin, who extended his disinterested kindness from the mother to all her children, but more especially to Humphry, who is said, when a child, to have exhibited powers of mind superior to his years. I have spared no pains in collecting materials for the illustration of the earlier periods of his history; as, to estimate the magnitude of an object, we must measure the base with accuracy, in order to comprehend the elevation of its summit. He was first placed at a preparatory seminary kept by a Mr. Bushell, who was so struck with the progress he made, that he urged his father to remove him to a superior school. It is a fact worthy, perhaps, of being recorded, that he would at the age of about five years turn over the pages of a book as rapidly as if he were * For these materials I acknowledge myself indebted to Dr. Penneck of Penzance, and to Mrs. Millett, Sir H. Davy's sister. The facts were communicated in letters to Lady Davy, by whom they were kindly placed at my disposal. |