TO THE SAME. MY DEAR FRIEND, Dunrobin Castle, near Golspie, August 21. I HOPE you are making progress in our manufactory. I shall expect, on my return, to find your powder the best and strongest, and to make trial of it. I wish I had some of it here, the black-cock and grouse would feel its efficacy. I have been expecting a letter from you every day. This house is so delightful, the scenery so grand, and the field-sports so perfect, that I think we shall not quit it for a fortnight. I went to Inverness and fished for salmon. I also went to two or three other places, but not one did I catch till I arrived here. The first day I landed seven noble ones, and played three more in four or five hours. The next day I played eight and landed three, besides white trout in abundance. I have shot only one day, for a few hours; but we found grouse at every fifty yards, and I shot seven. We are just going to try sea-fishing. Pray write to me a little news of what is doing for science and the world. I beg you will remember me most kindly to your father and to Dr. Babington, and Brande, when you see them. I am, my dear friend, Most affectionately yours, H. DAVY. TO WILLIAM CLAYFIELD, ESQ. DEAR CLAYFIELD, Dunrobin, near Golspie, August 28, 1812. I AM much obliged to you for two very kind letters, and for a box containing specimens from St. Vincent.* I beg you will thank the gentleman who was so good as to cause them to be collected for me. me to Inverness. The box followed The ashes, I think, are likely to fertilize Barbadoes. There is a parallel case of materials having been carried so far in the eruption in Iceland in 1783. I have been with my wife making a tour through the North since the beginning of July. We have arrived at our extreme point, and shall slowly proceed South in about a fortnight. * Specimens of substances ejected from the crater in that island, which Mr. Clayfield forwarded to Davy, in consequence of having heard that he had been engaged in examining the sand collected at Barbadoes, and which was a product of the same eruption. I wish you could be of our party here; we are in a delightful house, that of Lord Stafford, in a country abounding with fish and game. I have caught about thirty salmon since I have been here, and killed grouse, wild ducks, teal, &c. I have not yet shot a stag, but I hope to do so this next week. 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. I have not sent you a copy of my book, for I have thought that the best mode of avoiding giving offence to some, was by not making presents at all. Had I not so determined, one of the first copies would have been sent to you, as a mark of the warm esteem and regard of Your affectionate friend, H. DAVY. TO SAMUEL PURKIS, ESQ. MY DEAR PURKIS, Dunrobin Castle, August 29, 1812. You may probably be surprised to receive a letter from me from this remote corner of the North; but I owe you a letter, and I have a great inclination, wherever I may be, to discharge all debts, and particularly those rendered due by kindness. Receive my warm acknowledgments for your kind congratulations on my becoming a Benedick. I can now speak from experience, in which you have long participated. I am convinced that the natural state of domestic society is the best fitted for man, whether he be devoted to philosophy, or to active life. I shall have much pleasure in presenting my wife to you and to Mrs. Purkis, on my return. We have had a delightful tour through the Highlands. We are at the extreme point of our journey. The pleasures of a refined society-that of Lord and Lady Stafford's family-have induced us to make a long pause here. We think we shall be in London the beginning of December. I have spent some days such as we passed together in Wales. We have had all the varieties of river, mountain, and wood scenery. The Lakes of Scotland are infinitely finer than those of Wales; but the glens of the Principality may fairly stand in competition with those of the Highlands. I hope I shall find you and your family in good health, and that have spent a very pleasant summer. I am, my dear Purkis, TO JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN, ESQ. you will H. DAVY. MY DEAR FRIEND, Dunkeld, September 27th, 1812. I HAVE received your two kind letters. I hope your quiet life, and reasonable medical discipline, will entirely restore your health. We are now on our return, and probably shall arrive in London before the middle of November; our time, however, is uncertain, as the Election may hasten, or keep us back for want of horses. I can do nothing respecting the licence till my return; I will then see Mr. Wharton, or Mr. Vansittart. I have another subject of conversation in which they are interested, and I can easily introduce that of gunpowder. I have been tolerably successful as a shot lately. I have not fished. My last adventure was at the Spey, near Gordon Castle, where I killed some noble salmon. At Blair Athol I shot some ptarmigans and a stag. I am now at Dunkeld, which I think the most beautiful habitable spot in the Highlands. The Tay, a noble river, rolls with a majestic stream through lofty woods seated upon cliffs and rounded hills; and in the background are the Mountains of Benyglor and the hills of Killy crankie. My wife desires her kind remembrances. Pray offer mine to your father and daughter, and believe me to be always Most affectionately yours, H. DAVY. TO THE SAME. MY DEAR FRIEND, Edinburgh, October 14. We are on our return; I am well, but I am sorry to say that Lady D. is very much indisposed, and anxiety for her hastens my journey to town. * * I have received a very interesting letter from Ampere. 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 com bining them. I have tried in I have tried in my little apparatus with ammonia cooled very low, and chlorine, but without success. There is little doing here. is writing on a sort of Deluge. dresses and dances-Sir James Hall Playfair is the true and amiable Philosopher. My brother is making experiments on animal matter. I hope your gunpowder works are nearly finished. I shall be at the opening ball. As soon as I return I shall give my mind up to this matter. My wife desires her kind remembrances. Mine to your worthy father and Anna. God bless you, my dear friend, and believe me Ever affectionately yours, H. DAVY. On his return to town, after this tour, the following letter was addressed to his friend at Tonbridge: MY DEAR CHILDREN, October 24, 1812. I HAVE just seen Pepys, and rejoice that he gives me so good an account of your health. My wife is much better, except that she has a swollen foot. I have never seen her in such good health and spirits. She is resolved to lead a home life of perfect quiet for six weeks, and I fear you will not be able to tempt her to quit her fire-side, though there is no visit she would make with greater pleasure; but lameness does not suit the country; and for one so enthusiastically fond of nature, it would be vexatious to be in the country, and not to be able to enjoy hills, and meads, and woods. But I am ready to come to my business whenever you think I can be useful. I shall set to work to make gunpowder with as much ardour as Miles Peter-I hope with similar results. I shall not be able to endure a very long separation from my wife, but for three or four days I am at your command. I have been working yesterday and to-day on some new objects; and we are to have a meeting on Wednesday, at one o'clock, at the Institution, to try to make this compound of azote and chlorine, and to try some other experiments. Afterwards we (Angling Chemists) propose a dinner at Brunet's. If you can come to town on that day, I will promise to return with you. God bless you, my dear Children, and believe me to be Most affectionately yours, H. DAVY. CHAPTER IX. Davy's "Elements of Chemical Philosophy" examined.—His Memoir on some combinations of Phosphorus and Sulphur, &c.-He discovers Hydro-phosphoric gas.-Important Illustrations of the Theory of Definite Proportionals.- Bodies precipitated from water are Hydrats.- His letter to Sir Joseph Banks on a new detonating compound.—He is injured in the eye by its explosion. His second letter on the subject.- His Paper on the Substances produced in different chemical processes on Fluor Spar.-His work on Agricultural Chemistry. THE "Elements of Chemical Philosophy," a work to which he has alluded in several of the preceding letters, was published in June 1812. It is dedicated to Lady Davy, to whom he offers it "as a pledge that he shall continue to pursue Science with unabated ardour." This work, although only a small part of the great labour he proposed to accomplish, must be considered as one of high importance to the cause of science. It has not perhaps announced any discoveries which had not been previously communicated to the Royal Society, but it has brought together his original results, and arranged them in one simple and digested plan—it has given coherence to disjointed facts, and has exhibited their mutual bearings upon each other, and their general relations to previously established truths. Very shortly after the publication of this first part, it was asserted by a scientific critic that the work could never be completed upon the plan on which it had commenced, which was little less than a system of chemistry, in which all the facts were to be verified by the author; an undertaking far too gigantic for the most intrepid and laborious experimentalist to accomplish. There was too much truth in the remark - the life of the Author has closed-the work remains unfinished. Although it bears the title of "Elements," its plan and execution are rather adapted for the adept than the Tyro in science; it has, however, enabled the discoverer to expand several of his opinions with a freedom which is not consistent with the studied compression and elaborate brevity that necessarily |