1829.] [ 9 ] MEMOIR OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, BART. (With a Portrait.) MONG the various branches of been elucidated by the discoveries and Sir Humphry Davy was born December 17, 1779, at Penzance, in Cornwall. The name is of ancient re spectability in the West of England, and his family was above the middle class; his paternal great-grandfather had considerable lauded property in the parish of Ludgvan, and his father possessed a small paternal estate opposite St. Michael's Mount, called Bartel, on which he died in 1795, after having injured his fortune by expending considerable sums in attempting agricultural improvements. Sir Humphry received the first rudiments of his education at the grammar-schools of Penzance and Truro; at the former place he resided with Mr. John Tomkin, surgeon, a benevolent and intelligent man, who had been intimately connected with his maternal grandfather, and treated him with a degree of kindness little less than paternal. His genius was originally inclined to poetry; and there are many natives of Penzance who remember his poems and verses, written at the early age of nine years. He cultivated this bias till his fifteenth year, when he became the pupil of Mr. (since Dr.) Borlase, of Penzance, an ingenious surgeon, intending to prepare himself for graduating as a physician at Edinburgh. At this early age Davy laid down for himself a plan of education, which embraced the circle of the sciences. By his eighteenth year he had acquired the rudiments of GENT. MAG. July, 1829. botany, anatomy, and physiology, the tural philosophy, and chemistry. But chemistry soon arrested his whole attention. Having made some experiments on the air disengaged by seaweeds from the water of the ocean, which convinced him that these vegetables performed the same part in purifying the air dissolved in water. which land-vegetables act in the atmosphere, he communicated them to Dr. Beddoes, who had at that time circulated proposals for publishing a journal of philosophical contributions from the West of England. This produced a correspondence between Dr. Beddoes and Mr. Davy, in which the Doctor proposed that Mr. Davy, who was at this time only nineteen years of age, should suspend his plan of going to Edinburgh, and take a part in experiments which were then about to be instituted at Bristol, for investigating the medical powers of factitious airs. To this proposal the young man consented, on condition that he should have the uncontrolled superintendence of the experiments; and by the judicions advice of Davies Gilbert, Esq., a gentleman of high scientific attainments, and now President of the Royal Society, whose eye had watched him from the commencement of his studies, having known his parents and family, he continued with application and perseverance in the study of chemistry. With Dr. Beddoes Mr. Davy resided for a considerable time, and was constantly occupied in new chemical investigations. Here, he discovered the respirability of nitrous oxide, and made a number of laborious experiments on gaseous bodies, which he afterwards published in his "Chemical and Philosophical Researches," 8vo. 1800, a work which was universally well received in the chemical world, and created a high reputation for its author, at that time only twentyone years of age, This led to his introduction to Count Rumford; and having previously delivered some lectures at Clifton, to his being elected Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Institution in Albemarle-street. On obtaining this appointment Mr. Davy 8 Sir Walter Espac.-Antiquities near Plym Bridge, Devon. [July, Standard was fought and won. Ethel. Abb. Riev. p. 337-346. Bromton, p. 1028, and Knyghton, p. 2371, also mention this knight, and the latter adds the ten collegiate rules of his foundation. Gaimar refers those who doubt him to Nicole de Trailli. "He that does not believe what I say, may inquire of Nicole de Trailli." MSS. Bib. Reg. cited in Hist. Mid. Ages, p. 353. Sir Walter's grant to the Rievaux Monastery, printed by Dugdale from the MS. in the Cotton Library, Julius D. 1, informs us who this Nicole de Trailli was. He was the husband of one of Sir Walter's sisters. The Cot his own veracity in thus stating the authority for his narrative, refers all who chose to inquire about it to Nicole de Trailli. By this Carta we perceive that the Nicole was a real person, and the brother-in-law to Sir Walter. Thus Gaimar, Sir Walter, Nicole, and Jeffry of Moumouth, were all contemporaries. As these points are so connected with the vexata questio,' of Jeffry's British History, I have taken the liberty of troubling you with this letter. Yours, &c. SH. TURNER. ton MS. Vitell. 64, quoted also by A CONTINUATION of the great Dugdale, informs us that Sir Walter, in his youth, married Adelina, and had by her a son, Walter, who was growing up to be like himself: but unfortunately, having a taste for riding horses at full speed, urged one of them so much beyond its strength that it fell from exhaustion, and threw its young master, who died from a broken neck. Some time after this, Sir Walter bequeathed by will his residuum between his three sisters, of whom the second, Albreda, married Nicholaus de Traylye; and the grandson of his daughter built the castle of Helmisley, in that district. Dugdale, Mon. vol. i. p. 727, 728, from MS. Vitell. In his grant to the monastery, Sir Walter mentions his forest of Helmeslac, and his nephews Gaufridi de Traeli, William, Gilbert and Nicholas, sons of my half-sister Albrea." Dugdale, p. 729, from MS. Julius. These documents afford us a satisfactory comment on Gaimar's account, as to the sources of his poem on the ancient kings of Britain. From these facts, and from those quoted in the History of the Middle Ages, vol. iv. p. 353, 4; and from himself, we learn that Robert Earl of Gloucester, the natural son of Henry I., caused the Welsh book brought out of Bretagne by the King's Justiciary, Walter Calenus, the Archbishop of Öxford, to be translated into Latin. That Sir Walter Espec, of Helmeslac, obtained this translation from Earl Robert, and lent it to Arnil, the son of Gilebert; and that the Lady Custance, or Constance, obtained the loan of it, for Gaimar to compare that part of his history from it; and that Gaimar, anxious for the vindication of Roman fosse-way extends from Totnes to the Land's End. From Ridgeway, in the parish of Plympton St. Mary, which doubtless owes its name to its situation, it pursues its course through the Earl of Morley's estate, and crosses the Plym at Plymbridge; there ascending a steep hill, it passes over Egg-Buckland Down, whence Borlase traced it to within a short distance of Saltash Ferry. About a dozen yards from the Plympton St. Mary end of Plym bridge is a ruined wall, between eight and nine feet long, and six or seven high. In this wall are three niches, twelve inches in height, and six wide; the centre one has a circular groin round the top; probably the remains of an oratory or chapel, not an unusual accompaniment to a bridge. On the opposite side of the river, about a hundred yards from the bridge, and on the left hand side of the road, at the foot of the hill which the fosse ascends, is a fissure in the hedge, overgrown with ivy and moss, which to a casual passer has nothing remarkable in its appearance; but on examination is found to open into a small antique building, with a stone vaulted roof. It is impossible to ascertain the exact dimensions, without removing the rubbish and soil that completely fill and surround it: consequently I cannot determine its use. The circumstance of these ruins being on the Roman road, makes it not impossible that they are the remains of a votive temple. In the neighbouring wood, between Boringdon Park and Caundown, are the remains of a camp. Yours, &c. Jos. CHATTAWAY. 1829.] Memoir of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. members of the Academy took their place in the funeral procession; and the invitations to the Syndicate, and to the learned bodies who accompanied it, were made by that body. The whole was conducted with much appropriate order and decency; and whilst every attention and respect were paid to the memory of an individual, who has done his ample share of good to mankind during his life, and whose name will be handed down to posterity amongst those who have most eminently contributed to spread the bounds of science, nothing was attempted, to step beyond the limits of that unostentatious simplicity which the deceased had frequently declared to be his wish, whenever his mortal remains should be conveyed to their last home. The procession, which followed the corporate bodies, and the countrymen of the deceased, was joined by many of the most eminent manufacturers of the city, and a large body of mechanics, who were anxious to pay this tribute of regard and of gratitude for one, whom they deservedly looked upon as a great benefactor to the arts, and proinoter of the sciences, by the application of which they earned their livelihood. Sir Humphry having died without issue, his Baronetcy has become extinct. The "allusive" arms assigned to him by the heralds, (and which are engraved above his portrait,) are, Sable, a chevron engrailed Erminois between two annulets in chief Or, and in base a flame Proper, encompassed by a chain Sable, issuant from a civic wreath Or. Crest out of a civic wreath Or, an elephant's head Sable, ear Or, tusks Argent, the proboscis attached by a line to a ducal coronet around the neck Or. Motto, Igne constricto vita secura. : The following works, of which Sir Humphry Davy is the author, attest the debt which the world owes to his great mind and meritorious exertions : Chemical and Philosophical Researches, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide and its Respiration. 1800, 8vo. A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry at the Royal Institution. 1802, 8vo. A Discourse, introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry. 1802, 8vo. Electro-Chemical Researches on the Decomposition of the Earths; with Observations on the Metals obtained from the Al 15 kaline Earths, and an Amalgam procured from Ammonia. Lecture on a Plan for Improving the Royal Institution, and making it permanent. 1810, 8vo. Elements of Chemical Philosophy. 1812, 8vo. Course of Lectures before the Board of Practical Hints on the Application_of Wire-gauze to Lamps, for preventing Explosions in Coal-mines. 1816, 8vo. Six Discourses delivered before the Royal Society, at their Anniversary Meetings, on the award of the Royal and Copley Medals; preceded by an Address to the Society, delivered in 1800, on the Progress and Prospects of Science." 4to. The following chronological series will show the number and value of the articles contributed by Sir Humphry to the Philosophical Transac tions: Account of some Galvanic Combinations formed by the Arrangement of single Metallic Plates and Fluids, analagous to the new Galvanic Apparatus of Mr. Volta. 1801, Account of some experiments and observations on the constituent parts of certain Astringent Vegetables, and on their operation in Tanning. 1803. An account of some analytical experiments on a Mineral Production from Devonshire, consisting principally of Alumine and Water. 1805. On a method of analysing stones, coutaining fixed Alkali, by means of the Boracic Acid. Ibid. The Bakerian Lecture on some Chemical Agencies of Electricity. 1807. The Bakerian Lecture on some new phenomena of Chemical Changes produced by Electricity, particularly the decomposition of the fixed Alkalies, and the exhibition of the new substances which constitute their Basis, and on the general nature of Alka line bodies. 1808. The Bakerian Lecture; an Account of some new analytical researches on the nature of certain Bodies, particularly the Alkalies, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Carbonaceous Matter, and the Acids hitherto undecompounded; with some general Observations on Chemical Theory. 1809. New Analytical Researches on the nature of certain Bodies; being an Appendix to the Bakerian Lecture for 1808. The Bakerian Lecture for 1809, in some new Electro-Chemical researches on various objects, particularly the Metallic Bodies from the Alkalies and the Earths, and on some Combinations of Hydrogen. 1810. Researches on the Oxymuriatic Acid, its nature and Combinations, and on the Elements of the Muriatic Acid; with some 1829.] [9] MEMOIR OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, BART. (With a Portrait.) AMONG the various branches of botany, anatomy, and physiology, the human knowledge which have been elucidated by the discoveries and improvements of modern times, none has been further advanced than that of chemistry. The rapid and important acquisitions in that science which have distinguished the present age, are chiefly to be attributed to the substitution of the analytical for the synthetical system of philosophizing; and in the next place, to the profound judgment and indefatigable ardour with which the subject of this memoir availed himself of that great improvement, in developing, in a career unequalled since the death of Newton, the mysterious constitution of the infinitely diversified matter, in which we are destined to exist. Sir Humphry Davy was born December 17, 1779, at Penzance, in Cornwall. The name is of ancient respectability in the West of England, and his family was above the middle class; his paternal great-grandfather had considerable landed property in the parish of Ludgvan, and his father possessed a small paternal estate opposite St. Michael's Mount, called Bartel, on which he died in 1795, after having injured his fortune by expending considerable sums in attempting agricultural improvements. Sir Humphry received the first rudiments of his education at the grammar-schools of Penzance and Truro; at the former place he resided with Mr. John Tomkin, surgeon, a benevolent and intelligent man, who had been intimately connected with his maternal grandfather, and treated him with a degree of kindness little less than paternal. His genius was originally inclined to poetry; and there are many natives of Penzance who remember his poems and verses, written at the early age of nine years. He cultivated this bias till his fifteenth year, when he became the pupil of Mr. (since Dr.) Borlase, of Penzance, an ingenious surgeon, intending to prepare himself for graduating as a physician at Edinburgh. At this early age Davy laid down for himself a plan of education, which embraced the circle of the sciences. By his eighteenth year he had acquired the rudiments of GENT. MAG. July, 1829. simpler mathematics, metaphysics, natural philosophy, and chemistry. But chemistry soon arrested his whole attention. Having made some experiments on the air disengaged by seaweeds from the water of the ocean, which convinced him that these vegetables performed the same part in purifying the air dissolved in water. which land-vegetables act in the atmosphere, he communicated them to Dr. Beddoes, who had at that time circulated proposals for publishing a journal of philosophical contributions from the West of England. This produced a correspondence between Dr. Beddoes and Mr. Davy, in which the Doctor proposed that Mr. Davy, who was at this time only nineteen years of age, should suspend his plan of going to Edinburgh, and take a part in experiments which were then about to be instituted at Bristol, for investigating the medical powers of factitious airs. To this proposal the young man consented, on condition that he should have the uncontrolled superintendence of the experiments; and by the judicions advice of Davies Gilbert, Esq., a gentleman of high scientific attainments, and now President of the Royal Society, whose eye had watched him from the commencement of his studies, having known his parents and family, he continued with application and perseverance in the study of chemistry. With Dr. Beddoes Mr. Davy resided for a considerable time, and was constantly occupied in new chemical investigations. Here, he discovered the respirability of nitrous oxide, and made a number of laborious experiments on gaseous bodies, which he afterwards published in his "Chemical and Philosophical Researches," 8vo. 1800, a work which was universally well received in the chemical world, and created a high reputation for its author, at that time only twentyone years of age. This led to his introduction to Count Rumford; and having previously delivered some lectures at Clifton, to his being elected Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Institution in Albemarle-street. obtaining this appointment Mr. Davy |