It has been stated that an arrangement had been concluded between Dr. Beddoes and Davy: it is but an act of justice to say, that it was of a liberal and honourable description; and let me also add in this place, that no sooner had Davy found himself in a situation which secured for him the necessaries of life, than he renounced all claims upon his paternal property, in favour of his mother and sisters. By acceding to the proposal of Dr. Beddoes, he never intended to abandon the profession in which he had embarked; on the contrary, he persevered in his determination to study and graduate at Edinburgh, and his patron promised that every opportunity should be afforded him at Bristol for seeing medical practice: this part of the arrangement, however, was voluntarily abandoned by him, for he soon became so absorbed by the labours of the laboratory, as to leave little leisure for the clinical studies of the hospital. The Pneumatic Institution was established for the purpose of investigating the medical powers of factitious airs or gases; and to Davy was assigned the office of superintending the various experiments. It is now generally acknowledged, that the Art of Physic has not derived any direct advantage from the application of a class of agents which, undoubtedly, held forth the fairest promise of benefit; but it is too frequently the case, that in physic, theory and experience are in open hostilities with each other. The gases are now never employed in the treatment of disease, except by a few crafty or ignorant empirics, whose business it is to enrich themselves by playing on the credulity of mankind: indeed, we may say of popular remedies in general what M. de Lagrange has so wittily said of popular prejudices, that they are the cast-off clothes of philosophers, in which the rabble dress themselves. The investigation, however, into the nature and composition of the gases paved the way to some new and important discoveries in science; so that, to borrow a Baconian metaphor, although our philosophers failed in obtaining the treasure for which they so eagerly dug, they at least, by turning up and pulverizing the soil, rendered it fertile. The ingenuity of the chemist will for ever remain on record; the phantoms of the physicians have vanished into air. Davy was now constantly engaged in the prosecution of new experiments, in the conception of which, as he himself informs us, he was greatly aided by the conversation and advice of Dr. Beddoes. He was also occasionally assisted by Mr. William Clayfield, a gentleman ardently attached to chemical pursuits, and whose name is not unknown in the annals of science; indeed, it appears that to him he was indebted for the invention of a mercurial air-holder, by which he was enabled to collect and measure the various gases submitted to examination. He had also the advantages of some society of a highly intellectual cast: it is sufficient to mention the names of Edgeworth and James Tobin.