The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First ProfessorsJones, Bence
History
The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors
Jones, Bence
Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829; Royal Institution of Great Britain; Rumford, Benjamin, Graf von, 1753-1814; Young, Thomas, 1773-1829
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
judges of 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.’
Late in August he wrote to a friend, ‘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.’
On October 14, from Edinburgh, he wrote to Mr. Children:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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