ngs,
old and young, pressed into the theatre of the Institution to cover
him with applause. His greatest labors were his discovery of the
decomposition of the fixed alkalies, and the re-establishment of the
simple nature of chlorine; his other researches were the investigation
of astringent vegetables in connection with the art of tanning; the
analysis of rocks and minerals in connection with geology; the
comprehensive subject of agricultural chemistry; and galvanism and
electro-chemical science. He was also an early, but unsuccessful,
experimenter in the photographic art.

Of the lazy conservative spirit and ludicrous indolence in science,
which at this time attempted to hoodwink the public, a quaint
instance is recorded of a worthy professor of chemistry at Aberdeen.
He had allowed some years to pass since Davy's brilliant discovery
of potassium and its congeneric metals, without a word about them in
his lectures. At length the learned doctor was concussed by his
colleagues on the subject, and he condescended to notice it. "Both
potash and soda are now said to be metallic oxides," said he; "the
oxides, in fact, of two metals, called potassium and sodium by the
discoverer of them, one Davy, in London, a verra troublesome person
in chemistry."

Turn we, however, to the brightest event in our chemical
philosopher's career. By his unrivalled series of practical
discoveries, Davy acquired such a reputation for success among his
countrymen, that his aid was invoked on every great occasion. The
properties of fire-damp, or carburetted hydrogen, in coal-mines had
already been ascertained by Dr. Henry. When this gas is mingled in
certain proportions with atmospheric air, it forms a mixture which
kindles upon the contact of a lighted candle, and often explodes
with tremendous violence, killing the men and horses, and projecting
much of the contents of the mine through the shafts or apertures
like an enormous piece of artillery. At this time, a detonation of
fire-damp occurred within a coal-mine in the north of England, so
dreadful that it destroyed more than a hundred miners. A committee
of the proprietors besought our chemist to provide a method of
preparing for such tremendous visitations; and he did it. He tells
us that he first turned his attention particularly to the subject in
1815; but he must have been prepared for it by the researches of his
early years. Still, there appeared little hope of finding an
efficacious re