he had been 'repeating the galvanic experiments with success' in the intervals of the experiments on the gases, which 'almost incessantly occupied him from January to April.' In these experiments Davy ran considerable risks. The respiration of nitrous oxide led, by its union with common air in the mouth to the formation of nitrous acid, which severely injured the mucous membrane, and in his attempt to breathe carburetted hydrogen gas he 'seemed sinking into annihilation.' On being removed into the open air he faintly articulated, 'I do not think I shall die,' but some hours elapsed before the painful symptoms ceased.
Davy's 'Researches,' which were full of striking and novel facts, and rich in chemical discoveries, soon attracted the attention of the scientific world, and Davy now made his grand move in life. In 1799 Count Rumford had proposed the establishment in London of an 'Institution for Diffusing Knowledge,' i.e. the Royal Institution. The house in Albemarle Street was bought in April 1799. Rumford became secretary to the institution, and Dr. Garnett was the first lecturer. Garnett was forced to resign from ill-health in 1801. Rumford had already been empowered to treat with Davy. Personal interviews followed, and on 15 July 1801 it was resolved by the managers 'that Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution in the capacity of assistant lecturer in chemistry, director of the chemical laboratory, and assistant editor of the journals of the institution, and that he be allowed to occupy a room in the house, and be furnished with coals and candles, and that he be paid a salary of 100l. per annum.'
Rumford held out to Davy the prospect of his becoming in two or three years professor of chemistry in the Institution with a salary of 800l. per annum, and agreed that Davy should have every facility for pursuing his private philosophical investigations.
On 11 March 1801 Davy arrived at the Royal Institution. He gave three courses of lectures in the spring of that year. His first course, consisting of five lectures, was 'On the New Branch of Philosophy,' embracing the history of galvanism and the discoveries made by himself and others. This course was followed by another on 'Pneumatic Chemistry,' and after the concluding lecture on 20 June, he administered the nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to several gentlemen present. Another course on 'Galvanism' was delivered in the fore part of the day, which was attended by men of science and numbers of people of rank and fashion. On 21 Jan. 1802 Davy delivered the introductory lecture of the session to his course on 'Chemistry' in the theatre of the Royal Institution upon benefits to be derived from the various branches of science. He also gave an evening course on 'Chemistry applied to the Arts.' On 21 May it was resolved 'that Mr. Humphry Davy be for the future styled professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution.' In April Davy joined Dr. Young in editing the eighth number of the 'Journal of the Royal Institution.' In one of these he gave his 'account of a method of copying paintings upon glass, and of making profiles by the agency of light upon nitrate of silver, invented by J. Wedgwood, Esq.' Davy's first communication to the Royal Society was an 'Account of some Galvanic Combinations.' It was read on 18 June 1801. On 24 Feb. 1803 he read before the Royal Society his first paper on 'Astringent Vegetables and on their Operation in Tanning.' He was proposed a fellow on 21 April 1803 and elected on 17 Nov. On 7 July he was elected an honorary member of the Dublin Society. Davy had at this time arrived at his period of most healthful popularity. Dr. Paris says of him: 'The enthusiastic admiration which his lectures obtained is at this period scarcely to be imagined. Men of the first rank and talent, the literary and the scientific, the practical, the theoretical, blue stockings, and women of fashion, the old, the young, all crowded, eagerly crowded the lecture-room.' Coleridge on 17 Feb. 1803 expressed his pleasure at Davy's progress, and said that he hoped 'more proudly of Davy than of any other man,' but afterwards noticed the danger of dissipation and flattery, 'two serpents at the cradle of his genius.' On 10 May Davy's first lecture was given before the board of agriculture, and five others on succeeding Tuesdays and Fridays. A prologue, written in two hours, for Tobin's comedy of the 'Honeymoon,' produced at Drury Lane on 30 Jan. 1805, showed that his poetical tendencies were not entirely suppressed. The success of his lectures was followed by the glory of original discoveries. In 1806 he presented to the Royal Institution a collection of minerals which Mr. Hatchett pronounced to have an aggregate value exceeding one hundred guineas, and the managers of the institution, on the representation of that mineralogist, resolved 'that the sum of one hundred pounds be entrusted to Mr. Davy to purchase minerals.' On 4 Feb. in this year Davy was appointed director of the laboratory, his annual income being raised to 400l. a year. On 16 May 1800 Davy communicated a paper to the Royal Society on the use of boracic acid in analysing stones, and for this and his previous
