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BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN
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| DAVY | |
| Birth—Apprenticed to an Apothecary—Acquainted with Gilbert and Beddoes—Pneumatic Institution at Bristol—Forbes's Estimate of Davy—Poetic Powers—Introduced to Coleridge and Southey—Anæsthetic Properties of Nitrous Oxide—Lecturer at the Royal Institution and afterwards Professor—Johnson Quoted—His Lectures—Bakerian Lecture—Elements of Chemical Philosophy—Voltaic Battery—The Wollaston Battery—Napoleon's Remarks—Elected F.R.S.—Elements of Agricultural Chemistry—Salmonia; or Days of Fly-Fishing—Consolation in Travels; or the Last Days of a Philosopher—Rumford and Davy—Heat, the vis viva of the Molecules—Newton's Law—Discovery of Potassium and Sodium—His Joy—Metals of the Alkaline Earths—Professor Thorpe's Remarks—His Knighthood—Marriage—Chloride of Nitrogen—The Safety Lamp—Created a Baronet—His Brilliant Experiments—Death—His Character—Honours—Posthumous Honours. Count Rumford:—The Royal Institution—War of American Independence—Rumford's Marriage—Rumford's Discoveries and Inventions—Rumford's Death and Burial—His Grave Damaged by a Shell during the Commune in 1871 | 163 |
| GAY-LUSSAC | |
| Birth—Student Days in Paris—Heine Quoted—Assistant to Berthollet—His First Memoirs—Gay-Lussac and Humboldt's Experiments on the Atmosphere—Nature of Volcanic Gases—Formation of Specular Iron—Professorship at the École Polytechnique, Paris—Chair in the Jardin des Plantes—Dynamics of Earthquakes—A New Process for the Preparation of Alkaline Metals—Recherches Physico-Chimiques—Napoleon and Men of Science—Napoleon and Volta—The Law of Volume—Avogadro's Law—Law of Dulong and Petit—Gay-Lussac's Tower—Boron, Boron Fluoride, and Boric Acid—Action of Light on Gases—Hydriodic Acid and Iodine—Cyanogen Beeswax Bleached by Chlorine—The Royal Ball at the Tuileries—The Birth of Isomorphism—The Chlorides of Iodine—Dithionic Acid, Sodamide, and the Fulminates—Elected a Member of the Chamber of Deputies—Created a Peer of France—His Physical Discoveries—Law of Gaseous Expansion—His Alcoholmeter, Syphon Barometer, and Apparatus for Ascertaining Vapour Densities—Cours de Physique, Cours de Chimie—Honours—Death—Posthumous Honours—Concluding Remarks | 175 |
