Southey thus wrote his opinion and that of Coleridge regarding Davy at this time: ‘He is a marvellous young man, whose talents I can only wonder at.’
Later he wrote:
My residence at Westbury was one of the happiest portions of my life.... I was in habits of the most frequent and intimate intercourse with Davy, then in the flower and freshness of his youth. We were within an easy walk of each other over some of the most beautiful ground in that beautiful part of England. When I went to the Pneumatic Institution he had to tell me of some new experiment or discovery and of the views which it opened for him, and when he came to Westbury there was a fresh portion of Madoc for his hearing.
On July 3, 1800, Davy wrote from Bristol to Gilbert:
We have been repeating the galvanic experiments with success. Nicholson, by means of a hundred pieces of silver and zinc, has procured a visible spark. Cruickshank has revived oxidated metals in solution by means of the nascent hydrogen produced from the decomposition of water by the shock, and both he and Carlisle have absolutely resolved water into oxygen and hydrogen by means of it, making use of silver and platina wires. An immense field of investigation seems opened by this discovery; may it be pursued so as to acquaint us with some of the laws of life!
You have undoubtedly heard of Herschel’s discovery concerning the production of heat by invisible rays emitted from the sun?
Coleridge is gone to reside in Cumberland.
Yours, with sincere affection,
Humphry Davy.
On October 20, 1800, again he wrote to Gilbert:
In pursuing experiments on galvanism during the last two months I have met with unexpected and unhoped-for success. Some of the new facts on this subject promise to afford instruments capable of destroying the mysterious veil which nature has thrown over the operation and properties of ethereal fluids.
Galvanism I have found, by numerous experiments, to be a process purely chemical.
I remain, with sincere respect and affection, yours,
Humphry Davy.
During this year he published a volume entitled ‘Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide and its Respiration.’