The certificate, recommending him as a candidate for the honour of a seat in the Royal Society, was read for the first time on the 21st of April 1803; and having been duly suspended in the meeting-room, during ten sittings of the Society, according to the statute, he was put to the ballot, and elected on the 17th of November in the same year.
As every circumstance connected with the progress of Davy will be hereafter viewed with considerable interest, I shall here introduce the form of the certificate, and record the names of those Fellows who sanctioned it by their signatures.
"Humphry Davy, Esq. Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a gentleman of very considerable scientific knowledge, and author of a paper in the Philosophical Transactions, being desirous of becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society, we the undersigned do from our personal knowledge recommend him as deserving that honour, and as likely to prove an useful and valuable member.
(Signed)Morton
R. J. Sullivan
Kinnaird
Charles Hatchett
Thomas Young
Webb Seymour
W. G. Maton
Thomas Rackett
James Edward Smith
W. G. Jordan
John Walker
Richard Chenevix
Alexander Crichton
Henry C. Englefield
Charles Wilkins
Giffin Wilson
Gilbert Blane
Edward Forster"
On the 7th of July, in the same year, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Dublin Society, having been proposed from the chair by the Vice-President, General Vallancey.
It has been stated that, shortly after Davy's arrival at the Institution, the Managers, being anxious to encourage all investigations of a practical tendency, directed him to deliver a series of lectures on the art of tanning. With this view, he entered into a scientific examination of the subject, in which he was encouraged by Sir Joseph Banks, the liberal patron and promoter of all useful knowledge, who supplied him with various materials for experiment.
The subject had recently attracted considerable attention, both at home and abroad, but much still remained to be effected; and Davy succeeded in adding many important facts to the general store.
In the Royal Institution Journal already noticed, we find several communications from him, under the titles of "Observations on different methods of obtaining Gallic Acid;"—"On the processes of Tanning," &c. All the new facts however, discovered in the course of his experiments, were embodied in a long and elaborate memoir, which was read before the Royal Society on the 24th of February 1803, and published in the Philosophical Transactions for that year. It was entitled "An Account of some Experiments and Observations on the constituent parts of certain astringent Vegetables, and on their operation in Tanning. By Humphry Davy, Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution. Communicated by the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, P. R. S."
Although Seguin and Proust had already examined many of the properties of that vegetable principle to which the name of tannin had been given, yet its affinities had been but little examined; and the manner in which its action upon animal matters may be modified by combination with other substances, had been still less considered.
His principal design in this enquiry was to elucidate the practical part of the art of tanning skins, so as to form leather; but in pursuing this object, he was necessarily led into chemical investigations connected with the analysis of the various bodies containing the tanning principle, and the peculiar properties and value of each.