I have heard of no scientific news; this, indeed, is little the season for active exertion.
With best respects to your father, and to Mr. and Mrs. Guillemard, I am, my dear Sir,
Always very faithfully yours,
H. Davy.
Few notes have conveyed information of such importance to the scientific world, as that which follows, announcing, at the same time, the decomposition of the fixed alkalies, and the formation of the Geological Society, of which it would thus appear that Davy was one of the founders.
TO WILLIAM HASLEDINE PEPYS, ESQ.
November 13, 1807.
DEAR PEPYS,
If you and Allen had been one person, the Council of the Royal Society would have voted to you the Copleian Medal;[77] but it is an indivisible thing, and cannot be given to two.
We are forming a little talking Geological Dinner Club, of which I hope you will be a member. I shall propose you to-day. Some things have happened in the Chemical Club, which I think render it a less desirable meeting than usual, and I do not think you would find any gratification in being a member of it. Hatchett never comes, and we sometimes meet only two or three. I hope to see you soon.
I have decomposed and recomposed the fixed alkalies, and discovered their bases to be two new inflammable substances very like metals; but one of them lighter than ether, and infinitely combustible. So that there are two bodies decomposed, and two new elementary bodies found.