[20] Here the reader will recognise the force of early associations.
[21] Brugnatelli considered that oxygen, in certain cases of combination, entered into union with different bodies, without parting with its caloric; and in that state he gave it the name of Therm-oxygen; so that Davy had a precedent for his nomenclatural innovation.
[22] Breath and life are synonymous. In the Greek, the most philosophically constructed language with which we are acquainted, this first and last act is expressed by a verb composed of alpha and omega—αω. In the Latin, the connexion between spiro and spiritus, breath and life, is evident.
[23] The only pun Davy is said to have ever made was upon the occasion of Mr. Sadler being appointed by Dr. Beddoes as his successor. "I cannot imagine," said he, "why he has engaged Sadler, unless it is that he may be well bridled."
[24] The following is the account given in his Essay. "When sulphuric acid was poured into a solution of this salt in water, a beautiful and unexpected phenomenon took place. The room was accidentally darkened at the moment this experiment was made, so that we were enabled to perceive a vivid luminous appearance. This experiment, independent of its beauty, is extremely pleasing as affording an instance of true combustion, that is, the production of Light and Heat by the mixture of two incombustible bodies." It may be presumed, that this phenomenon arose from the developement and decomposition of a portion of Euchlorine, a compound which he subsequently discovered in 1811. In the year 1813, Chevreul announced, as a new discovery, that if strontian be heated in contact with muriatic acid gas, the gas is absorbed, and the earthy salt becomes red hot.—See Annals of Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 312.
[25] It is very common, after the burning of a hay-stack, to find glass in the ashes. P.
[26] From his visit to London, as noticed at page [62].
[27] With respect to the metaphysical speculation contained in this paragraph of his letter, had he not written it in haste, we might presume he would have given a more exact expression to his ideas. By the misapplied term "Feeling of Procrastination," he doubtless meant to describe that aversion to labour which becomes habit by indulgence, and the perception of which, so far from increasing in vividness, actually languishes to obtuseness. To borrow an expression from Dr. Johnson, Davy, in his metaphysical speculations, not unfrequently trod upon the brink of meaning, where light and darkness begin to mingle.
[28] Davy here alludes to the fact of magnesian earth being prejudicial to vegetation.
[29] Lettres sur l'Angleterre, 1802.