His old and valued friend Mr. Tonkin, however, not only expressed his disapprobation of this scheme, but was so vexed and irritated at having his favourite plan of fixing Davy in his native town as a Surgeon, thus thwarted, that he actually altered his will, and revoked the legacy of his house which he had previously bequeathed him. Mr. Tonkin died on the 24th of December 1801; so that, although he lived long enough to witness Davy's appointment to the Royal Institution, he could never have anticipated the elevation to which his genius and talents ultimately raised him.
On the 2nd of October in the year 1798, Davy quitted Penzance, before he had attained his twentieth year. Mr. Gilbert well remembers meeting him upon his journey to Bristol, and breakfasting with him at Okehampton, on the 4th of October. He was in the highest spirits, and in that frame of mind in which a man of ardent imagination identifies every successful occurrence with his own fortunes; his exhilaration, therefore, was not a little heightened by the arrival of the mail-coach from London, covered with laurels and ribbons, and bringing the news, so cheering to every English heart, of Nelson's glorious victory of the Nile.
CHAPTER II.
Cursory thoughts on the advantages of Biography.—Plan and objects of the Pneumatic Institution.—Davy contracts friendships during his residence at Bristol.—His first visit to London.—His Letters to Mr. Davies Gilbert.—The publication of the West Country Contributions, by Dr. Beddoes.—Davy's Essays on Heat, Light, and Respiration.—His interesting experiments on bonnet canes.—He commences an enquiry into the nature of nitrous oxyd.—He publishes his chemical researches.—A critical examination of the work.—Testimony of Tobin, Clayfield, Southey, and others, respecting the powers of nitrous oxyd.—Davy breathes carburetted hydrogen gas, and nearly perishes from its effects.—His new Galvanic experiments communicated in a Letter to Mr. Gilbert.
Having concluded the early history of the subject of these memoirs, and conducted it to that memorable day on which he left his native town, and bursting from obscurity, prepared to enter upon a wider field of usefulness and honour, I shall accompany him in his progress; and with the honest desire of affording instruction as well as amusement,—for history is useful only as it holds up the mirror of Truth,—I shall continue to point out the various circumstances that may have contributed to his success and scientific renown; and to offer such occasional reflections as may be likely to illustrate not only the superficial peculiarities which constitute the light and shade of character, but those deeper varieties of mind, upon which the superiority of intellect may be supposed to depend.
After all, the great end of biography is not to be found, as some would seem to imagine, in a series of dates, or in a collection of gossiping anecdotes and table-talk, which, instead of lighting up and vivifying the features, hang as a cloud of dust upon the portrait; but it is to be found in an analysis of human genius, and in the developement of those elements of the mind, to whose varied combinations, and nicely adjusted proportions, the mental habits, and intellectual peculiarities of distinguished men may be readily referred.
It has been stated that an arrangement had been concluded between Dr. Beddoes and Davy: it is but an act of justice to say, that it was of a liberal and honourable description; and let me also add in this place, that no sooner had Davy found himself in a situation which secured for him the necessaries of life, than he renounced all claims upon his paternal property, in favour of his mother and sisters.
By acceding to the proposal of Dr. Beddoes, he never intended to abandon the profession in which he had embarked; on the contrary, he persevered in his determination to study and graduate at Edinburgh, and his patron promised that every opportunity should be afforded him at Bristol for seeing medical practice: this part of the arrangement, however, was voluntarily abandoned by him, for he soon became so absorbed by the labours of the laboratory, as to leave little leisure for the clinical studies of the hospital.
The Pneumatic Institution was established for the purpose of investigating the medical powers of factitious airs or gases; and to Davy was assigned the office of superintending the various experiments.