While at Montpellier, Davy witnessed the procession of the Pope on his return to Rome. His Holiness appeared in a state of great humiliation, and, on being supplicated by a poor woman to cure her child, he replied, that she must propitiate Heaven by her prayers, for that he was himself a mere mortal, without power to heal or to save.
He quitted Montpellier on the 7th of February, and, accompanied by M. Berard, visited the fountain of Vaucluse; he afterwards continued his route to Nice, crossed the Col de Tende, to Turin, and arrived at Genoa on the 25th of February; from which place the following letter is dated.
TO MR. UNDERWOOD.
Genoa, March 4.
MY DEAR UNDERWOOD,
I have not received the letter you announced to me in the street, concerning Ampère's note, nor any others since I left Paris. The note came to me through the Prefect of Nice, with an indorsement by M. Degerand.
I crossed the Alps by the Col de Tende, stayed at Turin three days, and came here through snow and ice, over the Bochetta, where I have been waiting for a fair wind for Tuscany. We have had no impediments except from the snow and the east winds.
If you can hear any thing of the destination of the letters I have twice missed, I shall thank you to let me know by addressing me at Rome at the Posta. I shall be most happy to hear some news of you here, and shall always feel a lively interest in your plans, and in your welfare.
I have been making some experiments here on the Torpedo, but without any decisive results; the coldness of the weather renders the powers of the animal feeble; I hope, however, to resume them at Naples.
Tell M. Ampère, I hope he will not give up the subject of the laws of the combination of gaseous bodies, which is so worthy of being illustrated by his talents, and which offers such ample scope for his mathematical powers, united as they are with chemical knowledge:—tell him also that I hope he will sometimes write to me, and that I shall always remember with pleasure the hours I have passed in his society.