Nevertheless, this troublesome fellow had, at that early period of his life, made great advances in scientific studies. Unable as he was to purchase any instruments, he supplied their place by whatever fell within his reach. Broken pipes and glass tubes were his apparatus. He made a pneumatic machine out of a syringe. With such a laboratory he proceeded to the analysis of the gas contained in certain aquatic plants called fucus.

Nevertheless, the young Humphrey only met with discouragement from the beginning of his career as a chemist. His nascent genius was disdained, misunderstood, and rudely checked. Such a mind as he possessed was required to triumph over so many disadvantages, and to gather new strength from every shock.

The following anecdote is related by M. Ferry, in his Encyclopedia, under the article Davy:—

A chemist of renown, son of the illustrious Watt, came to spend some time with the mother of Humphrey Davy. This timid young man was extremely ambitious of the honour of conversing with so learned a guest; but he must first fit himself for a conversation on the subject of chemistry. Lavoisier's treatise, translated into English, fell in his way. In two days he studied the whole work, commented upon it, and entertained some still newer views. The youth who hardly knew how to prepare an opiate, presented himself as a bold innovator in a science then considered susceptible of but few ulterior improvements. The discussion was animated; Mr. Watt, however, did not comprehend the remarkable talents of a man, who at the age of eighteen, without the advantages of instruction, had gained so great an amount of knowledge, and was able to communicate it with so much clearness. Humphrey did not, therefore, find in his mother's guest a Mæcenas disposed to assist the soarings of his genius; but having received a new impulse, he did not long remain in obscurity.

This troublesome fellow, as the apothecary of Penzance had designated him, became a professor of great distinction. The

Royal Society of London admitted him among its members. The Institute of France decreed him a prize, notwithstanding the war between the French and English governments. The Prince Regent knighted him, and subsequently elevated him to the rank of a baronet.

Finally, when this illustrious man died, in 1829, he had had the honour of succeeding the celebrated Sir Joseph Banks, in the presidency of the Royal Society of London.

Sir Humphrey Davy contributed greatly to the advancement of science. His discoveries in the properties of chlorine, and in the decomposition of earths by galvansim, have wrought great changes in the science of chemistry,-changes which may be called revolutions of a most astonishing nature. His researches into the effects of the respiration of various gases gave rise to new and important truths. Unfortunately, they were fatal to the author of them; for there is reason to think that his various experiments of this kind injured his naturally delicate constitution, and hastened his premature death.

Before we return to the national illustrations of our subject, let us do homage to another learned and ingenious Englishman, who deserves honourable mention in this book devoted to the efforts, the improvements, and the inventions, with which his career was filled.

Charles, Earl Stanhope, one of the most distinguished members of the British House of Lords, was also one of the most active and enterprising spirits of his age. At the age of eighteen, he gained a prize from the Society of Arts and Sciences in Sweden for his pendulum. The phenomena of lightning, and the means of averting their dangerous effects, were long the objects of his researches and experiments. He occupied himself also with improving arithmetical machines, the inventions of various men of genius. The result of his labours was a truly admirable invention.

"One of these machines, which is of the size of an octavo volume," says a biographer, "serves to perform with perfect accu

racy the most complicated operations of addition and subtraction By aid of the other, which is nearly of the size of a writingtable, one may easily resolve the difficulties of multiplication and division. If it happens that the operator fails in attention, and makes a mistake, a spring, which sets a little ball of ivory in motion, points out to him his error."

Earl Stanhope is the inventor of the printing-press which bears his name, and which has effected a revolution in the art of typography. This last invention, which dates from 1815, occurred only a short time before the death of the inventor, which took place on the 13th of September, in the year following.

It was not until 1820, that the iron printing-press, invented by him, was brought from England to France. Several skilful mechanicians immediately imitated it. M. Bresson's Stanhope press was remarked; but has been but seldom reproduced. Those of this kind which have been improved upon by MM. Thonnelier and Gavaux, are held in high estimation.

To Earl Stanhope are also due various improvements in the construction of several musical instruments; a new method of covering houses with a composition of pitch, sand, and chalk, which has perhaps led to the asphaltum and bitumen of the present day; and a new mode of burning lime, by which the cement produced is much harder than ordinary cement.

T is impossible to make mention of the progress of mathematical science under the empire, without letting fall a portion of praise and some laurels upon the memory of a man who did much in its service.

This was Gaspard Monge, the illustrious son of a little hawker of Beaune, who, in spite of numerous obstacles, became one of our greatest geometricians; obtained the honours due to genius, and maintained throughout his elevation, a candour, and a generosity, which did him no less honour than his active labours.

This man, born to give a new impulse to mathematical sciences,

was at first placed at the royal school of Mézières, among draughtsmen and stone-hewers, an humble station which Madame Roland disdainfully ranked with that of a mason, some years

afterwards.

But the mason was destined to instruct the whole learned world.

The genius of Monge came to light of itself. The learned Nollet, well known for his Philosophical Researches, and the celebrated Bossut, then professor of mathematics, were anxious to have the modest stone-hewer as an assistant professor. The young man soon became a professor in reality, and began his glorious career by the discovery of the elements of water, like Lavoisier, Cavendish, and Laplace, of whose labours he was entirely ignorant. Called to Paris, his genius appeared to develope still more rapidly in that large sphere; the Academy of Sciences opened its doors to him (1780); three years afterwards he succeded Bezout in the professorship of instructor of the navy pupils.

At the beginning of the revolution, Monge, invested almost in spite of himself with the functions of minister of war, brought his vast fund of information into the service of his country, and displayed an active and energetic care for her interests, the happy effects of which were felt in every port of France.

Compelled by the power of party intrigue to resign his ministerial station, Monge still continued to be useful to his country. A formidable coalition menaced the frontiers of France; but cannon, saltpetre, and powder, were wanting for our defence. Monge proved what science is able to perform when applied to the wants of man. He discovered a new process for refining saltpetre; he substituted a moulding of sand for that of earth in the casting of cannons; he invented a more expeditious method of perforation than the one in general use, and instructed a large number of pupils in the art of making cannons.

After the revolution, or at least after its greatest violence