coal-owners of the north of England presented him with a service of plate worth £3000. How many lives this invention has saved from a horrid death it is impossible to estimate.
Davy proved the elementary nature of chlorine, and that hydrochloric acid is a compound of chlorine and hydrogen. His experiments were always most convincing as well as brilliant. While in Paris, he proved that iodine was an element, using the simplest of appliances.
Unremitting devotion to chemistry and society had undermined his constitution to such an extent that in 1826 he was attacked by paralysis, and was forced to relinquish most of his work. He visited the Continent for the benefit of his health; but another attack of paralysis seized him while visiting Rome. He, however, rallied sufficiently to continue the homeward journey. At Geneva he was attacked again, and died on Royal Oak Day (29th May) 1829. Sir Humphry Davy was buried in the cemetery outside the city of Geneva, Switzerland.
He was an untiring and enthusiastic worker, a brilliant experimentalist, an eloquent lecturer, a genius: and "he was full of eager desire to know the secrets of the world in which he lived"; in fact, as Cuvier said of him, "he occupied the first rank among the chemists of this or of any other age."
His work on the elemental nature of chlorine, iodine, etc., his synthesis of hydriodic acid, and his work on
