Note 32 — Chapter VII · THE WONDERFUL DIFFUSION OF HEAT.

The note-books of Davy during the time of his apprenticeship have been preserved, and show (says his brother) “the ardour with which he entered upon his studies, and the extensive reach of his mind in the various branches of knowledge which he proposed to pursue. One of them, bearing the date of 1795, is,” (Dr. John Davy adds,) “on many accounts, a literary curiosity. It is a small quarto, with parchment covers. Outside one of the covers is the figure of an ancient lyre drawn with his pen, and on the other an olive leaf encircling a lamp; as if,” remarks his biographer, “in anticipation of his great discovery of confining flame in the safety-lamp. At the commencement of it is the following plan of study:

1. Theology; Or Religion, Ethics, or moral virtues, { Taught by Nature.

{ ” by Revelation.

2. Geography.

3. My Profession.

1. Botany.

2. Pharmacy.

3. Nosology.

4. Anatomy.

5. Surgery.

6. Chemistry.

4. Logic.

5. Language.

1. English.

2. French.

3. Latin.

4. Greek.

5. Italian.

6. Spanish.

7. Hebrew.

6. Physics.

1. The doctrines and properties of natural bodies.

2. Of the operations of nature.

3. Of the doctrines of fluids.

4. Of the properties of organised matter.

5. Of the organisation of matter.

6. Simple astronomy.

7. Mechanics.

8. Rhetoric and Oratory.

9. History and Chronology.

10. Mathematics.

To give some distinct idea of the bent of his studies at this time,” continues his brother, “I shall briefly notice the principal topics which appear in this MS. volume. It opens with ‘Hints towards the Investigation of Truth in Religious and Political Opinions, composed as they occurred, to be placed in a more regular manner hereafter.’ His first essay is ‘On the Immortality and Immateriality of the Soul;’ the second bears the title of ‘Body, organised matter;’ and his third is ‘On Governments.’ Then there follow a variety of essays on metaphysical and moral subjects. These topics occupy more than one half of the book; the other part, which appears to have been written after, commences at the opposite end, inverted. This is devoted partly to religious essays; but besides these,” adds Dr. Davy, “there are some verses and the beginning of a romance, called ‘An Idyl,’ which is in the form of dialogue, the characters being ‘Trevelis a warrior and friend of Prince Arthur, and Morrobin a Druid;’ the scene, ‘A cliff at the Land’s End in Cornwall.’

“From the same source of information—his note-books—it appears, that in the beginning of the year 1796 he entered on the study of mathematics. One book is almost entirely confined to this subject, and he seems to have finished the elementary course in more than twelve months, when he was commencing the eleventh book of Euclid, having gone through most of the other branches. He engaged in these studies without a master, and perfectly voluntary on his part, from the conviction of their usefulness preliminary to the study of chemical and physical sciences. His passion for poetry at the same time appears to have kept pace with the expansion of his faculties, and not to have been damped even by the application to mathematics, for his early note-books contain many desultory verses. His early chemical reading was confined to two works of a very different description, ‘Lavoisier’s Elements of Chemistry,’ and ‘Nicholson’s Dictionary of Chemistry.’ This new study seems very soon to have excited in his mind a most lively interest. He was not satisfied with merely reading and acquiring the ideas of others. He criticised the theoretical views of the great French philosopher” (Lavoisier, the author of the new Theory of Combustion, which was propounded only some few years before); “he doubted, rejected, and advanced speculations of his own. Speculation appears to have led him to experiment, and experiment to further speculation, with such rapid progress that in a few months he had formed a new hypothesis (concerning the principle of heat), and flattered himself that he had triumphed over an important part of the doctrine of the French school.

“Humphry Davy himself writes in one of his note-books, dated 1799, ‘About twenty months ago I began the study of Chemistry. The system of Lavoisier, almost the only elementary book in my possession, was the first that I studied.’” That the subject of heat was the first chemical principle that engaged the boy’s attention we have further evidence in the fact, that, a few years afterwards, his “Researches on Heat and Light” were published in the form of essays, in a miscellaneous volume edited by Dr. Beddoes. In the preface to this work the editor says, referring to the views propounded by Davy, ‘It is not necessary, in praise or excuse of his system, to add that at the time the theory was formed the author was under twenty years of age, pupil to a surgeon-apothecary in the most remote town of Cornwall, with little access to philosophical books, and none at all to philosophical men.’”