inspire fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, was frustrated by his inability to draw it into the windpipe; although, in a very diluted form, he so far tested its effects upon the human frame as to indicate that it produced giddiness and a tendency to sleep. Without doubt these frequent and varied experiments with the most deadly gases known to chemists left effects upon his respiratory organs which told in an after day; but their immediate and indirect results were most valuable to Davy. He described them in a volume entitled 'Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide and its Respiration.' This was widely circulated, and amongst the earliest of those who were attracted by its philosophic spirit, its cautious induction from ingeniously contrived experiments, and its happy talent for analysing the different circumstances which influence the chemical changes observed, was Dr. Hope of Edinburgh. This eminent physician had already met Davy at Bristol, and now forming the highest opinion of his ability, he was the means of introducing him to Count Romford, under whose auspices the Royal Institution in London had been recently established. A lecturer of talent was wanting to fill the chemical chair; and this appointment, as also that of director of the laboratory, was conferred on Mr. Davy during the early part of 1801.

Both for the interests of science and of Davy personally this appointment was a most fortunate one; for the Pneumatic Institution, so far as the administration of the gases was concerned, had for some time been in a state of slow collapse. When it was found that they were not a panacea for every human ill; that at best they were but palliatives in some few forms of chronic affection, as palsy, rheumatism, scrofula, asthma,

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hypochondriacism; that in no single instance had they effected any real or permanent cure, public interest in the medicated airs died rapidly away. The nitrous oxide was occasionally administered and held its ground to the last, and the hydrocarbonate gas and nitrous acid were occasionally and beneficially resorted to; but, except as he experimentalised on a wider field and in the cause of pure science, Davy's work was done. The Pneumatic Institution becaine a mere dispensary for the administration of ordinary medical remedies, and for the trial of many that were new. Muriate of lime was used on a most extensive scale in cases of scrofula, a preparation of foxglove in cases of consumption and dyspepsia, and a favourite tonic was a highly oxygenated preparation of iron. Beddoes was also a believer in that opprobrium medicinæ calomel. His faith in digitalis or foxglove, both alone and in conjunction with other medicines, was as great as that of Bishop Butler in tar-water. He wrote in favour of it, and held, contrary to the opinion of his professional brethren, that it was an anodyne and a stimulant bordering upon opium, and, when judiciously administered, was useful as a stomachic. Whether he tested the effects of galvanism upon his patients is not very clear, but he and Davy dosed, electrified, and administered fictitious airs to scores of puppies, kittens, and frogs. The last were in such request during the early days of the Pneumatic Institution that the supply from about Clifton and Bristol being exhausted, Dr. Beddoes applied to his friend Mr. William Austin, of Madeley Wood in Shropshire. That gentleman set the lads of his neighbourhood to work, and scores were soon fished out of pond and marsh and packed in a cask. In those days large trows came down the

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Severn from Shropshire to Bristol, and by one of them the cask was sent. But the trowmen, being ignorant of its precious contents, bumped it down heavily on Bristol Quay; when lo! the cask burst, and the frogs, saved from nitrous oxide, digitalis, and galvanic shocks, leaped about in all directions, to the dismay of hundreds of worthy Bristolians, who, conjecturing that they had been brought there as food for Frenchmen, smelt a plot and a revolution, and fancied French incendiaries were hiding in their quiet little city.1

Some of Davy's earliest experiments at the Pneumatic Institution related to Galvanism-a subject on which Dr. Beddoes was almost as enthusiastic as himself. They proved to him, thus early, that galvanism was a purely chemical process, depending wholly on the oxidation of metallic surfaces having different degrees of electric conducting power. He decomposed water by the galvanic pile, tested its effects on oxygen and various acids, and by the variety and exactness of these experiments prepared the way for that series of electro-chemical investigations which have immortalised his name.

The Pneumatic Institution, so long as Davy remained connected with it, was a centre of attraction. Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, Cottle, the Wedgwoods, the Lambtons, Clarkson, Edgeworth, various physicians, and foreign professors, to say nothing of titled people, went to and fro, testing the gases, witnessing experiments, or, carried away by Beddoes' enthusiasm, became converts on the spot to the virtues of the nitrous oxide or all-curing digitalis. Davy seems to have been everybody's favourite. Under his guidance prosaic Joseph

1 Letter, Thos. Poole King, Esq.

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Cottle commenced a series of chemical experiments, and the young Lambtons, who were domiciled with Dr. Beddoes, often referred, in after life, to the knowledge they unconsciously picked up from one who delighted to be their companion and friend. Of these bright days, when science and poesy were alike young, Southey wrote long after: This was one of the happiest portions of my life. . . . I was in most frequent and familiar intercourse with Davy, then in the flower and freshness of his youth. We were within an easy walk of each other, over some of the most beautiful ground in that beautiful part of England. When I went to the Pneumatic Institution he had to tell me of some new experiment or discovery and of the views which it opened for him, and when he came to Westbury there was a fresh portion of Madoc' for his hearing. Davy encouraged me with his hearty approbation during its progress; and the bag of nitrous oxide with which he generally regaled me upon my visit to him was not required for raising my spirits to the degree of settled fair, and keeping them at that elevation."1

Davy told Cottle that during the latter part of his stay at Bristol the Pneumatic Institution was only kept open by bribing each patient with sixpence a day. But this was not exactly the case. Finding, like most medical men, the difficulty of insuring the regular attendance of the less educated classes, Beddoes made each patient, upon entrance, deposit half-a-crown. This was returned if the patient left the Institution in a regular manner; but was forfeited and given to a charity for absence or other non-conformance to rules.

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BEDDOES' ENLIGHTENED VIEWS.

In spite of this comparative failure of the gaseous remedies, Beddoes never lost faith in his opinion that they contained principles which others would pursue and turn to account. He wrote much and well upon the laws of health. He showed that they ought to be as commonly taught in schools and families as the ordinary branches of knowledge. He warmly advocated temperance and personal cleanliness at a date when neither was commonly practised. In regard to education he held most enlightened views, and proposed to teach, even in play, by the use of what he called 'rational toys.' For the construction of these upon a sufficient scale a committee was formed and subscriptions raised, but the matter, after some little agitation, fell to the ground. One of the committee was John Wedgwood, Esq., of Cote House, Bristol; and referring to the education of the young Lambtons, who resided with him, Dr. Beddoes thus wrote to Mr. Giddy: I wish you and Josiah Wedgwood lived near me, as by joining purses we might procure some uncommon advantages for all the children.'

During the two years and a half Coleridge resided at Stowey he appears to have written little else than a few poems. How he lived and kept a wife and child seems inexplicable, unless we presume that even thus early he was helped in all directions by his friends. He was always soliciting small doles from Cottle, and Poole was also called on in various ways. So long as Charles Lloyd remained his guest he was handsomely remunerated; but, differences occurring, young Lloyd returned to Birmingham at the close of 1797, and some other source of income had to be thought of. Necessity had already suggested to Coleridge the ministry as a means of subsistence. His opinions