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Rh those days was a young science. "The chains with which Stahl and his successors had so long bound the limbs of the young science had been broken by Lavoisier."

Modern chemistry was developing, and developing at a rapid rate. There were giants in those days whose names are immortal: Berthollet, Proust, Gay-Lussac, Thénard, Dalton, Berzelius, and others.

In 1797 Davy discovered the anæsthetic properties of nitrous oxide gas—a gas used largely by the dentist. About the same time he published his Researches—a work "characterized by vigour and novelty of conception." This work attracted the attention of Count Rumford, the founder of the Royal Institution in London, who required a lecturer for the Institution. Davy was appointed to the post, and about a year later he was elected professor of chemistry. He came to London with the utmost enthusiasm, but "his ungainly appearance was against him," as his lectures were delivered before the élite of London society. Soon, however, "the ability of the young man won the approval of this aristocratic audience, until, in a year or two, he was courted by the highest society in the metropolis, and took that position in the fashionable world which was so well suited to his temperament."

The words of Dr S. Johnson are appropriate for Davy's career in London:—