Hatchett, Wollaston, Children, Tennant, and other eminent men. At the
same time he corresponded with the principal chemists of every part of
Europe. In 1806, he was appointed to deliver, before the Royal Society,
the Bakerian lecture, in which he displayed some very interesting new
agencies of electricity, by means of the celebrated galvanic apparatus.[1]
Soon afterwards, he made one of the most brilliant discoveries of modern
times, in the decomposition of two fixed alkalies, which, in direct
refutation of the hypothesis previously adopted, were found to consist of
a peculiar metallic base united with a large quantity of oxygen. These
alkalies were potash and soda, and the metals thus discovered were called
potassium and sodium, Mr. Davy was equally successful in the application
of galvanism to the decomposition of the earths. About this time he
became Secretary of the Royal Society. In 1808, Mr. Davy received a prize
from the French Institute. During the greater part of 1810, he was
employed on the combinations of oxymuriatic gas and oxygen; and towards
the close of the same year, he delivered a course of lectures before the
Dublin Society, and received from Trinity College, Dublin, the honorary
degree of LL. D.

In the year 1812, Mr. Davy married his amiable lady, then Mrs. Apreece,
widow of Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece, Esq. and daughter and heiress of the
late Charles Kerr, of Kelso, Esq. By his union with this lady, Mr. Davy
acquired not only a considerable fortune, but the inestimable treasure of
an affectionate and exemplary wife, and a congenial friend and companion,
capable of appreciating his character and attainments. A few days
previously to his marriage, he received the honour of knighthood from his
Majesty, then Prince Regent, being the first person on whom he conferred
that dignity.

We now arrive at the most important result of Sir Humphry Davy's labours,