At Bristol Humphry Davy came into companionship with Coleridge and
Southey, who were then also at the outset of their career, and there are
poems of his in the Poetical Anthology then published by Southey. But at
the same time Davy contributed papers on "Heat, Light, and the
Combinations of Light," on "Phos-Oxygen and its Combinations," and on
"The Theory of Respiration," to a volume of West Country Collections,
that filled more than half the volume. He was experimenting then on
gases and on galvanism, and one day by experiment upon himself, in the
breathing of carburetted hydrogen, he almost put an end to his life.

In 1799 Count Rumford was founding the Royal Institution, and its home in
Albemarle Street was then bought for it. The first lecturer appointed
was in bad health, and in 1801 he was obliged to resign. Young Davy was
now known to men of science for the number and freshness of his
experiments, and for the substantial value of his chemical discoveries.
It was resolved by the managers, in July, 1801, that Humphry Davy be
appointed Assistant-Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the Chemical
Laboratory, and assistant-editor of the journals of the Royal
Institution. His first remuneration was a room in the house, coals and
candles, and 100 pounds a year. Count Rumford held out the prospect of a
professorship with 300 pounds a year, and the certainty of full support
in the use of the laboratory for his own private research. His age then
was twenty-three. He at once satisfied men of science and amused people
of fashion. His energy was unbounded; there was a fascination in his
personal character and manner. He was a genial and delightful lecturer,
and his inventive genius was continually finding something new. A first
suggestion of the process of photography was dropped incidentally among
the records of researches that attracted more attention. Davy had been
little more than a year at the Royal Institution when he was made its
Professor of Chemistry. After another year he was made a Fellow. Dr.