Humphry Davy to continental Europe alone.) Davy then published his "Elements of Chemical Philosophy, part 1, volume 1", though other parts of this title were never completed. He made notes for a second edition, but it was never required. In October 1813, he and his wife, accompanied by Michael Faraday as his scientific assistant (also treated as a valet), travelled to France to collect the second edition of the "prix du Galvanisme," a medal that Napoleon Bonaparte had awarded Davy for his electro-chemical work. Faraday noted that 'Tis indeed a strange venture at this time, to trust ourselves in a foreign and
Pneumatic Institution effects. Davy was to describe his work at the Institution in his "Researches, chemical and philosophical, chiefly concerning nitrous oxide, or dephlogisticated nitrous air, and its respiration" (London, Murray, 1800). This and other gases were administered, without charge, to willing subjects, particularly those with diseases considered to be incurable at the time. Although the initial aim had been to treat patients with tuberculosis, most of the patients treated suffered from some form of paralysis. James Watt supported the "Institution" because conventional methods had failed to help against his son's pulmonary tuberculosis (known as "consumption" at the time), which had previously