Humphry Davy its potential anaesthetic properties in relieving pain during surgery. Berzelius called Davy's 1806 Bakerian Lecture "On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity" "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry." Davy was a baronet, President of the Royal Society (PRS), Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), and Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS). He also invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He joked that his assistant Michael Faraday was his greatest discovery. Davy was born in Penzance, Cornwall in England on 17 December 1778. Davy's brother, John Davy, writes
Edmund Davy Marcellin Berthelot rediscovered this hydrocarbon compound in 1860, for which he coined the name "acetylene." Davy was active in promoting scientific knowledge, whereby popular courses of lectures were established throughout Ireland. In some of his own lectures at the Royal Dublin Society, Davy showed his special interest in the applications of chemistry in agriculture. He published several papers concerning manures and chemical aids useful to farmers. These included ""An Essay on the Use of Peat or Turf as a Means of Promoting Public Health and the Agriculture of the United Kingdom"" (1850), and ""An account of some Experiments made to