Sir Humphrey Davy and his Visit to Paris

First published in The Examiner, VI, 24 October 1813, pp. 673–5. The distinguished chemist and natural philosopher Humphry Davy had achieved knighthood and international renown by 1813. His presence was much in demand among the continental scientific community, and Napoleon, who had sponsored a scientific prize bestowed upon Davy by the Institute of France in 1807 now granted him permission to travel on the continent. Meeting with the most eminent scientists in Europe, Davy also visited Napoleon in Paris. Hunt’s essay on this occasion extends his ongoing commentary of 1813 on the relationship, sometimes insidious and always volatile, between intellectual endeavour and politics. See headnote above, pp. 269–70.