The Board of Agriculture in 1803 had commissioned Sir Humphry Davy to deliver a course of lectures on the connexion of chemistry with vegetable physiology.
By the market house is a statue of Sir Humphry Davy, who was born here in 1778.
Rouelle, while in England Humphry Davy expounded the same idea in the experimental demonstrations which gave his lectures their brilliant charm.
In 1806 Sir Humphry Davy proved that the formation of acid and alkali when water was electrolysed was due to saline impurities in the water.
He was elected interim president in June 1820, on the death of Sir Joseph Banks; but he did not care to enter into competition with Sir Humphry Davy, and the latter was elected president at the anniversary meeting in November 1820.