Sir Humphrey Davy

• Humphry Davy was from Cornwall and studied at Cambridge, being both a poet and a scientist.
• Humphry Davy helped correct the proofs of groundbreaking Lyrical Ballads 1789 by Wordsworth and Coleridge as a young man.
• Humphry Davy was interested in various phenomena associated with galvanic action.
• Humphry Davy later lectured at The Royal Institution of London, becoming a professor of chemistry in 1802.
• Humphry Davy worked on chemical elements such as potassium, sodium, and chorine, and invented the miner's safety lamp.
• Mary Shelley was familiar with Professor Waldman's ideas of chemistry, likely having read Humphry Davy's introductory lecture to a course he gave in 1802 which was published as A Discourse, Introductory to a course of lectures on chemistry.
• Percy Shelley owned a copy of Humphry Davy's textbook Elements of Chemical Philosophy, which he and Mary likely studied together in the summer of 1816.
• Humphry Davy was an advocate of the importance of chemistry, playing a key part in manufacturing agriculture and other parts of life.
• Humphry Davy believed that chemistry had an enormous contribution to the welfare of humanity and the prosperity of society.
• Humphry Davy was also conscious of the negative aspects of the increase in human knowledge, believing that it was important for scientists to maintain respect in their approach to nature and to use knowledge responsibly for its wider benefits rather than for personal glorification.
• Victor Frankenstein consistently fails to meet this responsibility, failing to have respect, reverence, or responsibility for his creation, failing to consider anyone or anything other than his obsessive pursuits of knowledge, and his pride and ambition making him behave aggressively, presumptuous, disrespectful to nature, and dangerous.
• When creating the monster, Victor is so absorbed in the power and exercise that he doesn't consider the morality of his work or the consequences for himself, the creature, or the whole of society.