text: After Davys father died in 1794, Tonkin apprenticed him to John Bingham Borlase, a surgeon with a practice in Penzance. While becoming a chemist in the apothecarys dispensary, he began conducting his earliest experiments at home, much to the annoyance of his friends and family. His older sister, for instance, complained his corrosive substances were destroying her dresses, and at least one friend thought it likely the "incorrigible" Davy would eventually "blow us all into the air."
  In 1797, after he learnt French from a refuge priest, Davy read Lavoisiers Traité élémentaire de chimie. This exposure influenced much of his future work, which can be seen as reaction against Lavoisiers work and the dominance of French chemists.