use immediately; the first lecture given in it was by Garnett in March 1800. Throughout its history, the Institution has supported public engagement with science through a programme of lectures, many of which continue today. The most famous of these are the annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, founded by Michael Faraday in 1825. Despite Garnett's first lectures being a great success, his salary was frozen, he was not allowed to practise as a doctor, and Humphry Davy was appointed as his assistant, so he resigned. Humphry Davy was an even greater success, as was his assistant and successor Michael Faraday. Davy's immediate successor was William Thomas Brande. Thus the Institution has had an instrumental role in the advancement of science since its founding. Notable scientists who have worked there include Sir Humphry Davy (who discovered sodium and potassium), Michael Faraday, James Dewar, Sir William Henry Bragg and Sir William Lawrence Bragg (winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on x-ray diffraction), Max Perutz, John Kendrew, Antony Hewish, and George Porter. In the 19th century, Faraday at the Royal Institution carried out much of the research which laid the groundwork for the practical exploitation of electricity. In total fifteen scientists attached to the Royal Institution have won Nobel Prizes. Ten chemical elements including sodium were discovered there; the electric generator was devised at the Institution, and much of the early work on the atomic structure of crystals was carried out within it. Nobel laureates John William Strutt [Lord Rayleigh) (1842–1919): Physics 1904 with William Ramsay for the discovery of argon Joseph John Thomson (1856–1940): Physics 1906 for studies of electrical connection through gases Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937): Chemistry 1908 for work on the chemistry of radioactive substances and the disintegration of the elements William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971): Physics 1915 joint with WH Bragg, for determining the molecular structure of crystals using x-rays William Henry Bragg (1862–1942): Physics 1915 joint with WL Bragg, for determining the molecular structure of crystals using x-rays Charles Scott Sherrington (1857–1952): Medicine 1932 shared with Edgar Adrian, for his discovery of the function of neurons Henry Hallett Dale (1875–1968): Medicine 1936 joint with Otto Loewi, for their work on the chemical transmission of nerve impulses Peter Brian Medawar (1915–1987): Medicine 1960 for his work on making permanent skin grafts John Cowdery Kendrew (1917–1997): Chemistry 1962 with Perutz, for determining the structures of haemoglobin and myoglobin