\ 
 
THE 
 
 WORTHIES 
 
 OF 
 
 CUMBERLAND 
 
 JOHN D ALTON, F.R.S. 
 
 Member of the French Institute ; 
 
 Hon. D.C.L. Oxon.; LL.D. Edin. ; 
 
 President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY LONSDALE, M.D. 
 
 0. . (A. 
 
 LONDON: 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, 
 
 THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE. 
 1874. 
 
To 
 HENRY E. ROSCOE, B.A., 
 
 Ph.D., F.K.S. 
 Professor of Chemistry in Owens' College, Manchester 
 
 t's inscribed) 
 
 with the sincere good wishes of his Friend 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 |HE centenary of Dr John Dalton's birth was 
 commemorated at Carlisle on September 
 5, 1866, by a public dinner, at which gentle- 
 men from all parts of the country assem- 
 bled. The proceedings of the meeting were reported 
 in the Manchester Guardian and Carlisle Journal. 
 In the absence of one more worthy of the post, I 
 occupied the chair, and was further honoured by a 
 request to enlarge my extempore biographical sketch 
 of Dalton, and to publish it as a brief memoir. 
 More mature consideration showed that the history 
 of the Founder of the Atomic Theory could not be 
 embraced in less than a volume ; and that it would be 
 well to wait the issue of the Lives of John Christian 
 Curwen, William Blamire, and Sir James Graham, the 
 first of the series of " Cumberland Worthies." The 
 delay that has arisen since that period has not been 
 owing to any lukewarmness on my part in the cause 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 of science, but rather to my being too deeply engaged 
 in the historical department of the Biological Sciences, 
 of which some proof is afforded in my Biographies of 
 Professor Goodsir and Dr Robert Knox, the highly 
 distinguished Scottish anatomists. 
 
 As one of the promoters of the Cavendish Society, 
 London, I was glad the Society entrusted the Life of 
 Dr Dalton to his able pupil and literary executor, 
 Dr William Charles Henry, F.R.S., than whom no one 
 was better fitted for the task. Seven years previous 
 to the issue of Dr Henry's valuable Memoir, I had 
 commenced inquiries regarding Dalton's family rela- 
 tions and his earlier years ; and owing to my plea- 
 sant intimacy with the leading members of the 
 " Society of Friends " in Cumberland, every facility 
 was afforded me for obtaining information regarding 
 his personal history and character. The centenary 
 had passed, and my plan of this Memoir sketched 
 out, before I was aware, through the kindness of my 
 estimable friend Mr Edmund Potter, F.R.S., formerly 
 M.P. for Carlisle, of the excellent Life of Dalton, 
 written by Dr Robert Angus Smith for the Literary 
 and Philosophical Society of Manchester. Both 
 these Biographies are admirable and conclusive as 
 to Dr Dalton's original work and grand services to 
 chemistry. No one can follow these faithful historians 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 without deriving advantage, and here I beg grate- 
 fully to acknowledge my indebtedness to them both. 
 They wrote for the scientific public ; my effort is a 
 much humbler one, aiming more or less to satisfy the 
 wants of a quasi-popular or less instructed class of 
 readers. The science that Dalton taught has not, 
 however, been lightly passed over in the following 
 pages, but rather epitomised and offered, as far as 
 circumstances permit, in a form comprehensive to 
 all persons of average intelligence. 
 
 Favoured by a number of letters of Dalton's, and 
 much original information hitherto unpublished, I am 
 enabled to present my readers with a more correct 
 personal history of the famous chemical philosopher 
 than has yet appeared in print. 
 
 Among those with whom I had repeated conversa- 
 tions on Dalton's history may be mentioned my late 
 worthy friends Jonathan and Jane Carr of Carlisle, 
 who were pupils of the Daltons at Kendal, and had 
 a lively recollection of the junior schoolmaster; my 
 charming and joyous-hearted friend Mary Sutton, 
 who thoroughly appreciated the chemical philosopher; 
 and the estimable Mr John Wilson Fletcher of Tarn 
 Bank, near Cockermouth, with whom Dalton invari- 
 ably spent an evening on all his visits to Cumberland. 
 Many more, especially members of the Society of 
 
x Preface. 
 
 Friends, who aided me, have passed the bourne that 
 allows of no grateful recognition. Others, happily, 
 live, to whom I can offer my cordial thanks namely, 
 my constant friends Isaac Fletcher, M.P., F.R.S., and 
 William Fletcher, Esq. of Brigham Hill, for valuable 
 documents; Henry A. Fletcher, Esq. of Lowca 
 Works; Wm. B. Clarke, Esq. of Barwickstead ; and 
 Edward Waugh, Esq. of Cockermouth, for aiding 
 me in my inquiries : to my dear friend Mrs Henry 
 Wigham of Dublin I am indebted for Dalton's cor- 
 respondence with Elihu Robinson ; whilst the letters 
 that passed between Dalton and Joseph Dickinson 
 on colour-blindness came from the valuable repertory 
 of Cumbrian literature of my friend Mr William 
 Jackson of Fleatham House, St Bees. 
 
 I was greatly helped in my inquiries at Manchester 
 by my esteemed friend Professor Roscoe, and to 
 Mr G. S. Woolley I am indebted for a perusal of his 
 father's essay, and Dalton's correspondence with the 
 Johns family. 
 
 In looking over the history of the Atomic Theory 
 and the opinions of authors, among whom Professor 
 Daubeny stands foremost, I cannot help recalling the 
 eloquent mode in which my Edinburgh associate, and 
 truly a man of genius, Dr Samuel Brown, treated this 
 subject in a series of lectures, which were, after his 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 death, published in two 8vo volumes by Thomas 
 Constable & Co., under the title " Lectures on the 
 Atomic Theory, and Essays Scientific and Literary, 
 by Samuel Brown." 
 
 The portrait of Dalton in the frontispiece, and 
 described in page 225 of this Memoir, has been 
 faithfully lithographed by Vincent Brooks, Day, and 
 Son, London. The autograph beneath the portrait 
 was copied from a certificate of Dalton's, written 
 about his sixty-third year. 
 
 ROSE HILL, CARLISLE. 
 July 20, 1874. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ..... I 
 
 II. GEORGE FOX IN CUMBERLAND EAGLESFIELD JOHN DAL- 
 TON'S ANCESTORS HIS BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND 
 FRIENDS SCHOOLMASTER AND PLOUGHMAN ADIEU 
 TO HOME . . . . . .22 
 
 III. KENDAL SCHOOL AND SOCIAL LIFE LECTURES ON NATURAL 
 
 PHILOSOPHY MR COUGH'S FRIENDSHIP CONTRI- 
 BUTION TO "THE DIARIES " INVESTIGATIONS OF 
 ENGLISH SURNAMES . . . -44 
 
 IV. NATURAL HISTORY PURSUITS METEOROLOGICAL LABOURS 
 
 AND CORRESPONDENCE BOTANY ENTOMOLOGY 
 STUDY OF MAN AND THAT OF MEDICINE CONTEM- 
 PLATED HIS FATHER'S WILL IN DISPUTE, AND NOVEL 
 
 ARBITRATION LEAVES KENDAL FOR MANCHESTER . 6 1 
 
 V. NEW COLLEGE OF MANCHESTER "METEOROLOGICAL 
 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS" THE ATMOSPHERE 
 EVAPORATION AURORA BOREALIS JOINS THE LITER- 
 ARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER 
 CORRESPONDENCE . . . . . So 
 
 vi. ON DALTON'S COLOUR-BLINDNESS . . . - 99 
 
 VII. HIS IDEAS ON QUAKER- WORSHIP THE HANDSOME WIDOW 
 AND LOVABLE SPINSTER POETICAL EFFORT ESSAYS 
 ON THE QUANTITY OF RAIN AND DEW ON THE 
 
xiv Contents. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 POWER OF FLUIDS TO CONDUCT HEAT MAXIMUM 
 DENSITY OF WATER THE SECRETARYSHIP OF THE 
 LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY ESSAYS ON 
 HEAT AND COLD PRODUCED BY CONDENSATION AND 
 RAREFACTION OF AIR CONSTITUTION OF MIXED 
 GASES FORCE OF STEAM EVAPORATION EXPAN- 
 SION OF GASES BY HEAT . . , . 126 
 
 VIII. ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR AN EXCURSION 
 ' VARIETY OF CORRESPONDENCE GRAMMAR AND 
 PUPILS THE ATMOSPHERE FIRST INDICATIONS OF 
 MULTIPLE PROPORTION ELASTIC FLUIDS ABSORP- 
 TION OF GASES ATOMIC WEIGHTS AND INDEX TO 
 ATOMIC THEORY . . . .' .143 
 
 IX. A SKETCH OF THE ATOMIC THEORY FROM THALES TO SIR 
 
 ISAAC NEWTON . . . . . l6l 
 
 X. THE ATOMIC THEORY FROM SIR ISAAC NEWTON TO JOHN 
 
 DALTON . . . . . . l8l 
 
 XI. JOHN DALTON ESTABLISHES THE ATOMIC THEORY . 2OI 
 
 XII. PORTRAITURE SOCIAL HABITS TEACHING AND ITS RE- 
 WARDS LECTURES AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 
 LONDON HIS RESIDENCE HIS RETICENCE ON PUBLIC 
 AFFAIRS LECTURES IN EDINBURGH, GLASGOW, AND 
 LONDON HIS CORRESPONDENCE ON A VARIETY OF 
 TOPICS . . . . . . 223 
 
 XIII. VISIT FROM M. PELLETAN DALTON'S APPARATUS 
 CHEMICAL PROGRESS GAY LUSSAC'S LAW OF COM- 
 BINATION BY VOLUME DALTON'S OBSTINACY ROYAL 
 
 SOCIETY NEW SYSTEM OF CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY- 
 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES POLAR EXPEDITION VISITS 
 PARIS UNDER HAPPY AUSPICES . . . 245 
 
 xiv. DR DALTON'S HOLIDAYS MEMBER OF THE FRENCH INSTI- 
 TUTE D.C.L. HIS CLAIMS TO A PENSION OPINIONS 
 OF DRS HENRY AND SEDGWICK ON THE SUBJECT 
 
Contents. xv 
 
 CHAP. PACK 
 
 COURT PRESENTATION REFUSES KNIGHTHOOD 
 
 ILLNESS VISITS TO EAGLESFIELD DEATH AND 
 FUNERAL OF DALTON ..... 26$ 
 
 xv. BONAPARTE'S LOVE OF SCIENCE OPINIONS OF THOMSON, 
 
 WOLLASTON, HERSCHEL, GRAHAM, BERZELIUS, FARA- 
 DAY, LIEBIG, ROSCOE, CANNIZZARO, TYNDALL, DUMAS 
 AND WURTZ ON THE ATOMIC THEORY . . . 289 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 JOHN DALTON'S STATEMENT OF THE CASE IN THE AFFAIR 
 BETWIXT HIS BROTHER AND SELF . . . .$01 
 
 LIST OF DR DALTON'S ESSAYS AND WORKS . . . 309 
 
 ATOMIC SYMBOLS ....... 321 
 
ERRATUM. 
 
 Page 32, 1 3th line, for "Sep. 6," read " Sep. 5." 
 
JOHN DALTON. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 " Now the true and genuine end of the sciences is no other than to 
 enrich human life with new inventions and new powers. . . . 
 Fruits and discoveries of works are as the vouchers and securities for 
 the truth of philosophies? LORD BACON. 
 
 |IGHT, more light !" was the last utterance 
 of Goethe the poet, playwright, and philo- 
 sopher. Emanating with the lightning 
 before death, these words were looked 
 upon by the friends and disciples of the renowned 
 German, as the breathings of the oracular spirit, or 
 " primitive divination," that Lord Bacon assigned to 
 men of philosophic genius in the hour of their de- 
 parture for the unknown bourne. More light is the 
 chief desideratum in the world of thought, as it is 
 the guide and aim of all who strive after the good, 
 the beautiful, and the useful ; but of the multitude 
 of workers so disposed, how incomparably few can 
 expect to realise the height attained by Goethe, a 
 great master in art, the founder of German literature, 
 and early promoter of transcendental anatomy. 
 
 A 
 
2 John Dalton. 
 
 Light traverses space with measured yet almost 
 inconceivable rapidity, and reveals countless orbs and 
 a countless time ; but the light of ideas, brought to 
 bear upon the interpretation of nature, is but gradatory 
 and fitful in its manifestations, and ever dependent 
 on the happy genesis or moulding of a human being 
 endowed with " the vision and the faculty divine." 
 When this psychological light comes vividly forth in 
 such instances as Da Vinci, Galileo, Harvey, and 
 Newton, it gives rise to new and nobler develop- 
 ments of human thought, and furnishes permanent 
 landmarks in the historical path of science and 
 philosophy. 
 
 As chemistry treats of the nature and composition 
 of bodies, its study might have been held of para- 
 mount value and attractiveness, as furthering the 
 interests of man in all his advances to material en- 
 joyment and civilisation. Its interest, however, does 
 not seem to have been commensurate with the atten- 
 tion bestowed upon the physical sciences, the laws of 
 which were in part indicated by Ptolemy, and after a 
 long halt by Copernicus, and subsequently so nobly 
 interpreted by the labours of Galileo, Kepler, and 
 Newton. Yet the crude arts of chemistry may be 
 recognised as coeval with the earliest of all human 
 inventions ; indeed, every effort to rise above the 
 essential wants of bodily sustenance, and even to aid 
 in that primary step of life, would necessarily call 
 forth the ingenuity of man, seeking to convert the 
 organic growth and inorganic substances of the earth 
 to the increasing of his resources, and the bettering of 
 his physical condition. 
 
 Enraptured in belief, and not less prone to the wild- 
 
A Ichemy and the Occult A rts. 3 
 
 est of superstitions, the nations of antiquity traced 
 their origin to demigods, prophets, and heroes of the 
 superhuman sort, and to make their pretensions to 
 science consonant with the fabulous character of their 
 history, gave large attention to those dark-age mys- 
 teries, astrology and alchemy. The former pursuit 
 (astrology) evoked divination and protean prophecies; 
 the latter (alchemy) dealt largely in mystic arts, 
 from which, after the lapse of centuries, arose tan- 
 gible data, constituting important accessories to a real 
 science, that of chemistry itself. 
 
 A few words on the rise of alchemy, " the sacred and 
 divine art of making gold and silver," may serve as 
 an introduction to the modern science of chemistry, 
 of which John Dalton became the Grand-Master in 
 these latter days of European history. The origin of 
 alchemy is involved in doubt, but the curious in such 
 matters will find the genii of the East, as well as 
 angels and women, credited with a part in the esoteric 
 dogma, upon which probably more arts than that 
 of alchemy were based. The prefix al, in alchemy, 
 is clearly Arabian, possibly invented by the fol- 
 lowers of the occult art, to distinguish the doctrine of 
 transmutation from the chemia that embraced only 
 simple chemical operations in other words, that 
 of vulgar chemistry as disjoined from "the divine 
 art." 
 
 In all his attempts to unravel the web of history, 
 man looks to the East for the growth and collateral 
 bearings of his civilisation, and, in endeavouring to 
 fathom the impenetrable problem of his own genesis, 
 and the gradatory lines of his intellectual and moral 
 development, is led to consider the arts, acquirements, 
 
4 John Dalton. 
 
 and erudition of the people who occupied the banks 
 of the Nile many thousand years ago. In this (Nile) 
 valley of sunny sky and pure ether of lands rich in 
 cereal and saccharine growth man's physical wants 
 were easily sustained, thereby affording him freer 
 scope for the exercise of his understanding and the 
 culture of his genius. No one possessing the oppor- 
 tunity of traversing the land of the Pharaohs can fail 
 to observe that the Egyptians who lived in the palmy 
 days of Luxor and Thebes upwards of 3000 years 
 before the -Christian era showed an acquaintance 
 with the chemistry of the arts far beyond the general 
 supposition of modern writers. The Egyptian sepa- 
 rated metals from their ores, and practised the arts of 
 metallurgy with manifest success ; he quarried massive 
 monoliths from the syenite of Assouan, and carved the 
 finest lines on the hardest of granitic structures ; he 
 fabricated gold and silver, and jewelled ornaments to 
 deck his person, already beautified by cosmetics and 
 fragrant with essential oils ; he wove his linen and 
 woollen stuffs, then bleached and dyed them ; and 
 pursuing his chemical operations beyond our know- 
 ledge and discovery, adorned his temples and tombs 
 with frescoes of matchless colours and unfading 
 splendour ; and lastly, and not least significantly of 
 his chemical skill, embalmed his dead for historic 
 contemplation and wonder, if not for the houris and 
 joys of the everlasting Hades. 
 
 The Hindoos, who in their vast temples sought to 
 do honour to the gods, and in pertaining to a know- 
 ledge of the cosmic atoms, to teach the general cos- 
 mogony; and the Chinese, rejoicing in quaint edifices 
 and quainter attire, that borrowed astronomical em- 
 
Chemistry of the Eastern Nations. 5 
 
 blems for their faith and the propitiation of their 
 deities, were equally alive to the arts of chemistry in 
 their reduction of metallic ores, in the processes of 
 dyeing, the fabrication of paper, earthenware, several 
 salts, and possibly gunpowder itself. Chronologically 
 or not, it is difficult to say, but the Phoenicians, wel- 
 comed for their higher arts by King Solomon, and 
 ready to offer the inimitable purples of Tyre to the 
 populations on both sides of the Mediterranean nay, 
 not content with the intercourse of the Great Sea, 
 navigated their way through the Pillars of Hercules 
 to the Ultima Thule of the geographical world of that 
 day, and made their metallurgical zeal accessory to 
 the exploration of Britain itself. In the plastic and 
 pictorial arts, in bronze statuary and diverse artistic 
 methods, the Etruscans proved their aptitude in 
 chemistry as well as technology. In short, all the 
 historical groupings or nations of antiquity left 
 legacies to the world of their manipulative skill, 
 blended with the practice of chemical arts, occasion- 
 ally, indeed, displaying a degree of excellence in their 
 workmanship that has not as yet been surpassed by 
 modern operators. 
 
 The last breath of the love-inspiring Cleopatra 
 marked the last flicker of the once glorious Egyptian 
 lamp. Then came Caesarism, that sought to carve 
 Roman fame in every land, even at the cost of a 
 ruthless destruction of the archives of the Pharaohs 
 an act of Vandalism on the part of Diocletian that 
 future ages can never forget* 
 
 * Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap, 
 xiii., attempts to vindicate Diocletian's destruction of the "Ancient 
 Books" of the Egyptians, on the ground of their containing but "mag- 
 
6 John Dalton. 
 
 Before an adverse fate had laid Egypt at the feet of 
 the " Mistress of the World," classic Greece had come 
 to the front with a freshness and radiance that almost 
 shadowed the illustrious renown of the mighty em- 
 pires of the East. Its people, as if favoured by the 
 gods, presented a noble physique and a still nobler 
 emulation. They won the esteem of the neighbour- 
 ing nations by their mental character and vigorous 
 defence of liberty ; they enlightened mankind by 
 their ethics and philosophic culture, and left most 
 precious proofs of their architectural skill and sculp- 
 torial arts, unquestionably the grandest achievements 
 of inspired art ever presented to the gaze and open 
 admiration of man. The historical Greeks were truly 
 men of ideas and vast conception, able to embody 
 natural phenomena into universals and generalities 
 in appropriate symbols. If more disposed to hazard 
 theoretic views on the cosmogony than to test 
 their opinions by methods of induction, and more 
 given to abstract and metaphysical studies than to 
 the painstaking efforts demanded in physical re- 
 search, their penetrative eyes could not overlook 
 the more obvious claims of chemistry, were it only 
 for the aid it offered them in the arts of war and 
 
 nificent pretensions " to the making of gold and silver and other 
 indications of " mischievous pursuits." Surely the Alexandrian Library, 
 with all its rare manuscripts and recondite lore, setting forth the arts 
 and discoveries of one of the oldest dynasties of the world, older than 
 those of Biblical history, was worthy of preservation. The Romans, 
 in all their greatness, could not vie with the Egyptians in the higher 
 branches of human knowledge ; nay, more, after eighteen centuries of 
 Christian life, experience, and enlightenment, the European has failed 
 to reach the eminence attained by the Nilotic races in some depart- 
 ments of mechanics and chemistry. 
 
The Higher Minds of Greece. 7 
 
 peace, and not less as a source of gratification to 
 their aesthetic tastes displayed in the colouring of 
 their statuary, and the decoration of their magnificent 
 temples. 
 
 The higher minds of Greece excepting the learned 
 author of the " Historia Animalium " tended more 
 generally to philosophy than science, and, it may 
 be supposed, saw but dimly into the chambers of 
 chemistry. In a subsequent chapter, treating of the 
 atomic theory, it will be shown that the Greeks 
 revelled in hypothesis, apparently less partial towards 
 the experimental basis of the statics of chemistry 
 than the natural history of atoms, upon which 
 problematic formation they could found endless 
 speculations and doctrines. Now and then they came 
 across chemical phenomena without recognising their 
 import. Thus Empedocles, on burning wood upon 
 the surface of a cold body, observed during the 
 process smoke or air, followed by flame or fire ; then 
 moisture or water deposited on the cold substance, 
 whilst ash or earth remained : so the wood had been 
 resolved into its co-efficients or elements fire, air, 
 water, and earth. Though the aims of Empedocles 
 were to illustrate his cosmic ideas, he had made a 
 true chemical experiment, and so far offered an 
 explanation of the results obtained. This was the 
 first instance of the art of analysis, with a view to 
 discover the ingredients of which matter was com- 
 posed, and the doctrine formed upon it the first 
 starting-point of chemistry in history. Further in- 
 quiry might have led to beneficial purpose ; but the 
 Greek, somewhat hasty in his generalisations, invested 
 the four elements with universal application, and, 
 
8 John Dalton. 
 
 what was worse, indoctrinated the world of thought 
 with the same dogma and unwise limitation. 
 
 The military prowess of the Romans not only 
 insured them dominion over the sea board territories 
 of the Mediterranean that " Great Sea " upon whose 
 shores the grandest drama of human history has been 
 played by the greatest actors on the world's stage, a 
 drama revealing in its many acts the formation of 
 political institutions, and the antagonistic forces of 
 race, the rise of republics, the downfall of empires, and 
 all those organic critical periods in the natural order of 
 human progress in which Polytheism or Monotheism, 
 Christianity or Rationalism have alternately claimed 
 jurisdiction and power over the thoughts of mankind 
 but extended far beyond all previously ascertained 
 geographical bounds. The Roman of the Augus- 
 tan age, might well boast that he could march with 
 safety under the protective aegis of his citizenship 
 through Caledonia "stern and wild," or take his 
 siesta amid the glowing charms and sunny favours 
 of Ma-n v -lak. All the arts and sciences all govern- 
 ments, records, and beliefs all traditions and customs 
 were marshalled ; nay, all history, was culled and 
 digested on behoof of Imperial Rome. This concen- 
 tration of the intellectual forces and industrial arts, 
 tending to man's cultured aims, should have been 
 productive of great advantage not only to the Roman 
 people, but to the world at large. Such proba- 
 bilities, however, were not realised ; for whilst fully 
 appreciating the eloquent outpourings of Lucretius 
 and Cicero on the cosmic atoms, and their vivid 
 resuscitation of the Greek philosophy, it is doubtful 
 if the Romans, the most practical people of the 
 
The Romans and A rabians. 9 
 
 world, threw any light upon the real aims and opera- 
 tions of chemistry. The pages of Celsus, Dioscorides, 
 and Galen afford proofs of an ample Materia Medica 
 in the hands of the Roman physicians, including the 
 more important metals and their compounds, saline 
 substances, and animal and vegetable products ; and 
 thirty years ago the archaeological researches of 
 my lamented and accomplished friend, Sir J. Y. 
 Simpson, fully set forth the fact of the Romans in 
 Britain being conversant with ophthalmic surgery, 
 and the treatment that rested on chemical agencies. 
 Unfortunately, nearly all the knowledge that had 
 been gathered of the chemical arts in the days 
 of Rome's highest ambition got scattered to the 
 winds in her decline and fall. Sic transit gloria 
 mnndi. 
 
 In this faint sketch of the progress of chemistry, it 
 is needful to pass over the polypharmists of Arabia, 
 eg. t Rhazes, of 2covolume fame and marvellous 
 erudition; Alfarabius, courted for his wisdom by 
 caliphs, and still credited as the first of cyclope- 
 dists ; and Avicenna, the prince of physicians, who 
 got glimpses of a true chemistry amid his alche- 
 mical pursuits. Then we come to Albertus Magnus, 
 the distinguished European of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury a truly great man, of whom it was correctly 
 written : " Magnus in magia naturali, major in 
 philosophia, maximus in tkeologia" Albertus saw 
 beyond the vista of Avicenna ; nay, traced chemical 
 affinity, and employed the word in its precise sense, 
 as designating the combinations of bodies, and the 
 effects of nitric acid as a solvent. His pupil, the 
 " angelic doctor," Saint Thomas Aquinas, lagged 
 
10 John Dalton. 
 
 not far behind, and among many discoveries, saw 
 the nature of an amalgam. Then arose our country- 
 man, Roger Bacon, known as a monk, and often 
 named a magician ; yet the latter epithet he dis- 
 claimed, and tried to contravene by his treatise " De 
 Nullitate Magiae." His "Opus Majus" proved his 
 recognition of the experimental method of investi- 
 gating natural bodies. Raymond Lulli, pupil or not, 
 followed Roger Bacon's footsteps, without, however, 
 abandoning the hope of finding the philosopher's 
 stone ; nay, he is credited with having possessed it, 
 and of having filled the coffers of his liege lord, the 
 king of England, by his manipulations in the labora- 
 tory erected in Westminster Abbey. Towards the 
 close of the following or fourteenth century, Basil 
 Valentine of Erfurth appeared with his quaint sym- 
 bolical designs of alchemical processes, and not with- 
 out knowledge of many metallic compounds and the 
 stronger acids, and various chemical operations and 
 reactions. 
 
 The alchemistry of the Middle Ages offered large 
 field for chicanery and charlatanism. There was the 
 alluring search for the philosopher's stone, to trans- 
 mute the baser metals into gold, and the universal 
 elixir, to cure all the ills of the flesh, thereby confer- 
 ring immortality 1 on man a grand consummation 
 devoutly to be wished. Yet these alchemists were 
 men of acuteness, and persevering inquirers into the 
 mysteries of nature; their independent labours 
 helped to pave the way to a fuller and better know- 
 ledge of the art, and ought to be held in grateful 
 remembrance by mankind. Paracelsus thus wrote of 
 his brethren : " They are not given to idleness, nor 
 
The A Ichem ists. 1 1 
 
 go in a proud habit, or plush and velvet garments, but 
 diligently follow their labours, sweating whole days 
 and nights by their furnaces.* They wear leather 
 garments with a pouch, and an apron wherewith they 
 wipe their hands. They put their fingers amongst 
 coals, into clay and filth, not into gold rings. They 
 are sooty and black, like smiths and colliers, and 
 do not pride themselves upon clean and beautiful 
 faces." 
 
 Whilst empiricism and mystic arts clouded the 
 operations of too many of the brethren, there were 
 notable exceptions to be found among these pioneers 
 to a higher science, of whom Friar Bacon was a 
 notable example ; and his namesake, the Lord Chan- 
 cellor of England, four centuries later suggested the 
 method of interrogating nature by observation and 
 experiment ; and in the practice of these true modes 
 of investigation, there in time arose from the furnaces 
 and alembics a new philosophy that confounded all 
 the reasoning of the ancients. 
 
 Putting aside Hermes Trismegistus, " the doctor 
 of three parts of the wisdom of the world," also the 
 Egyptian and scriptural authorities, the esoteric 
 angels with naughty longings for Eve's fair daughters, 
 
 * The alchemist's laboratory comes down to us as "a gloomy, dimly 
 lighted place, full of strange vessels and furnaces and melting-pots, 
 spheres, and portions of skeletons hanging from the ceiling ; the stone 
 floor littered with stone bottles, pans, charcoal, aludels and alembics, 
 great parchment books covered with hieroglyphics ; the bellows with its 
 motto Spira, Spera, the hourglass, the astrolabe, and over all cobwebs 
 and dust and ashes. The walls covered with various aphorisms of the 
 brotherhood, legends and memorials in many tongues, passages from 
 the Smaragdine Table of Hermes Trismegistus, and looming out from 
 all in great capitals ANAI7KH." ("Birth of Chemistry," A 7 ature t 
 March 20, 1873). 
 
12 John Dalton. 
 
 Maria the Jewess, and other mythological entities, it 
 may in part be confessed with Monsieur Dumas, the 
 French chemist of our day, that "practical chemistry 
 took its rise in the workshops of the smith, the potter, 
 or the glass-blower, and in the shops of the per- 
 fumer, the first elements of scientific chemistry dat- 
 ing no further back than yesterday." 
 
 To the Hon. Robert Boyle, the first President of 
 the Royal Society of London, the science of chemistry 
 owes no small amount of obligation. He entered his 
 protest against alchemistry, and raised valid objec- 
 tions to the introduction of morals and politics into 
 philosophy. His experimental inquiries have ranked 
 him among the first of the true chemists. He saw that 
 metals increased in weight when calcined in the air, 
 as had been surmised in the year 1630, by Rey of 
 Perigord, and was cognisant of the air containing a 
 principle which is consumed during respiration and 
 combustion. Dr John Mayow, of Oxford, was a 
 worthy contemporary of Boyle's, and had definite 
 notions as to the combination of acids and alkalis; 
 they and the inventive Robert Hooke, who was more 
 of a philosopher than a chemist, contributed several 
 papers to the Royal Society, the character of which 
 rests mainly on the observation and the description 
 of what has been called the qualitative side of phe- 
 nomena, yet not without real value in building up 
 the science. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton was more or less an alchemist, 
 who spent days and nights in trying to discover the 
 secret by which grosser metals might be changed into 
 the more refined of gold or silver; but he failed, like 
 the more ancient brethren in the art. His hypo- 
 
Van Helmont, Stahl, and Lavoisier. 13 
 
 thetical and grandly deductive investigations found 
 their real place and value in the walks of Natural 
 Philosophy : all his tentative experiments in chemis- 
 try were but haphazard guesses recorded in his 
 celebrated " Queries." 
 
 Among others of real note was Van Helmont, the 
 mystic Belgian and psychologist, who helped to 
 develop pneumatic chemistry by observing the pro- 
 perties of several elastic fluids, and who also described 
 some of the qualities of the carbonic acid gas in the 
 Grotto del Cane near Pozzuoli. But the most con- 
 spicuous and able man of his time was Stahl, of 
 Anspach, who propounded his phlogiston theory in 
 1697, possibly borrowed in part from Albertus 
 Magnus, a theory that took well with the culti- 
 vators of chemistry early in the following century, 
 and retained its grasp for upwards of a hundred 
 years, checking in part the thoughts of Black, Caven- 
 dish, and Priestley, and for a time at least modifying 
 the larger views of Lavoisier, and thus proving how 
 tenaciously a doctrine once established will hold its 
 own against the innovations of modern and more 
 correct science. 
 
 The eighteenth century, that ushered in Stahl's 
 theory with such force, happily provided chemistry 
 with some of its most renowned cultivators and dis- 
 coverers, notably Lavoisier, whose powers of gene- 
 ralisation cast the balance against the doctrines of 
 combustion propounded by the learned Professor of 
 Halle, and opened out fresh fields of inquiry of large 
 interest and importance. 
 
 The Stahlian theory of phlogiston did service in its 
 way, in laying hold of a common principle in facts 
 
14 John Dal ton. 
 
 more or less analogous, e.g., those of combustion, 
 calcination, and acidification, though it erred in attri- 
 buting these processes to the dissipation of a peculiar 
 ingredient. The new theory advanced by Lavoisier 
 excluded the analogies, and offered an explanation 
 more conformably to their nature, in the addition of 
 the pervading element oxygen. This was the turning 
 over of another page in chemical history, upon which 
 was inscribed the freshest interest. 
 
 Chemistry was manifestly in the ascendant through- 
 out the eighteenth century, and among the leaders 
 of the science were Scheele, Black, Cavendish, Priest- 
 ley, and Lavoisier ; others of close secondary rank 
 were Boerhaave, Bergman, Watt, Wenzel, Richter, 
 and Higgins. A few words on some of the chiefs may 
 be offered here, whilst a passing remark is due to 
 Benjamin Franklin, the printer, for his revealing a 
 new phase of electricity that excited the attention of 
 the philosophic intellects of the world. 
 
 Charles William Scheele, the Swede, and pupil 
 of Bergman, was an able analyst, who proved the 
 character of several salts and gases, notably oxygen, 
 without being aware of Priestley's earlier knowledge 
 of the qualities of the gas. He discovered arseniate 
 of copper, known as a pigment under the name of 
 Scheele's green, and also succeeded in obtaining for 
 the first time the active poison prussic acid in a sepa- 
 rate form. Scheele justly ranks with his countrymen 
 Linnaeus and Berzelius, and the three constitute a tri- 
 nity of eminence, in their respective walks, of whom 
 the greatest nation in Europe might well be proud. 
 
 The investigations of Dr Joseph Black of Edinburgh, 
 as early as the year 1754, on the difference between 
 
Blacky Watty and Cavendish. 1 5 
 
 mild and caustic alkalis, have been regarded as the 
 inauguration of the quantitative method in chemis- 
 try, and the first instance in which the nature of 
 chemical combination and decomposition was clearly 
 pointed out. These ideas were afterwards extended 
 by Lavoisier to the whole range of chemical pheno- 
 mena. About the year 1760 Black evolved the 
 theory of latent heat, on which his scientific fame 
 mainly rests, a theory from the practical application 
 of which his pupil and assistant, James Watt, ob- 
 tained a great success in his own line, the chemico- 
 dynamical so great indeed, that it has revolutionised 
 the mechanical powers of the world, and added a 
 thousandfold to man's enterprise and superiority. 
 
 The most renowned man in science yet born to 
 the aristocracy of England was the Hon. Henry 
 Cavendish, nephew to the third Duke of Devonshire. 
 He was educated at Cambridge, and devoted his 
 whole life to scientific investigations ; nay, shunning 
 society and women, and all the pomps and vanities 
 of the world, till philosophy marked him for her own. 1 
 To him we owe much of the foundation of pneumatic 
 chemistry. His discovery of hydrogen, and the radi- 
 cal difference between it and nitrogen, led to projects 
 for aerial navigation or ballooning. He ascertained 
 the composition of water from the union of two gases 
 oxygen and hydrogen a discovery of greater im- 
 portance than any single fact yet arrived at by human 
 ingenuity in the whole range of chemistry. He con- 
 tributed to the Royal Society of London many papers 
 on electricity, astronomy, and historical subjects. 
 All his experiments and processes were of a most 
 finished nature, displaying an accuracy and beauty 
 
1 6 John Dalton. 
 
 that had never been equalled. He had but one ser- 
 vant, and lived the life of a recluse. His science 
 was his mistress and delight ; yet he was the largest 
 holder of bank stock in England, probably to the 
 extent of a million, besides a landed estate of ^"6000 
 a year and tens of thousands at his bankers ! 
 
 If Henry Cavendish's walk was confined to his 
 own laboratory and the meetings of the Royal Society, 
 Dr Joseph Priestley was one of the most conspicuous 
 men of his epoch, and as bold and fearless in politics 
 and theology as he was broad and successful in 
 science. He discovered oxygen, and contributed 
 largely to our knowledge of electricity, and vision, 
 light, and colour, and would have done vastly more, 
 if he had not suffered dire persecution from Cal- 
 vinistic fanatics. He led a grand and virtuous life, 
 and his memory was gloriously honoured by an tloge 
 from the great Cuvier, addressed to the Institute of 
 France. Both Cavendish and Priestley rendered 
 great service to the cause of chemistry, and left im- 
 perishable names to the country of their birth. 
 
 It is difficult, and not always safe, to institute com- 
 parisons on the respective merits of men of science, 
 inasmuch as prejudice and nationality occasionally 
 disturb the historic balance ; yet I may be permitted 
 to remark that the English, German, and Swedish 
 chemists of the eighteenth century directed their 
 aims to practical methods and exposition, in time 
 realising valuable data, whilst Lavoisier, the noble 
 Frenchman, being more solicitous for general prin- 
 ciples, sought by experiment and logical precision to 
 establish a comprehensive groundwork for the science. 
 Had Lavoisier not fallen a victim to the revolutionary 
 
The Noble Lavoisier. 17 
 
 furore of 1794,* he would have been the Laplace 
 of chemistry, eclipsing all his contemporaries, and 
 probably anticipated the important researches of 
 Dalton. 
 
 French writers are prone to claim the majority of 
 discoveries in science. Even Wurtz has written : 
 " La chimie est une science Frangaise, elle fut institute 
 par Lavoisier cT immortelle memoir e" A late writer, 
 Ferdinand Hoefer, in his history of Physics and 
 Chemistry (1872), is more just, but not correct as to the 
 individual Englishmen, in stating : " Tout en suivant 
 chacun line rottte differente, trois chimistes ont fonde 1 , 
 vers la fin du dix-huitieme sticle, la chimie moderne, 
 Priestley, Scheele, et Lavoisier, nn Anglais, un SuSdois^ 
 et un Frangais" Cavendish, by far the greatest 
 name in English chemistry up to the time of Dalton, 
 has been strangely overlooked in this historical critr- 
 cism of Hoefer's. 
 
 The investigations of Wenzel, Higgins, Richter, 
 and others, whose names will appear as claimants to 
 the doctrines expounded by Dalton, were in the 
 
 * In reference to the fate of Lavoisier, one is tempted to exclaim, in 
 the words of the noble Madame Roland on her way to the same mar- 
 tyrdom " O Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name ! " 
 Seized in his laboratory by the gens d'armes of the bloody Convention, 
 and knowing that a few hours would decide his fate, Lavoisier asked 
 permission to finish the experiments in which he was engaged, and to 
 record the results before he bade farewell to science and life ! 
 
 A historical parallel might be drawn between our Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, one in a long bead roll of famous Englishmen, whose beha- 
 viour in his last hours comported with the philosophic calmness of 
 Lavoisier : the one was a martyr to the monarchical hate of a vile 
 king, the other a victim to republican furor. Fortunately, neither 
 autocrats nor republicans can impair the honourable worth and gran- 
 deur of such lives as Raleigh's and Lavoisier's ; history is proud to 
 offer the homage due to immortality. ( 
 
 B 
 
1 8 John Dalton. 
 
 same direction as Lavoisier's, and should have exer- 
 cised a marked influence, inasmuch as they contained 
 part of the germ or scheme that in Dalton's hands 
 led to great results. 
 
 The crowding of men of genius to the goal of the 
 last century naturally betokened well for the progress 
 of chemistry in the present ; yet much light was 
 required to clear away the misty phlogiston atmos- 
 phere, and to give tangible form to the dicta collectanea 
 furnished by the workers of the past. At the dawn 
 of the nineteenth century England rose to the fore- 
 most position, and France and Sweden nobly closed 
 up the ranks of scientific competition. In the whole- 
 some development of science, every step gracefully 
 follows another, and every movement adds life and 
 enterprise to it. True science recognises neither 
 nationality nor creed, nor political bias ; thus, the 
 rivalry of the Saxon and the Celt was healthfully 
 bestowed in promoting the public good by the spread 
 of chemical knowledge. 
 
 As the phlogistic theory fell into the shade, the 
 discoveries of Galvani and Volta happily came in 
 aid of chemical investigation, opening out a new 
 world of research, that has already yielded mar- 
 vellous results, and bids fair to eclipse the cravings 
 of the most poetic imagination. Messrs Nicholson 
 and Carlisle, in 1800, then Cruikshanks, Henry, 
 Wollaston, PfafT, Biot, Thenard, and perhaps more 
 than all, Berzelius, laboured in the work, and showed 
 that various compounds were capable of decompo- 
 sition by electricity. These competitors, however, 
 were speedily outstripped in the race by Humphrey 
 Davy, the woodcarver's son, of Penzance, and "mere 
 
Swedish, French, and English Chemists. 19 
 
 apothecary," who, entering upon a comparatively 
 new field of chemistry, startled his contemporaries 
 both at home and abroad by the brilliancy of his 
 discoveries. 
 
 Though necessarily sparing in historical comment, 
 and afraid of selecting single examples from a galaxy 
 of worthies, I must not overlook Berzelius, the Swede, 
 of the highest rank in science, so grandly methodical 
 in all his work, and no less inductive in his beautiful 
 methods of experimenting ; Gay Lussac, of noble aim 
 and nobler achievement ; Berthollet, the voluminous 
 writer ; Thenard, Proust, Fourcroy, and others of 
 the French school ; all of whom highly distinguished 
 themselves ; and, ranking with these were Wollaston, 
 Professor Thomas Thomson of Glasgow, and the 
 famed Count Rumford.* 
 
 Of this noble band of workers and discoverers, 
 to whom the civilised world is so largely indebted, 
 none had the good fortune to meet the exigencies 
 of the hour, that called for a new hand to bind 
 the accumulated and heterogeneous facts into a 
 homogeneity of doctrine, upon which chemistry 
 might step forth and claim high place among the 
 pure sciences. 
 
 The light so long and earnestly solicited, to dispel 
 
 * My scientific friends will please to look upon this introductory 
 chapter as meant for the general reader. So slight a historical sketch 
 of the rise of chemistry can only offer a glance at the tentative efforts 
 of the early workers in the field, polypharmists, alchemists, and the 
 like. At the same time, it may serve to show the slow growth of the 
 leading principles upon which a true science has at length been founded. 
 
 Those who wish for an interesting resume of the rise and progress 
 of chemistry will do well to consult Mr G. F. RodwelFs interesting 
 volume on " The Birth of Chemistry," issued as one of the " Nature 
 s," and with apt illustrations by Macmillan & Co., 1874. 
 
2O John Dalton. 
 
 the mists overclouding the dawning science of che- 
 mistry, and to give precision and tangible method to 
 its study and profitable pursuit, came from a very 
 unexpected quarter of England a city of cotton 
 interests and hard cash, not without laudable am- 
 bition to become " the Cottonopolis of the North." 
 The lamp of knowledge got trimmed amid the 
 din of shuttles and spinning-jennies and multifari- 
 ous handicrafts by an unobtrusive Quaker, pursu- 
 ing his calling of schoolmaster in a back street of 
 Manchester, and thankful to earn the wages of a 
 skilled artisan. Yet this humble individual, scarcely 
 known outside the pale of his peculiar religious deno- 
 mination, was daily absorbed in profound intellectual 
 studies, the discoveries arising from which placed him 
 among the great chemists of the day, and ranked him 
 in a position only secondary to that of the immortal 
 Lavoisier. 
 
 The early history of the man was in every way so 
 antipodal to the favours of fortune, that the most 
 imaginary and hopeful of temperaments could not 
 have foreshadowed for him any great rise in the world, 
 much less a claim to distinction in the higher sciences. 
 Of the humblest origin, and apparently born to 
 manual labour and the lowest grade of social life, 
 schooled in a retired hamlet of the North country, 
 and reared amid coarse bucolicism and marked 
 barrenness of thought, he had no propitious patron 
 to advance him to the associations and emulation of 
 our public schools, and no friends in court to secure 
 him a place among the humblest alumni of our Uni- 
 versities. In short, possessing none of the advan- 
 tages surrounding ingenuous youth, and springing 
 
Humble in Means, Rich in Science. 2 1 
 
 from a poor household on the bare uplands of Cum- 
 berland, away from the main arteries of England, and 
 the great centres of industry and enterprise, John 
 Dalton appeared on the horizon of inductive research, 
 a self-taught man, whose genius and assiduity elicited 
 an original and comprehensive law in the Physics of 
 Chemistry, that gave breadth, and form, and solid 
 structure to a science deeply interwrought with the 
 essential interests of mankind. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 " It is not so essential to have a fine understanding, as to apply it 
 rightly" DESCARTES. 
 
 GEORGE FOX IN CUMBERLAND EAGLESFIELD JOHN 
 
 DALTON'S ANCESTORS HIS BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND 
 FRIENDS SCHOOLMASTER AND PLOUGHMAN ADIEU 
 
 TO HOME. 
 
 | HEN George Fox, the Leicestershire shoe- 
 maker, could find no means to salvation at 
 the hands of the spiritual directors of the 
 State Church, some of whom advised him 
 beer and concubinage, others tobacco and psalm- 
 singing, he sought the Scriptures for himself, and 
 speedily made up his mind to doff his leathern apron, 
 and to go into the world on a mission of evangelisa- 
 tion. In his tour northwards he spent some time in 
 Cumberland, and obtained a great success by carrying 
 the pluralist Vicar of Brigham off his tithe legs, and 
 all his congregation, to a free ministry. The religious 
 fervour of the Cumbrians was heightened by the 
 preacher appearing in a buckskin suit of his own 
 tailoring, greased by use and compulsory companion- 
 ship with the filthy occupants of filthy jails, to which 
 his strong speech and heterodoxy often consigned him. 
 Fox addressed an open-air-meeting at Pardsey Crag 
 in Brigham parish, and among the motley thousands 
 who flocked to his standard were the ancestors of 
 
The Influence of Quakerism. 23 
 
 John Dalton of Eaglesfield. The growth of Quaker- 
 ism in Cumberland had no small influence in promot- 
 ing the educational and religious status of the lower 
 orders, to whom the great text was daily proclaimed 
 " Search the Scriptures." * 
 
 In the parish of Brigham, and not more than three 
 miles south-west of the market town of Cockermouth, 
 stands the village of Eaglesfield, which forms part of 
 the ancient inanor and borough of Cockermouth. 
 Eaglesfield enjoys some historic repute from giving 
 name or title to a learned ecclesiastic of the Plan- 
 tagenet epoch, " Robert de Egglesfield," chaplain to 
 Edward the Third, and founder of Queen's College, 
 Oxford an institution that has conferred many 
 lasting advantages on Cumberland and Westmore- 
 land men of Oxonian merit. A greater honour fell to 
 Eaglesfield when it gave birth to John Dalton, whose 
 name is indelibly recorded in the archives of the 
 world's science, as one of the leading philosophers of 
 his age and country. 
 
 The township of Eaglesfield situated on the un- 
 dulating limestone formation of West Cumberland, 
 previous to the enclosure of the waste lands, and the 
 introduction of good husbandry about half a century 
 ago, would offer little more than herbage for rough 
 
 * " Search the Scriptures," coupled with Fox's soul-inspiriting exhor- 
 tations, induced many to become readers who had previously neglected 
 the very alphabet. It is well-known that the reading community of 
 England was comparatively small in the seventeenth century, and that 
 the agricultural districts were the worst in this respect ; nay, so little 
 progress had been made a century later, that Edmund Burke computed 
 the reading population of this country at only 30,000 ! probably much 
 too low an estimate, and not in accordance with what is generally 
 understood to have been the state of education in Cumberland. 
 
24 John Dalton. 
 
 kine, and hard lines of life to the scattered inhabi- 
 tants. Bucolic life of the boorish sort prevailed in 
 the hamlet, in which farmers of small holdings, 
 their clodhopping service, and common craftsmen, 
 laboured for a subsistence of a vegetative or earthy 
 sort. The village consisted, and its features are not 
 much altered to-day, of old-fashioned grey stone 
 dwellings, regular in their irregularity of position, and 
 in structure dilapidated ; straggling manure heaps, a 
 bit of dirty common or village green, and dirtier 
 duckpond, backed by a dingy "smiddy," to which 
 the loungers with their gossip and tittle-tattle daily 
 gravitated to discuss the news of the district. There 
 was -little to affect the stagnant life and clodhopping 
 proclivities of the locality, beyond the calls of the 
 huckster, or the cries of the travelling tinker ; and its 
 passive quaint domesticity was only occasionally 
 ruffled by the loud bravadoes of " John Barleycorn," 
 and the louder reproachings of his disappointed 
 spouse. Eaglesfield folk were a stiff race of country- 
 men, presenting stalwart forms in coarse woollen 
 garb of home-make, and the horny hands and sweat- 
 ing brows of labour, rejoicing in hamlet isolation, 
 and heedless of the contentions and turmoil of the 
 world. 
 
 The redeeming feature to what might have been 
 doltishness and dotage in the Eaglesfield district, 
 was the presence of Quakerism, a light of itself both 
 in precept and example, and ever tending to habits of 
 discipline no less than mental and moral improve- 
 ment. This light shone on the hearth of the Daltons, 
 and was reflected from other sources that proved of 
 high import in the training of John Dalton, nay, of 
 
His Birth-place Eaglesjleld. 25 
 
 lasting influence in his long career of patient inquiry 
 and investigation. 
 
 As pilgrimages to the shrines of saints draw 
 thousands of English Catholics to the Continent, 
 there may be some persons in the British Islands 
 sufficiently in love with science, not only to revere 
 the memory of its founders, but to wish for a de- 
 scription of the locality and birth-place of a great 
 master of knowledge John Dalton who did more for 
 the world's civilisation than all the reputed saints in 
 Christendom. To those, who may be termed scientific 
 pilgrims, the following brief outline may not be un- 
 acceptable. 
 
 On approaching the village of Eaglesfield by way 
 of Brigham (a railway station two miles from Cocker- 
 mouth, and about thirty from Carlisle), the road 
 diverges ; the broad and continuous line leads to the 
 " Friends' Meeting-house" and burial ground, and the 
 higher parts of the village ; the narrower road sweeps 
 to the left, and takes you direct to " John Dalton's 
 house " pointing south, and towards you its gable 
 forming the boundary of a lane that gives access to 
 the centre of the village. The house in which Dalton 
 was born has been altered and much improved since 
 his day ; its low thatched roof has been raised and 
 slated ; the partially boarded loft converted into upper 
 rooms ; its small leaden windows displaced by larger 
 panes of glass ; and the greystoned facing of the 
 building white-washed : still the general features of 
 the interior of the humble dwelling remain pretty 
 much as when occupied by weaver Joseph Dalton, 
 and his active spouse Deborah the parents of John 
 Dalton. By a small porch showing quaint recesses for 
 
26 John Dalton. 
 
 pots and pans, you enter the kitchen or general sitting 
 and business-room of the family, where, probably, 
 Joseph had his loom placed ; from this apartment, by a 
 narrow passage, you reach a smaller room immediately 
 adjacent, in height and width six feet, and in length 
 fifteen feet. The recess to the left of the door-way 
 was occupied by a chaff-bed, upon which Joseph and 
 Deborah slept, and there John Dalton, the chemist, 
 first saw the light of day, on or about September 6, 
 1766. 
 
 In his annual visits to Eaglesfield when blessed 
 with fame and fortune, John Dalton would occasion- 
 ally walk into the domicile of his birth, and point out 
 to some of his old friends, who accompanied him, 
 the domestic arrangements that surrounded his in- 
 fancy, the fireplace open to the chimney, the position 
 of the " old settle," and his own three-legged stool ; 
 the dresser with its pewter plates and horn spoons ; 
 and always with a smile on his countenance pointed 
 his stick to the recess occupied by the corner cup- 
 board. Liking sugar and sweets, this cupboard was 
 the earliest idol of his fancy, and in trying to obtain 
 a footing whereby to reach the latch, he took the 
 novel mode of kicking the wall beneath it with his 
 calkered clogs. This was hardly an act worthy of a 
 young philosopher, who could have used the chair 
 with little risk of detection, whereas the plaster on 
 the floor exposed his naughtiness, and led to a severe 
 whipping. 
 
 The ancestors of John Dalton were truly sons of 
 toil, either engaged in rough husbandry, or as artisans 
 of the common sort ; apparently content with their 
 
Social Position of his A ncestors. 2 7 
 
 station in life, and thankful for a livelihood that 
 demanded thrift and economy to make ends meet. 
 Living on rough fare, and clothed in rougher garb, 
 their physical requirements got easily supplied ; the 
 mental appetites would claim little or no consideration. 
 They realised the saying of the Roman philosopher, 
 that wealth consists not in having great possessions, 
 but in having small wants. The highest ambition of 
 such men as the Daltons was to possess a cottage 
 and a small garth or close of land for a cow's sum- 
 mer grazing ;* and- he must have been a poor crafts- 
 man who could not in a few years save earnings to 
 acquire both, when land and labour were of so little 
 value. 
 
 John Dalton was more lucky in his genealogical 
 tracings than the famous Daniel Defoe, inasmuch as 
 he could go back to his great grandfather on the 
 maternal side, whose name was Thomas Fearon, born 
 at Eaglesfield in 1658, and who died there in 1704. 
 In the year of the Great Revolution of 1688, this 
 Thomas Fearon married Mary Gill of Eaglesfield, at 
 Pardshaw Hall Meeting-house. There were thirty- 
 five witnesses f to the marriage document. 
 
 * There was a large common, or portion of unenclosed ground ex- 
 tending for miles around Eaglesfield, on which the villagers drove their 
 cows, donkeys, and geese, occasionally spending half a day in finding 
 their live stock, in their wild rambles ; and it is highly probable that 
 weaver Dalton had a cow on this rough pasturage, and that he occa- 
 sionally benefited by his father's or brother's paddock at suitable 
 seasons. 
 
 t After the simple form of marriage of Quakers has been gone through 
 at their Meeting-house, the chief point being a mutual declaration by 
 the respective parties of their willingness to take each other as man 
 and wife, and of course to love each other affectionately, the friends of 
 
28 John Dalton. 
 
 Little or no information can be offered on the social 
 position of Thomas Fearon ; * probably he was a 
 yeoman, who had some closes of land, the whole or 
 portions of which he bequeathed to his daughter 
 Abigail, born in 1690. 
 
 Now the Daltons come into view by a Jonathan 
 Dalton, shoemaker, and grandfather of the subject of 
 this memoir, marrying Abigail Fearon, daughter of 
 the aforesaid Thomas and Mary Fearon, at Pardshaw 
 Hall Meeting-house in 1712. " Nineteen witnesses." 
 To this marriage there was issue Jonathan, born June 
 4, 1715 ; Anne in 1717; Ruth in 1719; Abigail in 
 1726; and Joseph on September 25, 1733. Passing 
 over the daughters of Jonathan and Abigail Dalton, 
 let it be said that Jonathan, their eldest son, became 
 a farmer ; and Joseph, their youngest son, of special 
 interest in this narrative, was put to handloom weav- 
 ing. Jonathan Dalton, senior, shrewd and observant, 
 pursued his craft with diligence and success ; and in 
 I727,f purchased some freehold and customary land, 
 
 the newly- wedded couple step forward, and attach their names to the 
 formal wedding document ; and they are designated " the witnesses." 
 A certain amount of respectability is attached to the numbers who sign, 
 as proving the popularity of the contracting parties. 
 
 * Among the old deeds of Dr Dalton, there is noted (January I, 1700) 
 a purchase deed of lands at Eaglesfield from John Leayths, by Thomas 
 Fearon of Eaglesfield, yeoman. 
 
 h From the same deeds the following record is taken : 
 
 6 Feby. 1695. Purchase of lands at Eaglesfield, from John Fletcher 
 of the Hill Blindbothel, by Samuel Robinson, cordwainer, and Mary 
 Fearon, spinster, both of Eaglesfield as joint tenants, so that survivor 
 would get the property, which consisted of a messuage and land, part of 
 which laid before PETER Dalton's house, price ,43. 
 
 4 Aug. 1727. Purchase of freehold and customary land at Eagles- 
 field, from John Iredale of Cockermouth, tanner, by Jonathan Dalton 
 
Genealogy and Title Deeds. 29 
 
 from John Iredale of Cockermouth, price ^74 ; and 
 subsequently became possessed of. more land and 
 hereditaments, the value of which, long after his de- 
 cease in 1772, and that of his son Jonathan in 1786, 
 did not exceed 35 a year. Whether this holding of 
 land accrued to his own industry, or was part of his 
 wife Abigail's dowry, is a matter of conjecture, but 
 after his death in 1772, his son Jonathan inherited it. 
 This Jonathan Dalton married Mary Thompson of 
 Gilcrux in 1741, at Pardshaw Hall Meeting-house, 
 but had no issue. His death is recorded, " Jonathan 
 Dalton of Eaglesfield, yeoman, aged 71 years, Novem- 
 ber 3, 1786." His widow survived him four years, and 
 may be heard of again in this memoir as " Aunt Mary ; " 
 on her decease, December 2, 1790, the property of her 
 late husband fell to his brother Joseph Dalton, 
 weaver. 
 
 Joseph Dalton, the father of John Dalton the 
 philosopher, was a common country weaver, who 
 showed no parts, and earned but small pittances by 
 his shuttle.* He was looked upon as somewhat inert, 
 
 of Eaglesfield, yeoman, price ^74. Jonathan Dalton the elder is ad- 
 mitted on the Court Rolls in same year. 
 
 24 Apl. 1 749. Jonathan Dalton the elder surrenders the customary 
 land to his son Jonathan the yr. 
 
 25 March 1751. An award between Jonathan senior, and Jonathan 
 the younger, respecting their lands in Eaglesfield both described as 
 yeomen. 
 
 20 Deer. 1787. Jonathan Dalton, eldest son and heir of Joseph 
 Dalton, who was only brother and heir of Jonathan Dalton, deceased, 
 is admitted tenant of the land purchased from John Iredale. Dr 
 Dalton is afterwards admitted as brother and heir of Jonathan. 
 
 * The operations of the handloom weaver of a century ago were 
 essential in the rural districts of Cumberland, where every one wore 
 
30 John Dalton. 
 
 if not a feckless sort of man ; yet he had courage 
 enough at the age of twenty-one years to go miles 
 from home, to court Deborah Greenup of Caldbeck, 
 whom he married at Cockermouth Meeting-house on 
 June 10, 1755. The Greenups of Caldbeck were a 
 respectable family of yeomen ; and Deborah, who 
 linked her interests with weaver Dalton, was an active- 
 
 cloth of home-make, or linen of their own spinning. For the rougher 
 wear of husbandmen the sheeps' wool was washed and spun with little 
 or no preparation for the weaver; and from this material the "grey 
 coats " were made, that led to a distinctive appellation being used for 
 the yeomen and farming class " the grey coats of Cumberland." Such 
 coats are still to be met with in outlying districts, and my heart would 
 rejoice if the honest independence and patriotic fervour of the men who 
 fought so many political battles could still be recognised under the old 
 " grey stuff." A' better sort of wool was subjected to repeated washings 
 and bleachings for the purpose of finer clothing and blankets ; and of 
 these latter such as were made in the " good old times " lasted for three 
 generations. The days of " shoddy " and shabbiness of purpose had not 
 then dawned on the commercial world of England. 
 
 The weaving of linen was of equal import. The small landed pro- 
 prietors and farmers used to grow their own flax; and in the Eaglesfield 
 district this is very distinctly shown by the name Hemplands, corrupted 
 into that of Hemplin, being still applied to fields on nearly every farm. 
 After beating and other preparatory processes the flax or "lin"was 
 spun by the " small wheels " then in use in every country kitchen, and 
 made ready for the weaver; the "large wheels" were applied to 
 wool. Forty years ago the kitchens of respectable farmers during the 
 winter evenings offered a refreshing sight in the mistress of the house 
 and her maids busy at the whirl-go-round of the "small wheels;" 
 whilst the master and man-servants on the other side of the ingle nuik 
 talked over farm work and the customs of the country side. 
 
 In Dalton's youthful days, the manufactures of this country were 
 almost entirely domestic. In the farm houses and cottages were fabri- 
 cated almost every article of clothing which their occupants required. 
 The growth of our population, and still more the introduction of 
 machinery, put an end to this domestic independence ; and now 
 
 " The wheel is silent in the vale." 
 
The Date of his Birth in Doubt. 3 1 
 
 minded, energetic woman, from whose veins it may 
 naturally be supposed her son John gained a share 
 of his best blood ; if he did not in part inherit 
 the observant character of his grandfather, Jona- 
 than Dalton, who, like many of the sons of Crispin, 
 displayed both acumen and intelligence. It is sup- 
 posed that Deborah brought a small dowry to her 
 husband. 
 
 By this marriage of Joseph Dalton with Deborah 
 Greenup there were six children, three of whom 
 namely, Jonathan, Mary, and John grew to years of 
 maturity. Jonathan was born on September 9, 1759 ; 
 Mary on January 24, 1764 ; but there is no record nor 
 registry whatever of the birth of John Dalton, the 
 subject of this memoir. Both parents were " Friends," 
 and had hitherto, as seen in their daughter Mary's 
 birth registration, conformed with the rules of the 
 Society ; and there is no evidence or even indication 
 of their having departed from them. Was the omis- 
 sion of John Dalton's name from the Quaker registry 
 of births purely accidental ; or was the birth of a 
 strong boy so passively viewed at Eaglesfield that 
 they cared not to make any record of the fact, either 
 in the Family Bible, where all domestic events of 
 import got inscribed, or the registry book of the 
 religious denomination of the parents ? As Quakers 
 have no faith in water baptism and priests, there 
 was no christening of the lad, therefore no god- 
 father's or godmother's testimony to be had, and 
 of course no parochial register of John's advent. 
 His father had evidently overlooked the registra- 
 tion, or deemed such a form of little or no con- 
 
32 John Dalton. 
 
 sequence, seeing that his youngest son's inherit- 
 ance might be little more than the trappings of a 
 weaver's loom, the corner cupboard, and "bits of 
 furniture." It was only when John Dalton at- 
 tained eminence that the world began to inquire 
 the date of his birth, and he, being appealed to, and 
 knowing nothing of the pleasures of birthdays, those 
 first intelligible memoranda of the youthful mind, 
 could not answer the question satisfactorily. After 
 various inquiries in the district, more particularly of 
 women who had been in the same " interesting situa- 
 tion " as Dame Deborah, it became established that 
 John Dalton was born on September 6, 1766. The 
 historical reader will recall the fact of Voltaire's 
 birth being unknown, and the Duke of Wellington's 
 remaining a matter of doubt as to the month at least, 
 and the present narrative is not less strange, quoad 
 the birth of a great chemical philosopher, whose 
 coming into the world could only be vouched for 
 by the furbished-up memory of puerperous neigh- 
 bours, aided by the village gossips and "smiddy" 
 oracles. 
 
 As soon as John's fingers were pliable enough, he 
 had to hold the spools, to prepare the shuttles, and do 
 other light work attached to the weaver's handicraft. 
 In due season he was sent to Pardshaw Hall School, 
 two and a half miles distant from Eaglesfield, and 
 placed under the tuition of Mr John Fletcher, the 
 son of a highly respectable Quaker yeoman, and a 
 youth of attainments vastly superior to his age. Mr 
 Fletcher had in neighbourly kindness undertaken the 
 duties of the school during the master's absence, and 
 
His School days. 33 
 
 getting a liking for the work, continued to act till he 
 attained his majority. 
 
 John Dalton was by no means a quick boy, neither 
 sharp at work nor demonstrative at play, but steady- 
 going in all his actions, and ever faithful to his book. 
 The prominent and noticeable feature of his early 
 youth was constancy of purpose ; indeed, this plod- 
 ding and thoughtfulness grew with his growth, and 
 became a chief characteristic of his manhood. Mr 
 Fletcher seems to have marked the promising traits 
 of the boy, and lent him every aid and encouragement 
 from his initiative rudiments onward to his study of 
 mathematics. Under Mr Fletcher's good guidance 
 Dalton gained those habits of self-reliance and in- 
 domitable perseverance which enabled him to go 
 through arithmetic and navigation before the com- 
 pletion of his twelfth year. It is pleasant to note 
 here that John Dalton ever spoke in the highest 
 terms of the excellent training and instruction he 
 received at the hands of his first and only school- 
 master,* whose friendship he esteemed through life, 
 and whose memory he did not cease to revere. 
 
 John Dalton early afforded proofs of his mental 
 superiority, and the story is told to this day at 
 Eaglesfield, of his curiosity being excited by a dispute 
 that arose among some mowers in a hayfield, as to 
 
 * The Quaker schoolmasters were by far the best of their kind in 
 these northern parts. Their own home training, orderly habits, quiet 
 demeanour, and self-denial, constituted a valuable groundwork to the 
 patience and painstaking efforts required in the daily tuition of obstre- 
 perous youth ; whilst their superior intelligence and culture made their 
 vnitttn. formula tangible to the learner, and gave pleasant colouring to 
 their indoctrination in history and literature. 
 
 This subject has been adverted to in my " Life of Dr John Heysham. " 
 
 C 
 
34 John Dalton. 
 
 whether sixty square yards or sixty yards square 
 were identical. At first he saw no difference between 
 the two statements, but maturer consideration of the 
 subject showed him his error. The solution of the 
 question by a boy of ten years old did not pass 
 unnoticed ; and it was by such " feats of calculation " 
 that he won the good opinion of the neighbours, and 
 came to be recognised by his companions as their 
 intelligent leader. Another instance of his precocity 
 has come to my knowledge. One evening, on his 
 way home from school, he was observed standing on 
 the highest part of a hedge, delivering an extempore 
 lecture to his schoolfellows on a \ subject that he 
 believed he could enlighten them upon, and it is 
 probable that he succeeded in imparting some infor- 
 mation, or that his juvenile effort was gratifying to 
 his audience, from whom were heard the exclama- 
 tion " Bravo, John ! " and " Hip, hip, hurrah ! " 
 
 If fortunate in having a teacher in John Fletcher, 
 John Dalton was equally fortunate in securing the 
 attention of Elihu Robinson, a Quaker gentleman of 
 ample means and ampler knowledge, whose scholar- 
 ship and philanthropy well entitled him to the desig- 
 nation of " the man of Eaglesfield," a century ago. 
 The recognition of Elihu was a step in advance to 
 the educational and social status of John Dalton, who, 
 being invited to his house, could not fail to mark the 
 difference between his father's lowly dwelling and 
 sanded floor, dirty loom, and other appurtenances, 
 and the carpeted parlour, library, and comforts sur- 
 rounding his new patron, and his well-educated wife. 
 As a true Cumberland worthy, independent of his 
 being the friend and active promoter of John Dalton's 
 
His friend Elihu Robinson. 35 
 
 mathematical studies, a few words are here due to 
 the memory of Elihu Robinson. If the reader could 
 be favoured with a peep at Eaglesfield, as it presented 
 itself exactly one hundred years ago, he would mark 
 Elihu Robinson decked out in his three-cocked beaver, 
 light drab coat, vest, and knee-breeches, yellowish- 
 grey ribbed stockings, and silver-buckled shoes, all 
 in the best style of rich Quakerism, fine and spotless, 
 and walking in sober fashion through the village with 
 silver-headed cane in support. Everybody bowed 
 respectfully to the head of the village, a man of 
 probity and learning, a benefactor of the deserving, 
 and a thoroughly good neighbour. Elihu was pro- 
 bably the first of Cumberland's meteorologists, 
 gauging the rainfall, recording the readings of the 
 thermometer and barometer, noting the seasons and 
 crops, and many natural phenomena; moreover, he 
 had manipulative skill that was exercised on the 
 construction of philosophical instruments, sundials, 
 &c.* He was the friend of Collinson, the correspon- 
 dent of Benjamin Franklin, of Dr Fothergill, of Anti- 
 slavery Clarkson, and others of scientific renown, 
 many of whom visited him at Eaglesfield. United 
 with John Fletcher and other promoters of education 
 in Cockermouth and Whitehaven, a Book Club was 
 instituted, consisting of the magazines and chief 
 works of interest obtainable quarterly from London. 
 Thus literature and science had got a footing in 
 West Cumberland, chiefly promoted by "Friends," 
 
 * Mr William Sutton of Scotby, near Carlisle, who, on the paternal 
 side, is a descendant of Elihu Robinson, possesses a well-constructed 
 sundial of Elihu's. 
 
36 John Dalton. 
 
 and aided by Dr Brownrigg, of Whitehaven, and John 
 C. Curwen, M.P., of Workington Hall. These West 
 Cumbrians were men of real mark and magnanimity, 
 who not only encouraged a love of letters, and the 
 aspirations of science, but heartily co-operated in all 
 the schemes of reform and practical philanthropy 
 which dawned upon England after the declaration of 
 American independence.* 
 
 Elihu Robinson invited John Dalton to his house, 
 and offered to assist his studies along with a young 
 man of the name of William Alderson, then in his 
 service, and anxious for self-improvement. The two 
 lads worked well together in the evenings, and 
 though Alderson was much the senior, Dalton was 
 generally ahead of him. When they came to a stand- 
 still in solving a problem, Alderson would fain have 
 sought Mr Robinson's aid, but Dalton, with resolute 
 aim and a belief in his own powers, would encourage 
 his companion to renewed exertion, by remarking in 
 broad Cumbrian dialect " Yan med deu't " (one 
 might do it). This phrase of John's always came to 
 his rescue in difficulties, and, like a clerical text of 
 pithy meaning, conveyed a wholesome sermon point- 
 
 * "The Society of Friends," collectively and individually, have ever 
 taken a laudable part in social, educational, and political questions. 
 Speaking from large opportunities afforded me of perusing the private 
 correspondence, public manifestations, and parliamentary petitions got 
 up by Cumberland Quakers, in the past as well as the present century, 
 there can be no doubt that they have always been far ahead of the rest 
 of. the world in all matters affecting the welfare of humanity and the 
 varied social interests dependent on governmental legislation. Every 
 work they engaged in pro bono publico, found them zealous and indefa- 
 tigable supporters, be it peace or pious endeavours, civil or religious 
 liberty, the interests of our national commerce, or the education and 
 happiness of our people. 
 
"Yanmeddcttt? 37 
 
 ing to self-dependence, and persevering energy as the 
 groundwork of success in life. The rivalry of the 
 lads was healthful, but one day a dispute arose 
 between them as to the best mode of working out a 
 problem ; Alderson would bet Dalton sixpence on 
 the subject, but Mr Robinson objected to this, as all 
 Quakers properly do to betting, and in place of the 
 money wager, suggested that the loser should supply 
 his companion with candles for their nights' studies in 
 winter. This advice was acted upon, and Dalton 
 came off victorious. Mr Robinson occasionally tested 
 John's highest powers of thought by setting him an 
 algebraic question, and after the lapse of an hour 
 would return, and say, " Well, John, hast thou done 
 that question ? " " No," replied John, with his " Yan 
 med deu't;" and another hour elapsing with no better 
 result, John met his kind friend's interrogation by, 
 " I can't deu't to-neet, but mebby to-morn I will." 
 So he went home, slept over the problem, and rose 
 again to work with refreshed brain that brought a 
 solution to his difficulty. 
 
 The day's schooling at Pardshaw Hall, and the 
 evening prelections of Elihu Robinson, were re- 
 markable adjuncts to the development of a brain so 
 broadly constituted as Dalton' s, and the result was 
 visible in his rapid advance to knowledge and supe- 
 riority over lads of his own age. Of this position he 
 seemed to be aware, or he would not have ventured 
 on so bold a step as that of opening a school on his 
 own account at Eaglesfield, in his thirteenth year. The 
 retirement of Mr Fletcher from Pardshaw Hall school 
 was probably the first incentive, as he never would 
 have dreamt of opposing his friend ; and the absence 
 
38 John Dalton. 
 
 of any school in Eaglesfield, and not less the limited 
 means of his father, may have cast the balance in favour 
 of the undertaking. Weaver Dalton had in John's 
 infancy removed three doors higher up the lane, and 
 upon the outside, or as some say, on the front door, of 
 this dwelling John posted a large sheet of white paper, 
 inscribed with a bold hand, containing the announce- 
 ment of his having'opened a school for both sexes, and 
 on reasonable terms. This advertisement long did duty, 
 and was also accompanied by another to the effect 
 that " paper, pens, and ink " were sold within two 
 literary acquisitions to Eaglesfield, springing from the 
 enterprise of a lad of twelve or thirteen years of 
 age. 
 
 For a short while he taught his primitive school in 
 an old barn, then in his father's house, and finally in 
 the Friend's Meeting-house within the burial-ground 
 enclosure. His scholars were of all ages, from infancy 
 to seventeen. Some were so young, that he had to 
 mount them upon his knee to teach them their A EC's; 
 others were as old, and much older and bigger than 
 himself, the proximity of the school having brought out 
 lots of Eaglesfield lads whose education and manners 
 had hitherto been grossly neglected. These last-named 
 proved highly refractory scholars ; so much so, that 
 when John threatened them with chastisement for 
 neglecting their lessons, or their naughtiness for play- 
 ing at leap-frog over the graves of the dead 
 
 " Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, 
 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 
 The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep " 
 
 they rebelled, and actually challenged him out to fight. 
 
The young Schoolmaster. 39 
 
 Here was a pretty contretemps, the scholars defying 
 their master in open day, and in pugilistic fashion. How 
 the young "dominie" got over an exhibition so offen- 
 sive in character, and so derogatory to his dignity as 
 head of the school, can only be inferred on reflecting 
 on his dogged perseverance, and Quaker firmness 
 under the most direct and worst forms of provocation. 
 
 Whilst busy teaching the lads and lasses of the 
 hamlet, he was more busily engaged educating himself, 
 and carrying on the good work the foundations of 
 which had been so pleasantly laid by his attentive 
 friends John Fletcher and Elihu Robinson. Those 
 around him observed that, be the subject what it might 
 occupying his mind, it got his undivided attention ; 
 he sat desk-bound and immovable, uninfluenced 
 by noise or chatter, and not easily roused by repeated 
 interrogations. His mental power seemed focussed 
 upon a point, and no side-rays were permitted to in- 
 terfere with the one concentrative thought falling on 
 the work in which he was engaged. 
 
 " The Ladies' Diary, or Woman's Almanac, for 1779, 
 containing new improvements in arts and sciences, and 
 many entertaining particulars, designed for the use 
 and diversion of the fair sex," came into his hands, 
 probably through Mr Robinson's kindness, and he 
 copied it verbatim. The existence of an almanac in 
 his own handwriting, now in the possession of Mr 
 John Robinson, of Eaglesfield, led some persons to 
 suppose that John Dalton had at the age of thirteen 
 years constructed an almanac for himself; whereas it 
 is that [of the Ladies' Diary probably the first 
 periodical that he had seen, and the first to call forth 
 his spirit of emulation and competitive skill as an 
 
4O John Dalton. 
 
 arithmetician ; for he and William Alderson in the 
 winter evenings used to pore over the enigmas and 
 mathematical problems it contained as long as the 
 farthing dip,* or midnight oil, or the last flicker of the 
 fire would enable them to read their pencil-markings 
 on the rough slabs of Cumberland slate. This 
 Diary, which, by the way, cost the large sum of 
 three shillings, owing to the heavy taxation of that 
 day on all kinds of knowledge, will claim more 
 particular notice in the next chapter. 
 
 John Dalton, in the briefest of autobiographical 
 records, which he had been solicited to contribute to 
 Mr Roberts' " Book of Autographs," states that after 
 two years of schoolmastering he was "occasionally 
 employed in husbandry for a year or more/' Why 
 or wherefore this change of pursuit from that of 
 teacher can only be inferred. He may have found 
 his big and rebellious scholars too much for his 
 guidance, or that his teaching was less profitable than 
 a fair day's work of manual labour on his Uncle 
 Jonathan's estate. From what I can gather from 
 other sources, to be noted in the biography of 
 Abraham Fletcher, of the pay of schoolmasters by 
 weekly pence a century ago, I do not suppose that 
 John Dalton realised more than five shillings a week 
 as the master of Eaglesfield school ; so that husbandry 
 was as good a thing, if not better, in his instance, 
 
 * The term "farthing dip" is used to distinguish the crude, home- 
 made tallow candle of that day long in the stalk, of dirty-grey colour 
 and rough surface that was perhaps as much in favour as the little 
 lamp that was made to do duty in consuming any oily refuse. A stick or 
 turf fire, that emitted an occasional blaze, had occasionally to do the 
 part of both candle and lamp, the eyes of the lieges being like the wiry 
 framework of their bodies, and fit for any abnormal deviation of service. 
 
Pretty nearly a Clodhopper. 41 
 
 seeing that healthful occupation in the fields cleared 
 his brain, and fitted him the more for evening studies. 
 At this period, when entering upon his teens, he can 
 have had no ideas beyond the bucolic life around him ; 
 and the highest aim of his ancestors was farming, with 
 the prospect of some day realising by wholesome 
 industry the ownership of a dwelling and some acres 
 of land a cottage and cow, garth and hempland, so 
 as to become passing rich on ^40 a year. And it is 
 doubtful if his father's handicraft had advanced his 
 status beyond the possession of a cow and a cow's 
 grassing until the death of his brother Jonathan 
 uncle to John. From the circumstance of John Dalton 
 joining the rank and file of husbandmen, it may be 
 inferred that his 
 
 " Ambition did not mock their useful toil," 
 
 and that he did not disregard their " homely joys." 
 His disposition to farming may have been influenced 
 by the fact of his Uncle Jonathan, then in the enjoy- 
 ment of a few acres, being in the sixty-fifth year of his 
 age, and without any probability of issue, and that the 
 said uncle had noticed with favour the merits of his 
 nephew, upon whose shoulders the burden of the day 
 might soon fall. Moreover, an honest farmer, with a 
 small yeoman's position in prospect, would be viewed 
 quite as respectable, and much more profitable, than 
 the grade of a country schoolmaster on the uplands of 
 Cumberland. Thus circumstances might have thrown 
 John Dalton into the position of a poor farmer, with 
 aims no larger than selling corn and cows at Cocker- 
 mouth market, instead of becoming a chemical philo- 
 sopher honoured by the savans of Europe. 
 
42 John Dalton. 
 
 All biographical notices of John Dalton's assign to 
 him yeoman's ancestry. This would appear to be a 
 mistake, as the foregoing pages prove the artisanship 
 of both his father and grandfather, and probably arose 
 from the fact of Jonathan, the shoemaker, possessing 
 a few acres of land through his own industry, or as 
 the dowry of his wife Abigail, which eventually fell to 
 John Dalton on the death of his brother, the school- 
 master at Kendal. In a statement of John Dalton's 
 (hereafter to be noticed), complaining of the distribu- 
 tion of his father's property, there is no mention of 
 any other possession of his father's than what had 
 accrued to him as the successor of his brother 
 Jonathan uncle to the chemist. The only circum- 
 stance to lead to a contrary opinion is a mortgage 
 of ^150, or thereabouts, on the Eaglesfield pro- 
 perty, and this may have been laid on by Joseph 
 Dalton, the weaver, after his brother Jonathan's 
 death, with the view of assisting his two sons in 
 the establishment of a boarding-school at Kendal 
 in 1786. 
 
 Whilst John Dalton was plodding away in his 
 capacity of schoolmaster, or taking his honest share 
 v in husbandry operations, by which his bone and 
 muscle got their truthful balance and vigour along 
 with the development of his nerve-power, his brother 
 Jonathan was acting as usher or assistant to his 
 cousin, George Bewley, who kept a school at Kendal. 
 It was probably owing to Mr Bewley's wish to retire 
 that Jonathan Dalton held out to his brother John 
 the desirability of leaving Eaglesfield and joining 
 him, with a view to a school-partnership. Joseph and 
 
Seeks fresh fields and pastures new. 43 
 
 Deborah, the parents, having taken counsel of 
 " Friends," approved of the son's proposal ; and in the 
 summer or autumn of 1761, when he was about to 
 complete his sixteenth year, John Dalton bade fare- 
 well as a resident to Eaglesfield. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 " For Nature's crescent does not grow alone, 
 In thews and bulk ; but, as this temple waxes, 
 The inward service of the mind and soul 
 Grows wide withal." SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 KENDAL SCHOOL AND SOCIAL LIFE LECTURES ON NATURAL 
 PHILOSOPHY MR GOUGH'S FRIENDSHIP CONTRIBUTION 
 TO " THE DIARIES " INVESTIGATIONS OF ENGLISH SUR- 
 NAMES. 
 
 |N anticipation of getting on in the world, 
 and disposed to covet the latest novelty of 
 a gentleman's outfit, John Dalton bought 
 an umbrella a curiosity of its kind a 
 hundred years ago at Cockermouth, and with this 
 equipment in one hand, and a bundle of body-clothes 
 in the other, started on his journey for Kendal, a 
 distance of forty-four miles, which he accomplished in 
 a day. This was his first break off from the home 
 circle, and if his emotions at all responded to the 
 natural scenery through which he passed, he may 
 have framed for himself a sort of earthly paradise en 
 route. Journeying through Cockermouth, and by the 
 banks of the placid lake of Bassenthwaite, he soon 
 came in view of Derwentwater in all its glorious 
 beauty and surroundings, with the unrivalled peaks 
 of Borrowdale beyond, each step revealing new fea- 
 tures of picturesque hill and dale, grey homestead 
 
His first sight of the Lakes. 45 
 
 and green meadow. Crossing Dunmail Raise showed 
 him another sight, the attractions of which could not 
 fail to lighten his descent to Grassmere, Rydal, and 
 Windermere " the queen," and fair daughters of the 
 lakes and to fill his mind with poetical fancy and 
 unspeakable admiration. The mental enjoyment of 
 such a day would bar all feeling of physical fatigue, 
 and enable him to reach Kendal with a mind as 
 buoyant and bright as the ethereal atmosphere float- 
 ing o'er the mountain-tops of Skiddaw and Langdale 
 Pikes. 
 
 As a boy in his early teens, travelling alone amid 
 the indescribable loveliness of the lake country, and 
 gazing at the flickering lights and shadows on the 
 everlasting hills, he little conjectured the strange 
 evolutions of the coming time that a day of his- 
 torical distinction was about to dawn over the scene 
 of his journey, mainly owing to the genius of Words- 
 worth, the Coleridges, Southey, and De Quincey ; 
 and still less did he suppose that the meteorological 
 characteristics of the district would some day become 
 a theme of fertile interest to himself, the successful 
 investigation of which would give him rank among 
 the scientific discoverers of the age, and a niche in 
 the pantheon of English celebrities. 
 
 Kendal, at the time of John Dalton's entry, had a 
 population of 5000, and a flourishing wool and cotton 
 trade, demanding hundreds of packhorses * to carry 
 
 * Before Dalton's time stage-waggons had partly displaced "pack- 
 horses," and a stage-coach the "Flying Machine" drawn by six 
 horses, arrived twice a week from London ; but it was 1786 before a 
 mail-coach ran from London to Kendal. Though churches and schools 
 were getting built, and a newsroom established, and much educational 
 
46 John Dalton. 
 
 its merchandise to the seaports Liverpool chiefly. 
 If its stalwart sons in native green had bravely fought 
 and won on Flodden field, they were no less anxious 
 in the Georgian era for the arts of peace and com- 
 mercial life ; they were men of enterprise, and the 
 leading families of the town were Quakers, not want- 
 ing in culture and education. 
 
 John Dalton, looking at the motto on the arms of 
 the Kendal Corporation " Pannus mihi panis" 
 might be disposed to think if the staple produce of 
 the town yielded bread to its working folk, the edu- 
 cation of the lieges should go a step higher, and 
 provide him with butter to that bread. Teaching 
 the young ideas offered, however, no easy path to 
 the comforts, much less the indulgences of life ; 
 indeed, no class of persons fared worse, considering 
 their great merits, than the schoolmasters of England 
 in the i8th century. 
 
 It was in the year 1781 that John Dalton joined 
 his cousin George Bewley, who, with Jonathan 
 Dalton as assistant, conducted a school for both 
 sexes mainly Quakers' children. On the retirement 
 of Mr Bewley in 1785, the brothers Dalton announced 
 their intention of continuing the school, "where 
 youths will be carefully instructed in English, Latin, 
 Greek, and French ; also writing, arithmetic, mer- 
 chants' accounts, and the mathematics." They also 
 offered to take boarders on reasonable terms. Their 
 sister Mary came from Eaglesfield to act as their 
 housekeeper. At this time their pecuniary means 
 were very limited, having occasionally to borrow two 
 
 progress was being made in the town, bull-baiting held its place till 
 the year 1791, when it was suppressed by the Corporation. 
 
Not passing rich on 40 a year. 47 
 
 or three pounds from Mr Bewley and other friends, 
 as well as their own parents,* to enable them to carry 
 on their small establishment. The earnings of the 
 two brothers in the first year were about 100 guineas^ 
 and this sum was thirty guineas more than the 
 average proceeds of some succeeding years. They 
 made a little money by " drawing conditions," collect- 
 ing rents, making wills, and other small commissions 
 befitting the pen and ready-reckoning attributes of 
 country schoolmasters ; but it is doubtful if the two 
 brothers conjointly, and by arduous labour, realised 
 ;ioo a year, on which sum they had to supply their 
 own and their sister's wants, and to appear in respect- 
 able costume, suited to the middle-class social position 
 of Kendal. 
 
 A second circular, issued on July 5, 1786, by the 
 Daltons, showed that they were not disposed to hide 
 their talents under a bushel, and that their educa- 
 tional programme embraced almost all that could be 
 taught in the highest public schools in the realm, 
 seeing that it embraced what they had previously 
 advertised, and nearly the whole range of subjects 
 included under the heading of Natural Philosophy. 
 The public were also informed that the Daltons 
 would give private instruction in the use of the globes 
 after school-hours ; that they " could conveniently 
 teach a considerable number of scholars more than 
 at present;" and that parents might rely on their 
 children being carefully instructed. 
 
 * Joseph and Deborah Dalton used to visit their sons and daughter 
 at Kendal, carrying them Eaglesfield cakes and home produce, deeming 
 the long day's journey of forty-four miles on foot a matter of minor 
 consideration when the welfare of their family and their own parental 
 joy could be promoted by the undertaking. 
 
48 John Dalton. 
 
 Whilst truly zealous in their calling of school- 
 masters, the brothers Dalton were neither gainly 
 nor genial in manner, and somewhat deficient in the 
 art of winning the pleasant regards of their pupils. 
 The bucolicism of Eaglesfield still clung to their 
 nature, and manifested itself outwardly in their up- 
 right coat-collars, broad-brims, and an unbending fell- 
 side Quakerism. As schoolmasters, they were severe 
 disciplinarians, exacting silence, order, and a faithful 
 adherence to prescribed rules : the gentlest prating of 
 the little girls, or the smallest blot on a page of writ- 
 ing, called forth rebuke. Admonition was the fact 
 of the hour, and if this did not suffice, the cane or 
 " the tawse," consisting of short leather thongs, was 
 applied to the palm of the hand, and in worse forms 
 of punishment to the bare back. One instance of 
 severity brought the Daltons rather prominently 
 before the public, and led them to exercise greater 
 caution in future in flagellating the worst offenders. 
 Jonathan was looked upon as principal of the school, 
 and was the severer taskmaster. John's more youth- 
 ful sympathies saved him from so much juvenile 
 reproach ; yet my information, derived from their 
 pupils, tends to show that he was far from conciliatory 
 in method, or prone to educe the kindlier parts of 
 his scholars. Their teaching was much more elemen- 
 tary than their curriculum of study, classics, and 
 physics, indicated. It is said that in the midst of 
 thirty or forty scholars, and all their noisy doings, 
 John found minutes of leisure at his own desk to 
 work out the higher mathematics ; if so, he possessed 
 a fifty-schoolmaster power of abstraction, along with 
 a rare intensity of application. 
 
Lectures on Natural Philosophy. 49 
 
 With the dawn of manhood John Dalton would try 
 his hand at public lecturing, and here is his pro- 
 gramme issued to the Kendalites on October 26, 
 1787 : 
 
 "Twelve Lectures on Natural Philosophy, to be 
 read at the school (if a sufficient number of sub- 
 scribers are procured) by John Dalton. Subscribers 
 to the whole, half a guinea ; or one shilling for single 
 nights. N.B. Subscribers to the whole course will 
 have the liberty of requiring further explanation of 
 subjects that may not be sufficiently discussed or 
 clearly perceived when under immediate considera- 
 tion; also of proposing doubts, objections, &c. ; all 
 which will be illustrated and obviated at suitable 
 times to be mentioned at the commencement." His 
 syllabus included mechanics, optics, pneumatics, 
 astronomy, and the use of the globes, and concluded 
 with " Ex rerum causis supremam noscere causam" 
 
 This course of lectures he repeated in 1791, with the 
 addition of a lecture on Fire. As indicative of his 
 first effort being less supported than it ought to have 
 been, his terms of admittance to the second course 
 were five shillings for the whole, or sixpence for each 
 lecture ; in other words, half the charge that he made 
 in 1787. Dr Henry states that " it became a part of 
 Dalton's regular occupations, and an important source 
 of his slender revenues, to deliver lectures in Man- 
 chester and elsewhere." Repeated inquiries on my 
 own part have failed to show his character as a public 
 lecturer. His readiness to impart knowledge may be 
 assumed, but how far his address and language and 
 illustration were suited to a general audience at this 
 period of his history admits of question. Moreover, his 
 
 D 
 
50 John Dalton. 
 
 inexperience in the art, no less than his early training-, 
 would offer no small drawback to his success and 
 popularity. 
 
 His seven hours' tuition, and the needful victualling 
 of the man himself, occupied the best part of his diurnal ; 
 his evenings not engaged in private instruction were 
 given to classics, mathematics, and historical reading 
 and the Diaries. There is nothing in his records or 
 reasoning, as far as I can learn, to indicate large attain- 
 ment in philology or classical literature. The former 
 study engaged his thoughts for a time, as will pre- 
 sently be noted, but only within the range of an 
 English tracing : nor could such accomplishments 
 be expected in a man the bent of whose mind lay 
 partly in the direction of natural history, and more 
 largely towards the culture of the strictly physical 
 sciences. Each day found him work to do, and 
 ability and force to grasp what he undertook ; it was 
 work at school, work at home, and much cogitation 
 everywhere. 
 
 John Dalton bore considerable affinity to Benjamin 
 Franklin in mental vigour and bodily constitution, 
 and specially in habits of industry and forethought ; 
 but the renowned American printer found hours of 
 leisure, and could bestow a helping-hand towards the 
 social and political amelioration of his fellow-citizens. 
 Moreover, he entered with zest into the spirit of the 
 times and the calls of society, thoroughly appreciated 
 the smiles and favours of women, and all the ameni- 
 ties of life. Nor did his philosophy and patriotism 
 suffer an iota by these deviations from the rigid lines 
 of study and reflection, but probably gained much 
 invigoration and lastingness, and gave him facili- 
 
Contrasted with Benjamin Franklin. 5 1 
 
 ties of intercourse with, as well as high rank among, 
 the learned men of his epoch. The Cumbrian school- 
 master, on the other hand, would direct his nerve-force 
 almost exclusively to purely intellectual aims, passing 
 through his adolescence apparently indifferent to the 
 status quo of governments and municipalities, and 
 not much cognisant of the various relations of man to 
 man civil, commercial, and political. 
 
 During the first few years of his residence in 
 Kendal his society was almost entirely confined to 
 the guarded coterie of his own " regiment of drab " 
 a social circle possessing many good qualities of both 
 head and heart, and not without its pretty white 
 caps, rustling muslins, and personal charms, but more 
 or less deficient in breadth of character, vivacity of 
 deportment, and adaptation to the usages of the 
 world. His probationary period on the banks of 
 the Kent extended over twelve years, namely, from 
 his early teens to the age of twenty-seven years, an 
 important period in a man's life, when the body 
 breathes full vitality and force, and the heart should 
 be plastic and impressionable. His youth and grow- 
 ing adolescence showed lots of vigour and mental 
 scope; yet his life comes down to us not betokening 
 any signs of an active citizenship, but rather as the 
 manifestation of an intellectual machine seldom 
 beating time to the social or political impulses of a 
 free and happy community like that of England. It 
 may, however, be said in favour of this comparative 
 seclusion from the fraternisations of the world, that 
 high aims can only be grasped by continuous and 
 concentrated efforts in one direction, and John Dai- 
 ton's vocation lay in the interpretation of the abstruse, 
 
52 John D alt on. 
 
 and the methodising of science out of a careful study 
 of natural phenomena. He was a student, and a 
 hard-working one, all his days ; the temptations of 
 youth seem to have passed him by as one too sparingly 
 emotional for the snares of life. Love, which a great 
 poet said 
 
 " Rules the court, the camp, the grove," 
 
 seemed to find no favour in Dalton's eyes, even at a 
 time when, if ever, the feelings are warm and prone 
 to be waylaid by the blandishments of the fair. His 
 eyes, it is true, were peculiarly affected, and could not 
 be gladdened by the roseate hue of woman's cheeks, 
 or the ribbon adornments and other coloured media 
 displayed as attractions indigenous to the sex. 
 
 John Dalton's studious character, and solicitations 
 foradvancement beyond the sphere of common mortals, 
 as evinced by his public lectures, would suffice for an 
 introduction to Mr John Gough, the intellectual man 
 of Kendal, and the pleasant friendship that sprung 
 up from this intercourse, was the third piece of good 
 luck falling in the way of the poor weaver's son, the 
 tuition of John Fletcher and the guiding counsel of 
 Elihu Robinson, constituting the two first props to 
 his well-doing in the world. Though blind from 
 early infancy, Mr Gough was a person of rare accom- 
 plishments, whose fertile mind travelled over a large 
 field of science, and whose character was well-known 
 to some of the leading minds in the north of England. 
 It is difficult to estimate the amount of good derived 
 by Dalton from a man of such ripe judgment and 
 intellectual grasp as Mr Gough, who could be no 
 ordinary person to gain the following tribute from 
 Wordsworth the poet : 
 
His friend John Gough. 53 
 
 " Methinks I see him now, his eyeballs roll'd 
 Beneath his ample brow in darkness pained, 
 But each instinct with spirit, and the frame 
 Of the whole countenance alive with thought, 
 Fancy, and understanding, whilst the voice 
 Discoursed of natural or moral truth 
 With eloquence and such authentic power, 
 That in his presence humbler knowledge stood 
 Abashed, and tender pity overawed." 
 
 A letter of Dalton's to Mr Peter Crosthwaite, of 
 Keswick, shows his opinion of his friend Mr Gough : 
 
 " John Gough is the son of a wealthy tradesman in 
 this town ; unfortunately he lost his sight by the small- 
 pox when about two years old, since which he has 
 been quite blind, and may now be about thirty. He 
 is perhaps one of the most astonishing instances that 
 ever appeared of what genius, united with perseverance 
 and every other subsidiary aid, can accomplish when 
 deprived of what we usually reckon the most valu- 
 able sense. He is a perfect master of the Latin, 
 Greek, and French tongues, the former of which I 
 knew nothing of six years ago, when I first came here 
 from my native place near Cockermouth, but under his 
 tuition have since acquired a good knowledge of them. 
 He understands well all the different branches of 
 mathematics, and it is wonderful what difficult and 
 abstruse problems he will solve in his own head. There 
 is no branch of natural philosophy but what he is 
 well acquainted with ; he knows by the touch, taste, 
 and smell almost every plant within twenty miles of 
 this place ; he can reason with astonishing perspicuity 
 on the construction of the eye, the nature of light and 
 colours, and of optic glasses ; he is a good proficient 
 in astronomy, chemistry, medicine, &c., &c. He and 
 
54 John Dalton. 
 
 I have been for a long time very intimate ; as our pur- 
 suits are common, viz., mathematical and philosophical, 
 we find it very agreeable frequently to communicate 
 our sentiments to each other, and to converse on those 
 topics." 
 
 In his preface to his " Meteorological Observations 
 and Essays," published in 1834, Dalton expresses his 
 obligations to Mr Gough in the following words : 
 
 "For about eight years during my residence in 
 Kendal we were intimately acquainted. Mr Gough 
 was as much gratified with imparting his stores of 
 science as I was in receiving them. My use to him 
 was chiefly in reading, writing, and making calcula- 
 tions and diagrams, and in participating with him in 
 the pleasure resulting from successful investigations ; 
 but as Mr Gough was above receiving any pecuniary 
 recompense, the balance of advantage was greatly in 
 my favour, and I am glad to have this opportunity of 
 acknowledging it. It was he who first set the example 
 of keeping a meteorological journal at Kendal." 
 
 " During this period," writes Dr Henry, " he con- 
 tributed frequently to two periodical works then in 
 considerable repute, the Gentleman's and Ladies' 
 Diary. The volumes from 1784 to 1794 contain many 
 solutions of questions in mathematics or general 
 philosophy to which his name is attached. He 
 obtained two of the prizes awarded by the editors." 
 
 Quoting from " An Account of the Early Mathe- 
 matical and Philosophical Writings of the late Dr 
 Dalton," by Mr T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., of Burn- 
 ley, Dr Henry continues his remarks on the Diaries, 
 and Dalton's contributions. " The selection of ques- 
 tions for the year 1787 embraced nearly alPthe branches 
 
Contributions to the {( Diaries." 55 
 
 of mathematics then cultivated by English geometers ; 
 and yet he correctly solved thirteen out of the list of 
 fifteen, the prize question included. His solution of 
 question 850 is inserted at length in the Diary, and 
 is probably the earliest printed specimen of his mathe- 
 matical writings. He was equally successful in the 
 following year, 1788, and from his replies to questions 
 in general philosophy, appears to have already be- 
 stowed some attention on chemistry, and to be 
 conversant with some French writers on that science. 
 Mechanics and fluxions had also engaged his atten- 
 tion. On the appearance of the Ladies* Diary for 
 1789, Mr Dalton must have felt himself amply 
 rewarded for all his previous disappointments ; for, 
 besides obtaining insertion of his answers to all the 
 philosophical queries, and to three out of eleven solu- 
 tions sent to the questions in the mathematical 
 department, he was awarded the "prize of six diaries." 
 In the Gentleman's Diary for the same year his name 
 is announced as having furnished correct solutions to 
 seven of the mathematical questions, of which that 
 to question 591, relating to a case of hydrostatical 
 equilibrium, is inserted at length, and gained him his 
 first position amongst the correspondents to that 
 noted and difficult serial. The Ladies' Diary and 
 supplement for 1790 conveyed the gratifying intel- 
 ligence, that he had been awarded the highest prize 
 of ten diaries for his masterly solution of the prize 
 question." 
 
 A few extracts from the Ladies' Diary, containing 
 some queries and solutions by Dalton on questions 
 
 * The Ladies' Diary is said to have been conducted by Dr C. Hutton, 
 of the Royal Military Academy. 
 
$6 John Dalton. 
 
 apparently incongruous with his usual studies may 
 interest the reader ; they were furnished by my late 
 friend Dr George Wilson of Edinburgh to Dr Henry 
 of Manchester. 
 
 QUERY i. Whether, to a generous mind, is the conferring, or 
 receiving an obligation the greater pleasure ? 
 
 Answered by John Dalton as follows: 
 The pleasure arising from conferring an obligation, especially 
 if it be effected without much inconvenience, is pure, and must 
 be a grateful sensation to a generous mind ; but that arising 
 from receiving an obligation is often mixed with the unpleasing 
 reflection of inability to remunerate the benefactor. It is pretty 
 clear, therefore, that the pleasure of conferring an obligation 
 must exceed that of receiving one. 
 
 QUERY 2. Is it possible for a person of sensibility and virtue, 
 who has once felt the passion of love in the fullest extent that 
 the human heart is capable of receiving it (being by death, or 
 some other circumstance, for ever deprived of the object of its 
 wishes), ever to feel an equal passion for any other object ? 
 
 Answered by John Dalton as follows: 
 It will be generally allowed that in sustaining the disappoint- 
 ments incident to life, true fortitude would guard us from the 
 extremes of insuperable melancholy and stoic insensibility, both 
 being incompatible with your own happiness and the good of 
 mankind. If, therefore, the passion of love have not acquired 
 too great an ascendency over the reason, we may, I think, con- 
 clude that true magnanimity may support the shock without 
 eventually feeling the mental powers and affections enervated 
 and destroyed by it, and consequently that the query may be 
 answered in the affirmative. However, if this passion be too 
 strong, when compared with the other faculties of the mind, it 
 may be feared that the shock will enfeeble it, so as to render 
 the exercise of its functions in future much more limited than 
 before. 
 
 The following letter of Dalton's to his friend 
 
A new line of thought. 57 
 
 William Alderson of Eaglesfield, shows a new walk of 
 study, and is highly characteristic of the writer : 
 
 " KENDAL, 8 mo. t afh, 1788. 
 
 " RESPECTED FRIEND, Happening a while ago to 
 be in company where the topic of conversation was 
 the derivation of surnames, a subject quite new to 
 me, and being, as thou may remember, inquisitive 
 into things seemingly involved in mystery, and which 
 require some sagacity to unravel, I could not help 
 afterwards reflecting a little upon it. The substance 
 of my reflections, and the information I could get 
 being put to paper, will run nearly as follows. There 
 is very little utility arising from the subject, but a 
 small matter of curiosity, which I thought might not 
 be altogether unacceptable. 
 
 "Anciently in this kingdom it seems to have been 
 customary to have only one name, that is, what is 
 now called the Christian name ; and that not being 
 sufficient for distinction, others were added to it, such 
 as were most fit to answer that end, such as whose 
 son a person was, what trade he was, where he came 
 from, &c., which, however, were subject to change, 
 according to the caprice of the neighbourhood or 
 fancy of the person, till the Legislature found it 
 necessary that they should be fixed, to prevent the 
 evils that might otherwise arise. 
 
 " INVESTIGATION OF ENGLISH SURNAMES. 
 
 "ist. Of those ending in -SON. 
 
 " We have a large tribe of these from Christian or 
 first names, such as John, Jack, Harry, Dick, Richard, 
 William, Will, Tom, Robin, Robert, Ben, Allen, &c. 
 
58 John Dalton. 
 
 that is, the father being called John, his son was 
 called John's-son, or Johnson, &c. 
 
 "Also diminutives of some of these; as Dickin, Wil- 
 kin, Tomlin, Jenkin, &c. -son; that is, little Dick's 
 son, &c. 
 
 " A few, probably bastards from women's names ; 
 as Ann, Elly, Matty, Nel, Patty, &c. -son. 
 
 " Some from other surnames ; as Cook, Smith, 
 Hodge, Dodge, Dod, Dob, Hood, &c. -son. 
 
 "2d. Another custom seems to have obtained in 
 the south part of the kingdom, that is, using the 
 genitive case of the father's name instead of the word 
 * son ' at the end of it ; thus we there meet with 
 Stephens, Roberts, Philips, Edwards, Harrys or 
 Harris, Jones (that is, Joan's or John's), &c., which 
 in the north are more commonly Stephenson, Robert- 
 son, &c. 
 
 " From this it may be suspected the Harris 
 families in the north were originally from the south, 
 otherwise they would most likely have been called 
 Harrisons. 
 
 " 3d. Another source of surnames we have from an- 
 cient and trading towns ; as York, Chester, Lancaster, 
 Kendal, Carlisle, Derby, Wakefield, &c. Thus an in- 
 habitant of Kendal called Tom, removing to a distant 
 place, would be called Kendal Tom, to distinguish 
 him from the other Toms of the place. Besides these, 
 a great number from places of less note ending in ton 
 (z>.,town), thwaite (a place cleared of wood) ; asBraith- 
 waite, Cros-thwaite, Lew-thwaite ; Dai-ton (a village in 
 Lancashire meaning Dale-town), New-ton, Penning- 
 ton, Pockling-ton, Nor-ton, Wes-ton, &c. To these 
 may be added a few from the names of nations; as 
 
English Surnames. 59 
 
 Scot, English, Ireland, French, Norman (i.e., a fol- 
 lower of William the Conqueror from Normandy), 
 Wales, &c. 
 
 " Also a number derived from the situation of their 
 dwellings; as Fell, Gill, How, Hill, Bank, Bottom, 
 Beck, Brook, Wall, Penn (i.e., Hill), Mount, Slack, 
 Cragg, Moor, Moss, Tarn, Pit, &c. 
 
 " 4th. A vast number from trades, &c. ; as Smith, 
 Wright, Weaver, Webster, Waller, Mason, Fisher, 
 Hunter, Fiddler, Piper, Harper, Walker, Cleaver, 
 Slater, Sadler, Herd, Cook, Clark, Steward, Butler, 
 Baker, Brewer, Gardener, Roper, Fletcher (one that 
 makes bows and arrows), Glover, Barber, Ridler, 
 Stamper, Shepherd, Turner, Forster (i.e., Forester), 
 &c. Also from articles, &c., dealt in; as Hay, Stone, 
 Steele, Bell, Wood, Peat, Lindsey, Wolsey, Cotton, 
 &c. 
 
 " 5th. From animals ; as Fox, Tod (an old word for 
 a fox), Stag, Hinde, Kid, Lamb, Drake, Duck, Cock, 
 Peacock, Salmon, Pike, Trout, &c. 
 
 "6th. Some adjectives; as Black, Blake, Dun, White, 
 Brown, Green, Grey, Petty, Wild, Swift, Smart, Sharp, 
 Wise, Young, &c. 
 
 " 7th. A few ending in man ; as Bulman, Cow-man, 
 Bow-man, Chap-man, Priest-man, Spel-man, Wool- 
 man, &c. Also several in ley; as Ains-ley, Bay-ley, 
 Bew-ley, Brink-ley, Cow-ley, Hors-ley, Chalk-ley, 
 Hay-ley, Hart-ley, Priest-ley, &c. Ley is an old 
 word for scythe, also for ploughed land now resting 
 for the scythe. 
 
 " 8th. Compound names of pretty obvious origin ; as 
 Brock-bank, Sow-den, Lang-mire, Mire-house, Water- 
 house, Salt-house, Cross-field, Swin-burn, Burn-yeat 
 
60 John Dalton. 
 
 (N.B. Bourn is Saxon, meaning a brook), Black-stock, 
 Light-foot, Young-husband, Tod-hunter, Drink-water, 
 &c. 
 
 " I might pursue the subject farther, as also of the 
 origin of the names of places, &c., but I leave it to 
 antiquarians. 
 
 " However, as I have explained my own name, I 
 must do the same with thine. Alderson means un- 
 doubtedly older-son, old being pronounced aid in this 
 county, where possibly the name originated ; but it 
 is not easily made appear how such a name rose. 
 Please to accept the best respects of thy friend, 
 
 "JOHN DALTON. 
 
 " WILLIAM ALDERSON, 
 Eaglesfield." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Nature is not an inert mass ; and to him who can comprehend her vast 
 sublimity, she reveals herself as the creative force of the universe 
 before all time, eternal, ever active, she calls to life all things, whether 
 perishable or imperishable" SCHELLING. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY PURSUITS METEOROLOGICAL LABOURS AND 
 CORRESPONDENCE BOTANY ENTOMOLOGY STUDY OF MAN 
 AND THAT OF MEDICINE CONTEMPLATED HIS FATHER'S WILL 
 IN DISPUTE, AND NOVEL ARBITRATION LEAVES KENDAL FOR 
 MANCHESTER. 
 
 |N his hours of comparative relaxation, John 
 Dalton took his constitutional walk, and 
 on Saturdays extended his rambles o'er the 
 country side ; admiring the grand pano- 
 rama the sweeping outline of mountain range and 
 fertile valleys in the environs of Kendal ; and medi- 
 tating much on the geognosy of the district, its fauna, 
 flora, and natural history in general. Like Goethe, 
 Alexander von Humboldt, and others who paved 
 their way to distinction by researches in the domain 
 of natural science, Dalton early engaged in the study 
 of botany, entomology, and more especially mete- 
 orology. The friendship of Mr Gough naturally 
 exercised a beneficial influence over Dalton's scientific 
 endeavours. In that day when Buffon, Goldsmith, 
 and peripatetic herbalists held sway as naturalists, 
 and Linnaeus was only to be found in the hands of 
 the learned, it is doubtful if any other library than 
 that of the blind philosopher of Kendal was accessible 
 
62 John Dalton. 
 
 to him, from which he could even cull a knowledge of 
 the descriptive forms of plants and the common kinds 
 of insects. And this kind of information, little more 
 than a systematic nomenclature in the hands of the 
 renowned Swede, was but elementary and limited in 
 scope compared with the needs of a true science. As 
 far as the study of meteorology was concerned, Dalton 
 could have no better guide than Mr Gough himself. 
 
 Dalton's love of nature did not find expression in 
 the sentimental language of Rousseau ; it was neither 
 exalted nor demonstrative, and probably owed less 
 to his emotional or pleasurable instincts than to his 
 innate scientific ardour, ever aiming at the grasp of 
 the unproclaimed and the unknown. Imbued with the 
 faculty of originating fresh paths of inquiry, and pos- 
 sessing a genetic force to cope with difficulties whence- 
 soever arising, he would seem to have anticipated 
 Schelling's observation, that philosophy advances not 
 so much by the answers to difficult problems, as by 
 the starting of new problems, and by asking questions 
 which no one else would think of asking. 
 
 In his endeavours to elucidate the phenomena in- 
 cluded under the general term of meteorology phe- 
 nomena so fitful and protean in character on the shores 
 of England, and markedly pluviose around Kendal 
 he fell upon an inquiry consonant with his untiring 
 industry and careful methods of observation. The 
 subject, comprehensive in itself, also involved many 
 questions which had never been asked, and as many 
 more equally worthy of solution. Meteorology had 
 an historical basis as old as Aristotle himself, and 
 though the theme of many minds in many countries, 
 yet so little progress had been obtained since the 
 
His first Meteorological efforts. 63 
 
 days of the Greek naturalist, that it presented almost 
 a new field for John Dalton's patient investigation. 
 Observation and observations ever repeated were, 
 from the very nature of the elements in operation, 
 essential to unravel the phenomena grouped under 
 the subject-matter of the weather, the seasons, and 
 climate; and these, again, had to be viewed under the 
 modifying influence of heat, electricity, and more 
 strictly astronomical causes. The general laws of 
 physics and chemistry, and due recognition of the 
 researches of Galileo, Torricelli, and Newton, formed 
 an instructive basis upon which future labourers 
 in the field must rest their lines of inquiry. All 
 this would be patent *to Dalton, and the encoun- 
 tering of difficulties at the very threshold would 
 really offer the largest inducement to him to per- 
 severe in . the pursuit. As the thermometer, baro- 
 meter, and rain-gauge were the first requirements in 
 the physical investigation of meteorology, he thought 
 the best way of knowing how to use them, was to know 
 how to construct them ab initio ad finem. Besides, 
 philosophical instruments of all kindswere exceedingly 
 scarce and dear in the north of England ; and John's 
 pecuniary means were not commensurate with any 
 extraordinary outlay. 
 
 As Dalton's meteorological labours will be more 
 appropriately discussed in the next chapter, all that 
 is needful here is to trace the beginning of his work, 
 and to show by his letters how his enthusiasm led him 
 to try and indoctrinate others with the same scientific 
 penchant. From personal inquiry I am led to infer 
 that Dalton's first meteorological observations were 
 made in the year 1787-88 ; and this is confirmed, or 
 
64 John D alt on. 
 
 rather more clearly set forth, by Dr Henry, who re- 
 ports that he found among his friend's papers a small 
 quarto volume entitled "Philosophical Memoirs, 
 begun at Kendal, 1787; auctore, Johanne Dalton ; " 
 and that it was "loosely attached to two similar 
 books, which carry down the history of his inquiries to 
 1801." This journal records little of interest between 
 June 1787 and the end of the year, except the 
 measurement of some hills near Kendal by means of 
 the barometer. The year 1788 commences with a 
 " memorandum of the going of two hygrometers, or 
 pieces of whipcord, each being eight feet five inches 
 long, stretched by equal weights, and similarly 
 situated along an oaken post in the school, where 
 was no fire." These experiments are followed by a 
 table of times when the aurora boreales have been 
 seen, together with the moon's age at the several times. 
 Subjoined is a letter to Miss Hudson, one of his 
 Eaglesfield pupils, couched in terms to imply that 
 Cumberland villages had young women of education 
 capable of grasping decimals and the use of a scientific 
 instrument. The letter is given in extenso, to show his 
 mode of rain-gauge and calculations : 
 
 KENDAL, 8 mo., 4tk, 1788. 
 
 RESPECTED FRIEND, The study of Nature having been with 
 me a predominant inclination, it is not unlikely that I should 
 be ready to prompt others to the same. I have been tempted 
 to think that thou would take a pleasure in remarking the 
 quantity of rain that falls with you each day, if thou knew with 
 what facility the same is effected. I have observed here that 
 people who are entirely ignorant of the matter suppose it a 
 work of great labour and difficulty, and which can only be done 
 by those they call great scholars. This, however, is a great 
 mistake. A very little knowledge of mensuration is sufficient 
 
His Rain-Gauge. 
 
 for the theory of it, and nothing but plain addition is wanted in 
 the practice. 
 
 The annexed scheme will represent the most simple appara- 
 tus : A B is a three-foot stool, to be fixed in a garden bed, &c. 
 A C and B D two posts fixed in the same 
 about II or 12 inches, and support the arm 
 C D, which is i^ inch broad and I deep ; 
 the pipe of the funnel exactly fits the hole 
 in C D, keeping the funnel firm and level. 
 The funnel may be 6, 7, or more inches 
 over ; and if it have an upright rim of an 
 inch, it is better, but will do without it. 
 Also, it should be painted to save it from 
 the weather. A common glass bottle will 
 hold all the water that falls at any time in 
 24 hours, if the funnel be on only 6 or 7 
 inches diameter ; except, perhaps, two or three days in the year. 
 A pair of scales, with a few small weights, axe requisite. 
 
 Now, to determine the depth of water that falls on any level 
 surface from the above, we have the following tables made for 
 funnels of 6 and 7 inches, wherein are set down the depths, 
 corresponding to the several weights, in decimal fractions. And 
 any person who has learned mensuration will be able to adapt 
 a table to any funnel, by knowing that 62^ Ibs. Avoirdupois 
 equal I cubic foot of water. 
 
 Suppose there is caught 
 with a funnel of 6 inches 
 
 WEIGHTS. 
 
 DIAMETERS OF FUNNELS. 
 
 diameter i Ib. 3 oz. 5! drs. 
 
 Ib. Av. 
 
 6 inches. 
 
 7 inches. 
 
 of water, required the depth. 
 
 i 
 
 9778 
 
 7184 
 
 
 oz. 
 
 
 
 i Ib. = -9778 
 
 8 
 
 4889 
 
 3592 
 
 
 4 
 
 "2445 
 
 "1796 
 
 2 OZ. = '1222 
 
 2 
 
 '1222 
 
 0898 
 
 I = '06 1 I 
 
 I 
 
 drs. 
 
 0611 
 
 0449 
 
 4 drs. = -0153 
 
 8 
 4 
 
 '0306 
 
 'oi S3 
 
 '0225 
 
 01 1 2 
 
 i = -0038 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 0076 
 0038 
 
 0056 
 '0028 
 
 i = -0010 
 
 i 
 
 0019 
 
 '0014 
 
 * 
 
 ! 
 
 ooio 
 
 0007 
 
 J 
 
 i 
 
 0005 
 
 0004 
 
 1-1812 
 
 
 
 
 That is, the depth that would have fallen on a level surface 
 
 E 
 
66 John Dalton. 
 
 will be i inch, I tenth, 8 hundreds, I thousand, and 2 ten 
 thousand parts of an inch. 
 
 Suppose with a funnel of 7 inches there is caught i oz. 7^ drs. 
 
 That is, 6 hundredth, 5 ten 
 hundredth or thousandth, 9 ten 
 thousandth parts of an inch . 
 
 0659 
 
 r N.B. The water is supposed to be taken at stated hours, as 
 6, or 8, or 10 at night. 
 
 By this time I apprehend the difficulty generally supposed to 
 attend this matter is removed. I should be glad if thou, or any 
 other in your neighbourhood, on whose accuracy one might 
 rely, would find it agreeable and convenient to notice this 
 matter ; but, however, I do not mean to request it, but only to 
 show the easiness with which it 's done. Ignorance, no doubt, 
 will look upon this as a trifling and childish amusement, but 
 few of this nature are such in a philosophical sense. If to be 
 able to predict the state of the weather, with tolerable precision, 
 by which great advantages might accrue to the husbandman, 
 to the mariner, and to mankind in general, be at all an object 
 worthy of pursuit, that person who has in any manner contributed 
 to attain it cannot be said to have lived or to have laboured in 
 vain.* I am respectfully, thy friend, JOHN DALTON. 
 
 To SARAH HUDSON, 
 Eaglesfield. 
 
 Dalton's mode of making thermometers is described 
 in the following letter to Elihu Robinson. In pre- 
 senting these instruments to those who befriended 
 his early youth, he proved his gratitude for past 
 favours, no less than a wish to see the struggling 
 science of meteorology promoted by men of real 
 capacity and worth. 
 
 * The caligraphy of this and the following letter is nearly as perfect 
 as the work of the engraver. 
 
Makes his own Thermometers. 67 
 
 KENDAL, 8 mo. 2$d, 1788. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN, Herewith thou wilt receive, I hope safely, 
 two thermometers with somewhat longer scales than the former ; 
 please to take thy choice of the three, to let John Fletcher 
 have the next choice, and to reserve the other till my brother 
 comes. 
 
 You will probably chuse by the length of the scales ; but 
 those with the least bulbs will soonest come to the temperature 
 of the surrounding medium. However, the largest, I apprehend, 
 will rise or fall to within a degree of the proper place in half an 
 hour in the air. Thou may try whether that thou hast already 
 is with these two or not, by dipping the bulbs into a bason of 
 water for five minutes. 
 
 Possibly the manner of making them may not be unentertain- 
 ing. A small receptacle being fixed on the end of the tube, a 
 quantity of mercury is poured into it, part of which runs down 
 the tube so as to half fill the bulb, and then stops, the tube 
 being still filled with mercury, which is unable to fall by reason 
 of the pressure of the air in the bulb. Then a candle is applied 
 to the bulb, which, rarefying the air contained in it, raises the 
 mercury in the tube quickly to the top, and then it escapes in 
 bubbles through the mercury in the receptacle. This done, it 
 is cooled again, when the internal air contracting, another 
 portion of mercury falls down into the bulb ; and this opera- 
 tion is repeated till all the air is expelled. Then the mer- 
 cury is heated above boiling water, and the end of the tube 
 melted and closed at the same time, when, the mercury sub- 
 siding, there is left a vacuum ; this is done chiefly to keep the 
 moisture, dust, &c., out of the tube. The whole is then put 
 into boiling water, when the barometer stands at 30 inches, and 
 the boiling point thereby determined ; afterwards (if circumstances 
 admit) the freezing point is found by putting it into a mixture 
 of water and pounded ice, or water and snow, which, when 
 melting before the fire, keep at an invariable point (32) till the 
 whole is melted. If this cannot be done, as in summer, it may 
 be set by another thermometer, and the scale adapted accord- 
 ingly. N.B. As the freezing points of these two were not 
 found on account of the season, it will not be amiss to try 
 whether they are accurate, when a convenient season comes. 
 
68 
 
 John Dalton. 
 
 The principles on which they act need little explication ; as 
 mercury, like most other bodies, is subject to be contracted by 
 cold and expanded by heat ; and as the capacity of the bulb 
 remains always rilled, the total variation of the mercury in 
 bulk, it is evident, will be manifested in the tube. 
 
 The range of the thermometer is little in these parts compared 
 with the more northern. At Petersburgh the summer heat is 
 equal to ours, but in winter severe cold predominates ; the 
 thermometer is frequently found 40 or 60 below nothing ; and 
 in Siberia it has been observed even 100 or 120 below nothing. 
 On the contrary, in the burning sands of Africa it reaches 120 
 or 140 above nothing. Is not the internal principle of heat in 
 man and other animals a wonderful phenomenon, that can 
 sustain these two extremes without any sensible variation? 
 Remark. Reaumur's scale (used by the French and others) 
 counts from o at the freezing point to 80 at the boiling point ; 
 consequently 2j degrees Fahrenheit are equal to I of Reaumur. 
 
 ABSTRACT OF MY JOURNAL FOR THE PRESENT YEAR. 
 
 THERMOMETER WITHOUT. 
 
 RAIN. 
 
 INCHES AND 
 DECIMALS. 
 
 WET DAYS. 
 
 AURORA 
 
 BOREALES. 
 
 
 Mean. 
 
 Highest 
 
 Lowest 
 
 
 
 
 i mo. 
 
 39' 
 
 47 
 
 20 
 
 5-6160 
 
 20 
 
 6 
 
 2 mo. 
 3 m o- 
 
 3%'3 
 36-8 
 
 47 
 50 
 
 28 
 18 
 
 3-3064 
 2-8183 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 4 mo. 
 
 4&J 
 
 69 
 
 32 
 
 2-9047 
 
 16 
 
 ii 
 
 5 mo. 
 
 53' 
 
 80 
 
 38 
 
 1-1872 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 6 mo. 
 
 57 '3 
 
 80 
 
 45 
 
 2'3*37 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 /mo. 
 
 56-8 
 
 68 
 
 47 
 
 7 '0323 
 
 28 
 
 I 
 
 5 mo., 19. 
 26. 
 
 7 mo., 3. 
 
 8 mo., 16. 
 
 THUNDER-STORMS. 
 
 2 P.M., distant, W. 
 
 7 P.M., frequent loud peals, very near. 
 
 6 P.M., frequent peals, some very near. 
 
 7J- P.M., distant about 8 miles S.E., but loud and 
 
 tremendous ; about 20 or 30 flashes were observed in as many 
 minutes, and the reports of each heard through the cloud, was 
 but just visible above the horizon ; the zenith clear. My love 
 to Cousin Ruth, self, and family, JOHN DALTON. 
 
His Barometers. 69 
 
 Dr Henry, who had access to a series of letters 
 written by Dalton to Mr Peter Crosthwaite of Keswick 
 in the. year 1787-94, relating almost entirely to mete- 
 orological observations made simultaneously by the 
 two friends at their respective stations, Kendal and 
 Keswick, for the purpose of comparison, informs his 
 readers that " Dalton supplied Mr Crosthwaite with a 
 barometer and thermometer of his own construction, 
 for which he charged the modest sums of eighteen 
 shillings and five shillings. It is true that the baro- 
 meter was not a very refined instrument, for in a 
 letter to Mr Crosthwaite, May 24, 1788, he describes 
 minutely the mode of its construction. It is obvious, 
 that as he omits to boil or even heat the mercury 
 after it is poured into the tube, both air and moisture 
 must remain attached to the tube, and mingled with 
 the mercury. This imperfection he seems to have 
 discovered, for he writes soon afterwards : * I intend 
 to renew mine as soon as convenient ; if thou do the 
 same, be careful in undoing it, and attend to the 
 cautions I give. Be sure to rub the inside of the tube 
 well with warm dry cotton or wool ; and have the 
 mercury, when poured in, at least milk-warm; for 
 moisture is above all things else to be avoided, as it 
 depresses the mercury far more than a particle of air 
 does : mine is, as I have said, at least y^-th of an inch 
 too low, and yet it is clear of air, and to all appear- 
 ances dry; but I doubt not but attending to these 
 precautions, which I knew nothing of when it was 
 filled, will raise it up to its proper height.' Again, 
 in January 1793, he observes: I consider both our 
 barometers as inaccurate with respect to the distance 
 of the basins and scales ; but this is of little importance, 
 
70 John Dalton. 
 
 provided they be true in other respects ; this only 
 serves to show the relative heights of the places to the 
 sea, which we can come at better by other means.' " 
 
 Botany also came in for a share of his correspond- 
 ence, and I am again indebted to Dr Henry's quota- 
 tions from the Crosthwaite series of letters : 
 
 " Dalton informs Mr Crosthwaite that he had ' dried 
 and pressed a good many plants, and pasted them 
 down to sheets of white paper, and found that they 
 look very pretty, and attract the attention of all, both 
 learned and unlearned ; this has induced me to think 
 that a tolerable collection of them, treated in this 
 manner, would be a very proper object in the museum. 
 I cannot say what kind of recompense would be 
 equivalent to such a task, but think I could engage 
 to fill a book of two quires for half-a-guinea.' He 
 afterwards writes, October 4, 1791: 'I have at 
 length completed the book of plants, and made an 
 index both to the Linnaean and English names. I 
 am not so confident in my abilities as to maintain 
 that I have given no plant a wrong name, but I 
 believe the skilful botanist will find very few, if any, 
 miscalled.' Mr Isaac Braithwaite remembers, that 
 once when Dalton was botanising with a companion, 
 * they had a narrow escape from a bull that attacked 
 them in a field ; Dalton saved himself by climbing 
 into a tree, or over the wall.' " 
 
 Dalton's classification of the Kendal flora extended 
 no further than the lines of systematic botany. There 
 was little more to be gained at the time, for owing to 
 the neglect of the older authors, such as Malpighi, 
 structural botany was little cultivated ; and till the 
 advent of Humboldt and Bonpland, geographical 
 
His Botanical Pursuits. 71 
 
 botany, so full of general interest, had scarcely been 
 heard of in England. In short, a true botany had as 
 yet no place among the sciences, and Dalton, like 
 others of his day, were busy collecting and learning 
 the names of plants without any clear insight into the 
 deeper meanings of phytology. 
 
 His herbarium or collection of specimens of plants 
 around Kendal is preserved in the Public Free 
 Library of Manchester. According to Dr Angus 
 Smith, Mr T. P. Heywood of the Isle of Man has 
 eleven volumes of Dalton's Hortus siccus. The first 
 is a thick volume, containing the general title-page, 
 "Hortus siccus , seu Plantarum diver sarum in Agris 
 Kendal vicinis sponte nascentium Specimina, Opere et 
 sttidio Johannis Dalton collecta, et secundum Classes et 
 Or dines disposita. 1790." 
 
 With a mind ever on the alert for novelty of study 
 and treatment, the insect tribe came under his sur- 
 veillance, along with botanical forms. Some of the 
 butterflies he caught and prepared found their way 
 to Mr Crosthwaite's museum at Keswick ; other speci- 
 mens and groups of various entomological genera got 
 scattered among his friends, and were lost sight of 
 probably owing to their imperfect preparation or 
 preservation. 
 
 It would appear that Dalton was occasionally 
 occupied in the years 1787-89 with observations on 
 the changes of caterpillars, and on the power of a 
 vacuum or immersion in water to destroy or suspend 
 vitality in snails, mites, and maggots. In sending to 
 his correspondent, Mr Crosthwaite, specimens of 
 butterflies and ichneumon flies for the museum, he 
 observed, "They may perhaps be deemed puerile, 
 
72 John Dalton. 
 
 but nothing that enjoys animal life, or that vegetates, 
 is beneath the dignity of a naturalist to examine." 
 
 His collecting of insects, and his physiological 
 experiments on mites and maggots just referred to, 
 came to the ears of the public, and created some talk 
 and curiosity, if not distinct disapproval. The tradi- 
 tions of sorcery, and the beliefs in 
 
 " Adder's fork* and blind- worm's sting 
 For a charm of powerful trouble," 
 
 still slumbered along the mountain-sides, and super- 
 stition, in all its hydra-headed forms, lent wings to the 
 imagination of the unlettered class ; so that insinua- 
 tions, promoted by the twisting influence of an enemy, 
 might have proved damaging to John Dalton's more 
 humane reputation. His studious habit and Quaker's 
 garb, and probably the idea of his being an " herbalist 
 and half doctor," that attributed his snail-gathering to 
 a medical purpose, saved him from the declamation of 
 gossiping women. 
 
 Inasmuch as he had a marked deficiency in the 
 perception of colours, it would not be the attractive 
 rainbow-coloured wings of the butterfly hanging over 
 lovely roses, or the emerald coat of the beetle shining 
 amid the dusky moss ; nor the beauteous world of 
 light, and the radiance of colours and shapes spread 
 around 
 
 " In air, in water, and on earth, 
 A thousand gems were struggling forth " 
 
 that captivated his entomological zeal. His choice 
 seems rather to have been determined by a love of 
 
 * " Adder's wisdom I have learned, 
 
 To fence my ears against thy sorceries." MILTON. 
 
From Mites up to Man. 73 
 
 knowledge for its own sake, and a wish to embrace 
 the study of animated nature within his expansive 
 sphere of observation. These natural history pursuits 
 were a happy relief to his scholastic calling ; they 
 offered fresh fields and pastures new, correcting his 
 more dry-as-dust studies, and giving him higher and 
 healthier views of the outer world. The beetle and 
 the butterfly would in time be viewed by Dalton not 
 as individual species only to be examined per se, but 
 as types and illustrations of generic form ; and these 
 again as but minor links in the great and apparently 
 endless chain of organic life. Advancing onwards 
 from this initiative step, the larger scheme of organi- 
 sation would force itself upon his attention, and, as 
 a corollary, the workings of the human machine, the 
 investigation of which proved a large incentive to his 
 study of the structure and physiology of man. 
 
 As he had no knowledge of the anatomy or ground- 
 work of man's physical nature, Dalton fell upon a 
 plan of his own to ascertain the mode of building up 
 and sustentation of the human frame, and the meta- 
 morphoses which the solids and fluids of nutriment 
 undergo in the digestive and respiratory processes 
 of the economy. His method of inquiry, if crude, 
 rested its evidence on the application of the balance, 
 and so far claimed the consideration of accuracy. It 
 consisted in his daily weighing his own ingesta and 
 egesta, including, of course, the perspiration, in the 
 hope of discovering man's positive wants as an animal ; 
 the quantity of food and drink essential to healthy life ; 
 and the mode in which nature disposed of the excre- 
 tory and effete matters of the body. However curious 
 and apparently foreign to all but the strictly pro- 
 
74 John Dalton. 
 
 fessional class such an investigation will appear, it 
 is strongly indicative of Dalton's love'of research, and 
 of the deep interest he took in the laws of vitality 
 affecting man's constitution. 
 
 This new experimental investigation, far from agree- 
 able in pursuit, usurped his attention for some time, 
 and gave a new direction to his thoughts of the 
 future. If the proper study of mankind be man, why 
 pursue laborious teaching, that saddens the patience 
 rather than improves the intellect, when the laws of 
 physiology await elucidation, and the pathological 
 conditions of man demand his best energies and skill 
 to overcome ? Such thoughts evidently possessed 
 Dalton when he wrote the following letter to Elihu 
 Robinson, soliciting his opinion on a change of pro- 
 fession that of medicine being most to his mind, and 
 evidently springing from the pursuits just noticed: 
 
 KENDAL, 4 mo., %th, 1790. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN, The occasion of my addressing thee at this 
 time is a projected change of my occupation, which I have been 
 meditating on for some time past, in which thy countenance or 
 disapprobation cannot fail of having due weight. 
 
 I have but one objection to my present business, which, how- 
 ever, is a very material one, and a very rational one ; that is, 
 the emoluments attending it are not sufficient to support a small 
 family with the decency and reputation I could wish, should it 
 fall to my lot to have it to do. As to the making of a fortune 
 by it, that is entirely out of the question. I much doubt whether 
 there is one person in the kingdom (amongst friends, I mean) 
 who has, after a laborious life, reached independence by it. 
 Indeed, very few people of a middling genius, or capacity for 
 other business, will be found willing to undertake it, for the 
 obvious reason assigned above. 
 
 I hope thou wilt not impute the above sentiments to the mo- 
 mentary chagrin of some disappointment, or to the gloom of a 
 
Desirous of Becoming a Doctor. 75 
 
 declining school, as neither of these causes exist in any degree ; 
 they are the result of mature consideration and unbiassed 
 judgment. 
 
 Thou wilt next expect I should signify what way my inclina- 
 tion has led me, as I may now be presumed capable of judging 
 for myself, after having reviewed the vast variety of trades, arts, 
 sciences, and professions with which the country abounds. 
 Though I doubt not but my inclination would yet adapt itself 
 to any business that promised to be of advantage, yet it seems 
 most 'natural to turn to such wherein literary or scientific 
 knowledge is requisite, as my pursuits and acquisitions hitherto 
 have been chiefly of this nature. At the head of these stand 
 law and physic. Whether of these professions would be more 
 likely for me to'make a livelihood, or whether would require 
 more time and expense to attain, I cannot tell ; but, interest 
 being set aside, I should much prefer the latter. 
 
 The great objections are the expense at first, and the uncer- 
 tainty of getting business afterward ; but these, though great, 
 I think, are not insurmountable. To qualify for a physician, 
 three winters' study at Edinburgh will be indispensable ; the 
 board for six months may perhaps be had'for ^10 or'^ij, and 
 the college fees will be about 12 guineas each season : the two 
 intermediate summers may be employed in some sort of business, 
 which will render the plan as frugal as possible. Now, putting 
 the case at the worst, that I spend most or all of my effects in 
 this scheme, and cannot succeed at last, I may then return to 
 my present employ, as places are frequently vacant nearly as 
 profitable as this. 
 
 Upon the whole the plan does not appear to me chimerical, 
 and I should be glad to know thy sentiments upon it, at or 
 before the time of the ensuing meeting at Lancaster. I have 
 not yet acquainted friends here with it. Please also to inform 
 us how and where my mother is. Our quarterly meeting is on 
 the 1 8 and 19 instant. 
 
 Were I disposed to amuse thee a little, I might add some 
 experiments I have lately made to determine the quantity of 
 matter discharged from the body daily by insensible perspira- 
 tion, &c., which I made for two weeks successively ; and other 
 particulars, as that I have practised as a quack for some time 
 
76 John Dalton. 
 
 past with good success ; but further of these some other oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 I hope this will find you all well, as it leaves us, and am thy 
 affectionate cousin, JOHN DALTON. 
 
 To ELIHU ROBINSON, 
 Eaglesfield, 
 
 near Cockermouth. 
 
 Mr Robinson's reply intimated his wish to see 
 Dalton continue in his own groove of schoolmaster, 
 as being suited to his talents, which would " not only 
 shine, but be really useful in that noble labour of 
 teaching youth." Lest he should run counter to any 
 settled opinions of his friend, he continues : " Now, 
 after using so much freedom, I may own, I doubt not 
 but thy genius, unshaken perseverance, and steady 
 application may gain a competent knowledge in any 
 profession, and I am far from thinking that of physic 
 would be a misconstruction or misapplication of thy 
 talents, parts, or genius. So I much desire thou 
 mayest be guided by best wisdom in all thy pursuits." 
 
 He also consulted his uncle, Thomas Greenup, then 
 in London, on the subject, and cannot be said to have 
 obtained much encouragement. Thus wrote Mr 
 Greenup : " As to the two professions of law and 
 physic, if thou wishest to be at the head of one of 
 those professions that is, to be at the bar or to be a 
 physician I think they are both totally out of the 
 reach of a person in thy circumstances. ... If 
 thou art tired of being a teacher, and wishest to 
 change it for some more lucrative or agreeable em- 
 ployment, and couldst be content, instead of becoming 
 a physician or barrister, to move in the humbler 
 sphere of apothecary or attorney, thou mightest, 
 
A Quaker Court of Arbitration. 77 
 
 perhaps, be able, with a little capital and great in- 
 dustry, to establish thyself in one of these." 
 
 Here it becomes necessary to notice a family dis- 
 pute of the brothers Dalton, arising out of their 
 father's will, where John, the younger son, was the 
 complainant. Joseph Dalton died in 1787, leaving a 
 widow, an only daughter, and two sons. In the dis- 
 posal of his affairs he seems to have laboured under 
 the belief that the property which came to him on 
 his brother Jonathan's death was an entail of their 
 father's, and that he could not meddle with it, and 
 that it must necessarily fall to his oldest son, Jonathan. 
 John Dalton, on the other hand, felt sure that his 
 father wished to make no distinction between his two 
 sons, and argued for a more equal distribution of his 
 father's effects. John did not think of applying to a 
 court of law there, indeed, he would have been non- 
 suited but, in the spirit of George Fox and what may 
 be termed a high moral equity, solicited the mediation 
 of the Friends' monthly meeting on his behalf. This 
 mode of procedure cannot fail to strike the reader as 
 a denominational novelty of a startling kind, and so 
 it is. And though seldom brought to bear upon tes- 
 tamentary matters, such a court of arbitration, con- 
 sisting of two or more members the chiefs and 
 elders of Quakerism is a happy exemplification 
 of their peaceful attitude as a religious body, and their 
 laudable wish not only to avoid the meshes of the 
 law, but so to counsel the brethren that they may 
 live in amity and peace. In the instance before us 
 the good purposes of the arbitration, however the 
 decision was made, was best demonstrated in the fact 
 that Jonathan and John Dalton continued in brotherly 
 
78 John Dalton. 
 
 affection a circumstance but rarely seen after the 
 antagonisms and conflict of a lawsuit involving the 
 rights of property, and too often a man's personal 
 status. 
 
 John Dalton's statement of the case in the affair 
 betwixt his brother and self is set forth in the follow- 
 ing articles ; his arguments in support of these will be 
 given in extenso in the Appendix, so as not to disturb 
 the general narrative : 
 
 "Article 1st. That my father, in apportioning the 
 paternal inheritance to us, has made a vastly great 
 and unusual distinction betwixt my brother and self. 
 
 " Article 2nd. That he would have placed his chil- 
 dren upon a more equitable footing if he had appre- 
 hended it was in his power to do so with reputation 
 to himself. 
 
 " Article 3rd. That it was in his power to dispose 
 of the whole of his property according as he should 
 think best ; but from a great deficiency in the know- 
 ledge of the law, and from a want of advice suited to 
 the exigencies of his situation at the time he made 
 his will, he has not availed himself of his power. 
 
 "Article 4th. That upon these considerations I 
 think myself entitled to something more out of the 
 paternal inheritance than I have yet received." 
 
 A body of Protestant Dissenters in the year 1786 
 established a New College at Manchester. This edu- 
 cational institution seems to have arisen out of the 
 Warrington Academy for Dissenters, where Dr Joseph 
 Priestley taught, as well as Dr Aikin, father of Mrs 
 Barbauld; Dr Enfield, author of "The Speaker;" and 
 Gilbert Wakefield. Dr Barnes, the principal of the 
 college, wishing for a suitable person to take the 
 
Adieu to KendaL 79 
 
 mathematical and natural philosophy course, applied 
 to Mr Gough of Kendal, who recommended John 
 Dalton to the situation vacant in 1793. The terms 
 proposed and accepted by Dalton were that he 
 should receive three guineas per session from each 
 student attending his lectures, with the proviso that 
 the total remuneration of the year should not fall 
 below ^"80 for each session often months. " Commons 
 and rooms in the college " were allotted him at 
 27, I os. per session, which being deducted from 
 the probable and stipulated sum of ^80, would leave 
 him fifty guineas clear money for his year's work. 
 
 Thus after twelve years' residence in Kendal, where 
 he had laid part of the foundation of his future emi- 
 nence, he moved to Manchester, carrying with him 
 the revised proofs of his " Meteorological Essays," 
 credentials of high promise for the future. There he 
 continued to live for the remainder of his life. His 
 first six years were engaged in the New College ; 
 afterwards he acted as a private teacher of youth, 
 and may be said to have devoted every available hour 
 to the study of science. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 " The whispering air 
 
 Sends inspiration from her shadowy heights 
 And blind recesses of the caverned rocks." WORDSWORTH. 
 
 NEW COLLEGE OF MANCHESTER " METEOROLOGICAL ESSAYS AND 
 OBSERVATIONS " THE ATMOSPHERE EVAPORATION AURORA 
 BOREALIS JOINS THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
 OF MANCHESTER CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 JN establishing the New College of Manches- 
 ter, the promoters made a worthy effort 
 to meet the growing wants of the Non- 
 conformists, then, and long afterwards, 
 denied access to the reputed "great seminaries of 
 learning" Oxford and Cambridge. Its formation 
 marked the footing and laudable expectations of the 
 followers of George Fox, the Wesleys, and that small 
 and highly intellectual band who looked to John 
 Milton and Sir Isaac Newton as their religious anti- 
 types ; and who, in the middle of the last century, 
 had a noble advocate in Dr Joseph Priestley himself 
 a worker in the Warrington Academy, the head- 
 quarters of advanced opinion in politics and religion, 
 and the foster-parent of the Manchester Institution. 
 As a college it pertained to the progressive in art and 
 science, and the embodiment of instruction suited to 
 the purposes of English life ; it sought for independent 
 habits and culture, and a sounder enlightenment than 
 " oaths of privilege," exclusive creeds, or the clothing 
 
Unitarian and Quaker Philosophers. 8 1 
 
 of knowledge in the torn and tattered garments of an 
 antiquated scholasticism. No more fitting place for 
 such an institution could have been found than cen- 
 tral Manchester, where the discoveries of Arkwright 
 and Crompton were daily in force to convert a staple 
 produce of the New World to the material advantage 
 of the Old, and the general interest of commerce and 
 civilisation ; and where the leading citizens were 
 guided by the spirit of enterprise and the ennobling 
 march of education. Moreover, the ranks of science, 
 and not less the religious sects that held aloof from 
 State Churches, were growing in numbers and merit ; 
 for who could claim higher distinction in the annals 
 of British or even Continental science than Dr Priest- 
 ley, Dr Thomas Young,* and John Dalton ? Yet 
 the former as a Unitarian, and the two latter as 
 Quakers, were as much excluded from the privileges 
 of Oxford and Cambridge as if they had been aliens 
 in race, and paganish in principles. The New College 
 served an essentially good purpose claiming special 
 attention in these pages ; it helped to foster the bent 
 and genius of John Dalton when his mind, buoyant 
 in freshness and vigour, was looking up from elemen- 
 tary teaching to the higher domain of physics and 
 chemistry for its more energetic display. 
 
 The materials from which Dalton constructed his 
 " Meteorological Essays and Observations " were 
 obtained at Kendal, indeed written and printed there, 
 
 * Professor Tyndall, in his lectures " on light" to the people of the 
 United States, nobly vindicated the high claims of that truly great 
 and sagacious philosopher, Dr Thomas Young ; and deserves the 
 thanks of all men for exposing the foul and unwarranted attack made 
 on the modest Quaker by Lord Brougham in the Edinburgh Review, 
 when criticising Young's " Original Views of Light." 
 
 F 
 
82 John Dalton. 
 
 but published at Manchester in September 1793. 
 A second edition was issued in 1834. It has been 
 justly inferred that his birthplace on the uplands, and 
 his residence up to the age of twenty-six years amid 
 the lakes and mountains of Cumberland, made him 
 familiar with the ever-varying conditions of the atmos- 
 phere the deposition of vapour on the colder sum- 
 mits in the form of cloud, and its breaking up and 
 disappearance when drifted into the warmer valleys. 
 In endeavouring to account for these phenomena, he 
 was led to those meteorological inquiries with which 
 his name is now historically associated. The example 
 of Elihu Robinson at Eaglesfield may have furnished 
 him with a taste for the pursuit, and the encourage- 
 ment of Mr Gough at Kendal gave it a wholesome 
 direction. 
 
 Seeing the advantages of Mr Gough's meteorolo- 
 gical journal, he would observe for himself; and the 
 proximate stimulus to his meteorological fervour 
 arose from the appearance of a grand aurora borealis 
 on March 24, 1787. . The first entry in his record 
 of " Observations on the Weather," &c., was on the 
 same day : " In the evening, soon after sunset, there 
 appeared a remarkable aurora borealis, the sky being 
 generally clear and the moon shining ; it spread over 
 above one-half of the hemisphere, appeared very 
 vivid, and had a quick vibratory motion; about eight 
 the heavens were overcast, and the aurora almost 
 disappeared. N.B. Three nights before, a similar 
 aurora appeared with rather a brisk wind, and the 
 day following windy and stormy." 
 
 This kind of general observations on the weather 
 sufficed for a time; then he began to record, in a 
 
Meteorological Essays. 83 
 
 tabulated form, the indications of the thermometer, 
 barometer, and hygroscope, all of his own construction, 
 and which are described in the following sentences : 
 " The barometer is graduated into sixteenths of an 
 inch. The thermometer is mercurial, with Fahren- 
 heit's scale, exposed to the open air, but free from 
 the sun. The hygroscope* is about six yards of 
 whipcord suspended from a nail, with a small weight 
 to stretch it ; its scale, length of inches, beginning 
 from no certain point the less the number, the 
 shorter the string and the greater the moisture." 
 
 Dr Henry possessed two volumes of this journal, 
 comprising the years 1787-93 in Kendal, and 1793- 
 1803 in Manchester; and it is affirmed that he con- 
 tinued his records with unbroken sequence to the 
 last day of his life. 
 
 As every fact pertaining to the aurora borealis 
 observed by Dalton in his early attempts to unravel 
 its character is interesting, it is well to note here that 
 in June 1788, about a year subsequent to his com- 
 mencing his meteorological journal, he writes to Mr 
 Crosthwaite that he had " added a fresh column 
 relative to the tides of the air. What gave rise to this 
 was a supposition that these tides may possibly give 
 birth to some of the more minute changes in the 
 weather; or that they may have some influence on 
 the aurora borealis, a phenomenon which has baffled 
 the sagacity of the last and present age to account 
 for in a satisfactory manner." 
 
 Afterwards, in February 1793, he tells his corre- 
 
 * This simplest of all modes of determining the volume of vapour in 
 the atmosphere was thrown aside by Dalton when he became acquainted 
 with Leroy's method. 
 
84 John Dalton. 
 
 spondent : " I am engaged at present in observing the 
 daily variation of the needle by an excellent compass. 
 The aurora borealis disturbs the needle pretty much, 
 perhaps half a degree or more, during its action in the 
 air. This was first discovered by an Italian philo- 
 sopher ; but I have discovered a further connection 
 betwixt these two so apparently different phenomena 
 of the aurora borealis and magnetism. Instead of 
 observing in future to what point the beams of light 
 converge, observe at what point of the compass the 
 beams rise directly iipwards, or perpendicular to the 
 horizon." 
 
 Again, in April of the same year, he writes to Mr 
 Crosthwaite : " It will be unnecessary to remark my 
 very high satisfaction with thy observations on the 
 aurora. I think no one could have done better. I 
 should wish to know whether the observation of the 
 altitude was repeated or only taken once. Upon re- 
 viewing my observations, I find the altitude here was 
 53; thine was 48; the difference, 5, gives the height 
 about 150 miles. I think the true altitude here would 
 not be 2 over or under ; probably there the altitude 
 would be within 2 of 48 also. The height of this arc 
 must therefore be very great, and much higher than the 
 atmosphere has usually been supposed. I should like 
 to have at some opportunity the notes thou hast made 
 upon the other aurora this winter, and then I think 
 thou may desist from so watchful and particular care 
 of these phenomena, as we shall hardly have another 
 opportunity so fine as that above, of determining 
 their height." 
 
 His first notion in publishing these essays was to 
 explain the nature of the barometer, thermometer, 
 
Meteorological Essays. 85 
 
 and other meteorological instruments;* and then to 
 offer a few practical rules for judging of the weather, 
 deduced from his own experience ; but as his obser- 
 vations led him to discover the relation of the aurora 
 borealis to magnetism, he was prompted to extend 
 his plan, and to address " a pretty large dissertation 
 more peculiarly to philosophers." In the first part of 
 his volume he described the Barometer, Thermometer, 
 Hygrometer, and Rain-gauges; and under each of these 
 headings offered an epitome of his own observations 
 made at Kendal, also those equally accurate of his 
 friend Mr P. Crosthwaite of Keswick, over a period 
 of five years 1788 to 1793 ; and, as far as related to 
 the barometer and rainfall, the results of three years' 
 observation made in London, and reported in the 
 Philosophical Transactions. In other sections, also 
 in the first part of his work, he records the height of 
 the clouds, the thunder-storms, hail-showers, winds, 
 frost, snow, &c., observed at Kendal and Keswick ; and 
 gives special attention to the number and character 
 of the aurorae boreales, seen by himself and friend in 
 their respective localities, from May 1786 to May 1793. 
 In the preface he leads you to infer that he had not 
 " a superabundant assistance from books " in pro- 
 viding and digesting the matter contained in his 
 volume, and therefore seeks the credit of resting his 
 opinions on an attentive consideration of facts. A 
 highly laudable claim, it must be conceded, yet not 
 without its drawbacks to the student zealous to be 
 made partaker of the history of the subject, as well as 
 
 * Meteorological Observations and Essays. By John Dalton. 8vo. 
 London : Baldwin & Cradock. My quotations are from the second 
 edition, published in 1834. 
 
.86 John Dalton. 
 
 the special services rendered by the last competitor 
 in the field of discovery. 
 
 Dalton's innate originality of method made him less 
 prone to review the labours of those who had gone 
 before him than was consistent with the position of a 
 man who, inter alia, was not reticent as to his claims for 
 novelty of research ; and this occasionally placed him 
 in a slightly equivocal attitude qua his contemporaries 
 and his predecessors. Thus in 1793, after printing 
 off his essay, he found that his theory of the trade- 
 winds had been explained by George Hadley, F.R.S., 
 in the Philosophical Transactions for 1735. Again, 
 his more complete essay on the aurora borealis, one 
 which he had no doubt would " attract the attention 
 of philosophers," had been greatly anticipated by the 
 learned Dr Halley, who formed a hypothesis to 
 account for this curious atmospheric phenomenon by 
 magnetism. It is of paramount import to those who 
 seek to enlighten the world, to trace the historical 
 development of their science, not less as a bene- 
 ficial prelude and exercise to their own efforts, than 
 as affording a groundwork to the clear understanding 
 of the subject, and the exposition of their claims to 
 discovery. Dalton's indifference to the labours of 
 others was at times more apparent than real, and owed 
 much, particularly in the investigations he made at 
 Kendal, to his not having had access to a library 
 of any great value ; at the same time, it must be 
 admitted that it more frequently sprang from his 
 own solid force of mind, and the high privilege he 
 possessed of being able to mark, learn, and with 
 equal facility interpret the phenomena of nature 
 for himself. When he came to the knowledge 
 
The A urora Borealis. 87 
 
 of having been forestalled in his researches, as in 
 the instance of De Luc's observations on the varia- 
 tions of the barometer, he, with due acknowledg- 
 ment of the fact, had the satisfaction of stating that 
 it was "a favourable circumstance to any theory 
 when it is deduced from a consideration of facts by 
 two persons independently of each other." 
 
 He gives a list of the aurorae boreales observed at 
 Kendal and Keswick, eighteen miles distant, for seven 
 years (May 1786 to May 1793), and seems to have 
 been specially struck with the appearance of the aurora 
 seen at Kendal on October 13, 1792, where a large 
 luminous horizontal arch to the southward, with one or 
 more faint concentric arches northward, was noticed ; 
 and all the arches exactly bisected by the plane 
 of the magnetic meridian. His description of this 
 southern light ending in the whole atmosphere being 
 covered with streamers, rises in eloquence with the 
 grandeur of the panorama presented to his notice : 
 " The intensity of the light, the prodigious number 
 and volatility of the beams, the grand admixture of 
 all the prismatic colours * in their utmost splendour 
 variegating the glowing canopy with the most luxuriant 
 and enchanting scenery, affording an awful, but at the 
 same time the most pleasing and sublime spectacle 
 in nature. Everybody gazed with astonishment ; but 
 the uncommon grandeur of the scene only lasted 
 about one minute; the variety of colours disappeared, 
 and the beams lost their lateral motion, and were 
 converted, as usual, into the flashing radiations ; but 
 
 * This glowing description from Dalton's pen is difficult to reconcile 
 with his well-known visual defect regarding the colour of objects to 
 be discussed in the chapter on " Colour Blindness." 
 
88 John Dalton. 
 
 even then it surpassed all other appearances of the 
 aurora, in that the whole hemisphere was covered with 
 it" (Essay, p. 64). 
 
 He discusses the "constitution, figure, height, &c., 
 of the atmosphere ; and on the subject of winds 
 remarks (p. 83), " The inequality of heat in the dif- 
 ferent climates and places, and the earth's rotation on 
 its axis, appear to me the grand and chief causes of 
 all winds, both regular and irregular ; in comparison 
 with which all the rest are trifling and insignificant." 
 
 His essay, " On the Variation of the Barometer, " is 
 carefully drawn up, as the following quotation shows : 
 
 It appears from the observations (recorded in page 1 5 of the 
 Essays) that the mean state of the barometer is rather lower 
 than higher in winter than in summer, though a stratum of air 
 on the earth's surface always weighs more in the former season 
 than in the latter ; from which facts we must unavoidably infer 
 that the height of the atmosphere, or at least of the gross parts 
 of it, is less in winter than in summer, conformable to the table, 
 p. 80. There are more reasons than one to conclude that the 
 annual variation in the height of the atmosphere, over the 
 temperate and frigid zones, is gradual, and depends in a great 
 measure on the mean temperature at the earth's surface below, 
 for clouds are never observed to be above four or five miles 
 high, on which account the clear air above can receive little or 
 no heat but from the subjacent regions of the atmosphere, 
 which we know are influenced by the mean temperature of the 
 earth's surface ; also, in this respect, the change of temperature 
 in the upper parts of the atmosphere must in some degree be 
 conformable to that of the earth below, which we find by 
 experience increases and decreases gradually each year, at any 
 moderate depth, according to the temperature of the seasons. 
 
 Now, with respect to the fluctuations of the barometer, which 
 are sometimes very great in twenty-four hours, and often from 
 one extreme to the other in a week or ten days, it must be 
 concluded, either that the height of the atmosphere over any 
 
Fluctuations of the Barometer. 89 
 
 country varies according to the barometer, or otherwise that the 
 height is little affected therewith, and that the whole or greatest 
 part of the variation is occasioned by a change in the density 
 of the lower regions of the air. It is very improbable that the 
 height of the atmosphere should be subject to such fluctuations, 
 or that it should be regulated in any other manner than by the 
 weekly or monthly mean temperature of the lower regions ; 
 because the mean weight of the air is so nearly the same in all 
 the seasons of the year ; which could not be if the atmosphere 
 was as high and dense above the summits of the mountains in 
 winter as it is in summer. However, the decision of this 
 question need not rest on probability ; there are facts which 
 sufficiently prove that the fluctuation of density in the lower 
 regions has the chief effect on the barometer, and that the 
 higher regions are not subject to proportionable mutations in 
 density. In the " Memoirs of the Royal Academy," at Paris, 
 for 1/09, there is a comparison of observations upon the baro- 
 meter at different places, and, amongst others, at Zurich, in 
 Switzerland, in lat. 47 N., and at Marseilles, in France, lat. 
 43 15' N. ; the former place is more than 400 yards above the 
 level of the sea. It was found that the annual range of the 
 barometer was the same at each place ; viz., about ten lines ; 
 whilst at Genoa, in latitude 44 25' N., the range was 12 lines, 
 or i inch ; and at Paris, latitude 48 50' N., it was about I inch 
 4 lines. In the same Memoir it is related that F. Lavetma.de 
 observations, for ten days together, upon the top of St Pilon, a 
 mountain near Marseilles, which was 960 yards high, and found 
 that when the barometer varied 2| lines at Marseilles, it varied 
 but if upon St Pilon. Now, had it been a law that the whole 
 atmosphere rises and falls with the barometer, the fluctuations 
 in any elevated barometer would be to those of another baro- 
 meter below it, nearly as the absolute heights of the mercurial 
 columns in each, which in these instances were far from being 
 so. Hence, then, it may be inferred that the fluctuations of 
 the barometer are occasioned chiefly by a variation in the 
 density of the lower regions of the air, and not by an alternate 
 elevation and depression of the whole superincumbent atmos- 
 phere. How we conceive this fluctuation in the density of the 
 air to be affected, and in what manner the preceding general 
 
90 John Dalton. 
 
 facts, relative to the variations of the barometer, may be 
 accounted for, is what we shall now attempt to explain. 
 This is referred to the varying amount of vapour. 
 
 If dependent on others for his remarks "on the 
 Temperature of different Climates and Seasons," he 
 is more at home on evaporation, rain, hail, snow, and 
 dew. After advancing a series of experiments made 
 in order to ascertain what pressure upon the surface 
 of water is requisite to make it boil at a given tem- 
 perature, it appeared to him " that evaporation and 
 the condensation of vapour are not the effects of 
 chemical affinities, but that aqueous vapour always 
 exists as a fluid, sui generis, diffused among the rest of 
 the aerial fluids " (pp. 127, 128) ; and on the following 
 page, " that it may be determined a priori what 
 weight of vapour a given bulk of dry air will admit 
 of, for any temperature, provided the specific gravity 
 of the vapour be given/' This was breaking fresh 
 ground ; and as his opinions became a matter of public 
 discussion, he continued his experiments, and at p. 
 1 88 more clearly defines his views by saying, "I 
 am confirmed in the opinion that the vapour of water 
 (and probably of most other fluids] exists at all times 
 in the atmosphere, and is capable of bearing any known 
 degree- of cold without a total condensation, and that 
 the vapour so existing is one and the same thing with 
 steam , or vapour of the temperature of 2 1 2 or upwards" 
 After further illustration he writes, " Hence, then, 
 we ought to conclude, till the contrary can be proved, 
 that the condensation of vapour exposed to the common 
 air, does not in any manner depend upon the pressure of 
 the air" (p. 189). To revert for a moment to p. 135, 
 where he contends for the theory that the vapour of 
 
New Views on the A urora Borealis. 9 1 
 
 water is mixed with the air and not combined, he 
 explains how the precipitation takes place ; the mul- 
 titude of exceedingly small drops forming a cloud, 
 mist, or fog, descending very slowly, compared to 
 clouds with heavy drops, as the resistance of the 
 drops is as the square of the diameter a fact cited 
 by Dr Smith to show how Dalton's mathematical 
 knowledge helped his meteorology. 
 
 His eighth essay, "On the Aurora Borealis," is much 
 elaborated. In introducing it he writes, " As this 
 essay contains an original discovery which seems to 
 open a new field of inquiry in philosophy, or rather, 
 perhaps, to extend the bounds of one that has been, 
 as yet, but just opened, it may not, perhaps, be unac- 
 ceptable to many readers to state briefly the train of 
 circumstances which led the author to the important 
 conclusions contained in the following pages." This 
 declaration ought to induce a careful examination of 
 his views, some of which are undoubtedly original, 
 and should become historical, though it must be 
 admitted that in this department of physics Dalton 
 has not hitherto had full justice meted out to him 
 either at home or abroad. Some of his observations 
 had been anticipated, notably that of the aurora in 
 relation to magnetism, by Dr Halley ; but his reason- 
 ings on the subject went much beyond his learned 
 predecessor. His views as to the luminous beams 
 being straight and parallel to each other, and nearly 
 perpendicular to the horizon, and probably cylindrical, 
 were also forestalled by Henry Cavendish (Phil. 
 Trans, for 1790). This historical reference, however, 
 in no way detracts from Dalton's character as an 
 original observer, who had ever shown himself cap- 
 
92 John Dalton. 
 
 able of the keenest discrimination and power of 
 generalisation to elucidate not a few of the most 
 obscure of natural phenomena. 
 
 The grand aurora seen on the I3th October 1792, 
 led him to the discovery of the relation betwixt the 
 phenomenon and the earth's magnetism. He writes : 
 " When the theodolite was adjusted without doors, 
 and the needle at rest, it was next to impossible not 
 to notice the exactitude with which the needle pointed 
 to the middle of the northern concentric arches ; soon 
 after, the grand dome being formed, it was divided so 
 evidently into two similar parts by the plane of the 
 magnetic meridian, that the circumstances seemed ex- 
 tremely improbable to be fortuitous ; and a line drawn 
 to the vertex of the dome being in direction of the 
 dipping needle, it followed, from what had been done 
 before, that the luminous beams at that time ^vere all 
 parallel -to the dipping needle: that the beams were 
 guided, not by gravity, but by the earth's magnetism* 
 and the disturbance of the needle that had been here- 
 tofore observed, during the time of an aurora, seemed 
 to put the conclusion past doubt " (pp. 147, 148). 
 
 His chapter on the theory of the aurora borealis 
 shows a greater tendency to undue hypothesis than 
 generally marks Dalton's views, and it is to be 
 regretted that the opinions which he hazarded in 
 1793, in the inchoate stages of meteorology, when 
 cruder materials existed and more daring theories 
 
 * The able researches of Ampere on terrestrial magnetism and the 
 electro-dynamic forces (as quoted by Humboldt from his " Theorie des 
 Ph'enomlnes Electro-dynamiques" 1826, p. 199) ; and the brilliant dis- 
 covery made by our own Faraday of the evolution of light by magnetic 
 forces, gave an empirical certainty to the correctness of Dr Halley's 
 bold conjecture in 1735, an d Dalton's more assured view of the aurora 
 borealis being a magnetic phenomenon. 
 

 Is the Light of the Aurora Electric ? 93 
 
 were admissible, should have found place in his work 
 issued at so late a date as 1834, long after the 
 researches of Arago, Humboldt, Farquharson, and 
 not a few of his own countrymen, had thrown new 
 light on the subject, more or less invalidating his 
 earlier prognostications. Dalton considered it "almost 
 beyond doubt that the light of the aurora borealis, as 
 well as that of falling stars and the larger meteors, is 
 electric light solely, and that there is nothing of com- 
 bustion in any of these phenomena " (p. 168). He 
 continues : " Air and all elastic fluids are reckoned 
 amongst the non-conductors of electricity. There 
 seems, however, a difference amongst them in this 
 respect, dry air is known to conduct more than moist 
 air, or air saturated with vapour. Thunder usually 
 takes place in summer, and at such times as the air 
 is highly charged with vapour ; when it happens in 
 winter, the barometer is low, and, consequently, ac- 
 cording to our theory of the variation of the barometer, 
 there is then much vapourised air ; from all which it 
 seems probable that air highly vapourised becomes an 
 imperfect conductor, and, of course, a discharge made 
 along a stratum of it will exhibit light, which I sup- 
 pose to be the general cause of thunder and lightning." 
 
 He inferred from the observations collated at 
 Kendal and Keswick, that the appearance of the 
 aurora borealis is a prognostication of fair weather ; 
 that the aurora is more frequently followed by fair 
 weather in summer than in winter. 
 
 After some general rules and observations for judg- 
 ing of the weather, Dalton furnished an appendix 
 containing additional notes on different parts of the 
 work, in which the reader will find much valuable 
 
94 John Dalton. 
 
 information, consisting mainly of the results of his 
 own observations compared with other workers in the 
 same field. The last chapter is " On the Height of 
 the Aurora Borealis," in which he regrets, " to the no 
 small discredit of meteorology, that there are, at this 
 day, some persons who hold the height of the aurora 
 to be 1000 miles, others who hold that 1000 feet may 
 be nearer the truth." 
 
 His earlier observations led him to infer that the 
 height of the rainbow like arches of the aurora above 
 the earth's surface was about 150 English miles. 
 The altitude of the remarkable aurora seen on March 
 29, 1826, he viewed as from 100 to no miles above 
 the earth ; and to the latest period of his life was not 
 disposed to yield to the larger and more correct 
 experience of others, especially the Arctic observers. 
 The Rev. Mr Farquharson, from full observation of 
 the same aurora that Dalton saw in 1826, believed 
 that there were several nearly vertical fringes of the 
 said aurora hanging over many lines from Edinburgh 
 to Warrington, at a few thousand feet above the 
 surface of the earth. The experience of that glorious 
 band of men, Captain (afterwards Sir John) Franklin, 
 Sir E. Parry, Dr Richardson, &c., derived from several 
 hundred appearances of the aurora borealis in the 
 Arctic regions, 1819-22, &c., seemed to determine 
 that the height of the aurora, instead of being, as 
 supposed by Dalton and others, beyond the region of 
 the atmosphere, is, in fact, rarely above six or seven 
 miles, or not higher than the region of the clouds. 
 This seemed proved by angles taken in the same 
 moment at two distant places, always exceedingly 
 small at one or both stations ; the extreme rapidity 
 
Height of the Aurora Borealis. 95 
 
 with which a beam darts from one side of the horizon 
 to the opposite side, which could not happen if a 
 hundred miles high, or upwards ; by its frequently 
 darting its beams beneath the clouds, and at very short 
 distances from the earth's surface, and by its being 
 acted upon by the wind. 
 
 Dalton was apt to be tenacious of his own opinions; 
 and as the investigation of the aurora borealis had 
 been a pet and original subject in his earlier scientific 
 days, he fought hard for his measurements of the 
 altitude ; and did not much relish the publication of 
 Mr Farquharson's paper as stamped with British 
 authority. Thus in a letter he addressed to Dr 
 Faraday (Sept. 3, 1840), he makes the following 
 comment : " I observe the Council have voted the 
 Rev. Mr Farquharson's paper as fit for publication in 
 the second part, 1839. The height of the aurora was 
 1897 yards, or rather above one mile ; I calculated it 
 100 to 1 60 miles (1828) ; Mr Cavendish, 52 to 70 miles 
 (1790) ; Robert Were Fox, 1000 miles (183 1). Surely 
 this would be an interesting phenomenon to the 
 British Association, whether its height was I mile or 
 100 miles/' 
 
 Much distrust has been expressed regarding the 
 modes of determining the height of the aurora borealis; 
 so that Humboldt and Arago might be justified in 
 expressing that every observer sees his own aurora, 
 and no two men the same ; the former adding that this 
 may arise from the phenomenon of "the effusion of light 
 being generated by a large portion of the earth at once." 
 The Arctic voyagers had the best chance of determin- 
 ing this knotty point, and much confidence may well 
 be reposed in their observations, which went far 
 
g6 John Dalton. 
 
 to contravene the measurements of Dalton. Colonel 
 Sabine, one of the noble Arctic band, had no doubt 
 as to the aurora occasionally resting on the surface of 
 the sea or land ; and records an instance which fell 
 under his own observation in Skye, of an aurora, of 
 similar character to those described by Mr Farquhar- 
 son, " low in the atmosphere, having during the day 
 the appearance of a thin mist, permitting the forms of 
 the hills, and the irregularities of the surface of the 
 ground, to be distinctly visible through it, and at 
 night becoming luminous with auroral streamers 
 proceeding from it." 
 
 On October 3, 1794, John Dalton appeared as a 
 member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 
 Manchester ; a society, be it remembered, that has 
 done good service to the cause of literature and 
 science, not only in the manufacturing districts of 
 Lancashire, but throughout the whole of Northern 
 England ; and on the 3ist of the same month made 
 his scientific debut by reading a paper entitled 
 " Extraordinary Facts relating to the Vision of 
 Colours." * Nothing could be more auspicious of the 
 rise of the young philosopher than this first appear- 
 ance before a learned society, to whom he com- 
 municated an important discovery, arising oddly 
 enough from a personal imperfection a discovery 
 fraught with interest in a scientific point of view, and 
 not without material bearing on man's non-adaptation 
 to certain callings, trades, or professions. This essay 
 well deserves another chapter. 
 
 His residence and engagements in the "New 
 College" or " Academy" of Manchester; his mode 
 of life, philosophical tendencies and work ; his social 
 * Memoirs of the Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester, vol. v. part i. p. 28. 
 
The Manchester Academy. 97 
 
 and intellectual relations, are touched upon in the 
 following letter, addressed to Elihu Robinson of 
 Eaglesfield. It also recalls Manchester of eighty 
 years ago, the old watchmen of the night proclaiming 
 the hour on their different beats, and the condition of 
 the sky, for the benefit of the sleeping lieges: 
 
 MANCHESTER, 2 mo., zoth, 1794. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN, Amidst an increasing variety of pursuits 
 amidst the abstruse and multifarious speculations resulting from 
 my profession, together with frequent engagements to new friends 
 and acquaintance, shall I find a vacant hour to inform thee 
 where I am, and what I am doing ? Yes ; certainly one hour 
 out of sixteen some day may be spared for the purpose. 
 
 I need not inform thee that Manchester was a large and 
 flourishing place. Our academy is a large and elegant building, 
 in the most elegant and retired street of the place ; it consists of a 
 front and two wings ; the first floor of the front is the hall, where 
 most of the business is done ; over it is a library, with about 3000 
 volumes ; over this are two rooms, one of which is mine ; it is 
 about eight yards by six, and above three high, has two windows 
 and a fire-place ; is handsomely papered, light, airy, and 
 retired; whether it is that philosophers like to approach as 
 near to the stars as they can, or that they choose to soar above 
 the vulgar, into a purer region of the atmosphere, I know not ; 
 but my apartment is full ten yards above the surface of the 
 earth. One of the wings is occupied by Dr Barnes' family ; he 
 is one of the tutors, and superintendent of the seminary ; the 
 other is occupied by a family who manage the boarding, and 
 seventeen in-students with two tutors, each individual having a 
 separate room, &c. Our out-students from the town and 
 neighbourhood at present amount to nine, which is as great a 
 number as has been since the institution ; they are of all 
 religious professions ; one Friend's (Quaker) son from the 
 town has entered since I came. The tutors are all Dissenters. 
 Terms for in-students, 40 guineas per session (10 months); 
 out-students, 12 guineas. Two tutors and the in-students all 
 dine, &c., together in a room on purpose ; we breakfast on 
 tea at 8, dine at i , drink tea at 5, and sup at 8^ ; we fare as 
 well as it is possible for any one to do. At a small extra 
 expense we can have any friend to dine with us in our respective 
 rooms. My official department of tutor only requires my 
 
 G 
 
98 John Dalton. 
 
 attendance upon the students 21 hours in the week ; but I find 
 it often expedient to prepare my lectures previously. 
 
 There is in this town a large library, furnished with the best 
 books in every art, science, and language, which is open to all, 
 gratis ; when thou art apprised of this and such like circum- 
 stances, thou considerest me in my private apartments, 
 undisturbed, having a good fire, and a philosophical apparatus 
 around me, thou wilt be able to form an opinion whether I spend 
 my time in slothful inactivity of body and mind. The watch- 
 word for my retiring to rest, is "past 12 o'clock cloudy 
 morning." 
 
 Now that I have mentioned clouds, it leads me to observe 
 that I continue my meteorological journal, have two rain-gauges 
 about a mile off, at a friend's house ; one gauge is in the garden, 
 and the other upon the flat roof of his house, 10 yards higher 
 than the former. I find that the lower gauge catches 12 parts of 
 rain for the upper n. From my correspondence with my 
 brother, it appears they have had about twice the rain we 
 have. I hope my friends there are not altogether disappointed 
 with my essays ; please to make the following correction, and 
 intimate it occasionally to such as have them. Page 37 total 
 rain at Kendal 1790, should be 62.363, and for 1791, 66.200. 
 
 Among my late experiments, have had some on the artificial 
 production of cold, but have not been able to freeze quicksilver. 
 I find that two parts of snow and one of common salt, mixed 
 and stirred, produce a cold regularly of 7 or 7 below O. I 
 have sunk the thermometer below O, in a common wine glass, 
 half filled with the mixture. 
 
 There is a very considerable body of Friends (Quakers) 
 here ; near 200 attend our first-day (Sunday) meetings. I have 
 received particular civility from most of them, and am often at a 
 loss where to drink tea on a first-day afternoon, being pressed 
 on so many hands. One first-day lately, I took a walk in 
 company with another to Stockport ; there are but few Friends 
 there, but the most elegant little meeting-house that can be con- 
 ceived ; the walls and ceiling perfectly white ; the wainscot, 
 seats, gallery, &c., all white as possible ; the gallery rail turned 
 off at each end in a fine serpentine form ; a white chandelier ; 
 the floor as smooth as a mahogany table, and covered with a 
 light red sand ; the house well lighted, and in as neat order as 
 possible ; it stands upon a hill ; in short, in a fine sunny day 
 it is too brilliant an object to be attended, by a stranger at 
 least, with the composure required. JOHN DALTON. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON DALTON'S COLOUR-BLINDNESS. 
 
 " Oculus advitam nihilfacit, advitam beatam nihil magis" SENECA. 
 
 Or, 
 
 " The eye, no servitor of duty, 
 But minister of all life's beauty." 
 
 OHN DALTON, passing a shop-window in 
 Kendal,saw a pair of stockings prominently 
 marked '" Silk, and newest fashion," and 
 having examined their texture, bought 
 them as a fitting present for his mother, whom he knew 
 to be acquainted only with knit yarn and home-made 
 sorts. On his next visit to Eaglesfield, the com- 
 pliment of the stockings was duly made, and elicited 
 the following exclamation from Dame Deborah : 
 " Thou hast brought me a pair of grand hose, John, 
 but what made thee fancy such a bright colour ? 
 What, I can never show myself at meeting in them ! " 
 John was disconcerted by the maternal comments, as 
 the colour of the said stockings appeared to his eyes a 
 bluish dark drab, and quakerish enough in all verity. 
 "They're as red as a cherry, John!" But John 
 could not see this, nor could brother Jonathan, who 
 was also present; so there were two to one in the 
 dispute, and poor Deborah left in the minority. 
 Being firm in her opinions she called in her neighbours, 
 
ioo John Dalton. 
 
 whose verdict was " varra fine stuff, but uncommon 
 scarlety." 
 
 As John believed in his young eyes rather than 
 his mother's spectacled ones, the ambiguous reception 
 of the cardinal-coloured hose dropped out of view, and 
 apparently claimed no further consideration from him 
 till the summer of 1793.* It will at once strike the 
 reader as strange, that a teacher of youth, and a man 
 of ability and observation, mingling in society where 
 the colour of objects would often be remarked, should 
 live to the age of 26 years without being fully alive to 
 such an imperfection as that of not distinguishing red 
 from green. Did he wish to hide his defects, believing 
 them to be of slight extent and consideration ? or did 
 he look upon others, and not himself, as wanting in 
 true perception of colour ? But how did he reconcile 
 the usual description of natural objects and scenery 
 with his own notions of colour-distinction ? When 
 people talked of the beauty of apple blossom, and 
 cherry ripe fruits, of bonny red hawthorn, and robin 
 redbreasts, he must have been tried to know their 
 meaning ; and in the company of friends point- 
 ing to the setting sun in all its golden effulgence, or 
 the bright hues of the rainbow arch, the picture must 
 have seemed much overdrawn, inasmuch as the 
 varied tints and radiance would be little more than 
 streaks of light on a dull background. 
 
 * Perhaps I should qualify the statement in the text as to the date 
 (1793), as my information tends to the belief that both John and his 
 brother, find ing themselves alike in colour perception, at some earlier date 
 tested the vision of their scholars, in several of whom they found a similar 
 failing to themselves ; indeed, so great a percentage affected, that they 
 were disposed to console themselves with the notion that the tables 
 might be some day turned upon the orthodox-vision people. 
 
John Daltoris Colour-Blindness. 101 
 
 In a letter to Elihu Robinson, bearing date, Man- 
 chester, 2nd month, 2Oth, 1794, he first introduces his 
 defect to the notice of his " dear cousin," in the follow- 
 ing sentences : 
 
 I am at present engaged in a very curious investigation. I 
 discovered last summer with certainty, that colours appear differ- 
 ent to me to what they do to others. The flowers of most of the 
 Cranesbills appear to me in the day almost exactly sky blue, 
 whilst others call them deep pink ; but happening once to look 
 at one in the night by candlelight, I found it of a colour as 
 different as possible from daylight ; it seemed then very near 
 yellow, but with a tincture of red ; whilst nobody else said it 
 differed from the daylight appearance, my brother excepted, who 
 seems to see as I do. I never till now set about an examination 
 into the matter. I have collected specimens of ribbons, &c., of 
 various colours, and the result, as far as I have yet gone, is 
 nearly as follows. 
 
 The primary colours, orange, yellow, and blue, appear to me 
 much the same in the night as they do in the day, and I always 
 distinguish them and call them by their proper names, as well 
 as several drabs, and other mixed colours ; some reds far in- 
 stance, vermillion appear the same or alike day and night ; but 
 others, and more especially the different shades o&pink, confound 
 me most completely in the day, they all appearing light blue ; 
 all the dyed greens seem to have little or no green about them ; 
 they appear inclining to red or to brown in the day, and almost 
 blue in the night ; the pinks and light blues, which appear 
 almost of the same piece in the day, are as opposite as black 
 and white in the night, or by candlelight. A piece of silk 
 ribbon, which some call a very deep pink, and others crimson, 
 appears to me in the day to be a very dark drab, and exactly 
 like another which they call a mud colour ; -in the night, how- 
 ever, the former seems red or crimson, and the latter unchanged. 
 I was the other day at a friend's house, who is a dyer ; there 
 was present himself and wife; a physician, and a young woman. 
 His wife brought me a piece of cloth ; I said I was there in a 
 coat just of the ^colour a few weeks before, which I called a 
 
102 John Dalton. 
 
 reddish snuff colour ; they told me they had never seen me in any 
 such coat, for that cloth was one of the finest grass greens they 
 had seen. I saw nothing like grass about it. They tell me my 
 table-cloth is green, but I say not, and further that I never saw* 
 a green table-cloth in my life but one, and everybody else said 
 it had lost its green colour. In short, my observations have 
 afforded a fund of diversion to all, and something more to philo- 
 sophers, for they have been puzzled beyond measure, as well as 
 myself, to account for the circumstances. I mean to communi- 
 cate my observations to the world, through the channel of some 
 philosophical society. The young women tell me they will never 
 suffer me to go on to the gallery [in the Meeting-House] with 
 a green coat ; and I tell them I have no objection to their going 
 on with me in a crimson (that is, dark drab) gown." 
 
 The following letter on colour-blindness is ad- 
 dressed to Joseph Dickinson, shoemaker, Maryport, 
 
 Cumberland. 
 
 MANCHESTER, -$dmo., loth, 1794. 
 
 RESPECTED FRIEND, JOSEPH DICKINSON, Permit a quon- 
 dam coadjutor in aerial castle building to solicit a favour of 
 thee. Thou must understand that I have some time ago dis- 
 covered that some colours appear very different to me to what 
 they do to others, and I think my case (and my brothers, for 
 we are nearly alike in this respect) is very singular, unless the 
 case of Friend Harris, of Maryport, be similar. I lately read 
 Huddart's account of the Harrises in the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions for 1777, but it does not satisfy me. 
 
 From it I understand that the most remarkable of them in 
 this respect is deceased, but that the captain is probably still 
 living, of whom some account is given, and whose case I 
 strongly apprehend is similar to mine, and am anxious to know 
 some further particulars from him in this respect. My friend 
 Mary Cockbain suggested it to me, that thou would be a likely 
 person to procure me this information. 
 
 I could wish thee, therefore, if thou canst make it convenient, 
 to give my respects to the captain, and desire him on my part 
 to answer thee some, or all of the following queries but if he 
 be abroad, and likely to be so some weeks, then perhaps some 
 
His Inquiries on Colour-Blindness. 103 
 
 of his relatives may be able to answer them in part for him ; and 
 a communication thereof to me would be highly acceptable. 
 
 Query i. Did he ever look through a prism ? What are the 
 chief colours he sees in it ? 
 
 2. Do not pinks, roses, &c., which others call red) appear to 
 him to have some affinity to sky-blue ? 
 
 3. Has he distinct ideas of red, orange, yellow, and green; or 
 does he not meet with colours which he would hesitate to pro- 
 nounce one of these rather than another ? 
 
 4. What are the most conspicuous colours of the rainbow ? 
 
 5. Does the green woollen cloth, used to cover tables, &c., 
 appear green, or anyway like grass to him ; or would he not call 
 it a brownish red? Whether is common red sealing wax or it 
 more nearly the colour of grass ? 
 
 6. I wish particularly to know whether a ribband of a deep pink 
 colour appears remarkably different by day light and candlelight, 
 as well as dark green and crimson ? 
 
 7. Does he perceive in the day-time much difference between 
 crimson and dark drab ? 
 
 I and M. Cockbain's respects to thee, and mine to cousins 
 Jona and Sarah Ostle, if convenient. I am, thy assured friend, 
 
 JOHN DALTON. 
 Direct to me at the New College. 
 
 The following letter is clearly a reply from John 
 Dickinson, but either its date, or that of John Dalton's 
 communication, must be an error : probably Dalton's 
 letter should be 3d, loth month, 1793. 
 
 MARYPORT, 8^, zd Month, 1794. 
 
 RESPECTED FRIEND, JOHN DALTON, If my quondam friend 
 be disposed to build aerial edifices, I should be glad to be 
 employed as a workman or at least a coadjutor in rearing those 
 visionary fabrics, but beg to be informed where they are to be 
 erected, that I may bring such materials as I can collect 
 towards the construction of those pendant piles. So much in 
 freedom, but to the point in request. Two of the Harrises, 
 Thos. and the captain thou mentioned, are dead long ago ; there 
 is yet living other two nearly similar to those, with one I have 
 had an opportunity, and proposed thy Queries as follows, viz. 
 
104 JohnDalton. 
 
 Quaere i St. Did he ever look through a prism ? What are the 
 chief colours he sees in it ? 
 
 Ans. i st. Yellow the most conspicuous colour he sees in it. 
 
 Quaere 2d. Do not pinks, roses, &c. which others call red, 
 appear to have some affinity to sky-blue ? 
 
 Ans. 2d. Roses, pinks, &c., he calls sky-blue. 
 
 Quaere 3d. Has he distinct ideas of red, orange, yellow, and 
 green ; or does he not meet with colours which he would hesitate 
 to pronounce one of these rather than another ? 
 
 Ans. 3d. Quite an imperfect idea sired, orange, &&& green ; 
 some idea of yellow hesitates to call red, orange and green. 
 
 Quaere 4th. What are the most conspicuous colours of the 
 rainbow ? 
 
 Ans. 4th. Answered in first, yellow. 
 
 Quaere 5th. Does green cloth used to cover tables, &c., appear 
 green, or anyway like grass ; or would he not call it a brownish 
 red ? Whether is sealing wax or it more nearly the colour of 
 grass ? 
 
 Ans. 5th. A table-cloth don't appear like grass ; red sealing- 
 wax appears rather darker than it (only a shade), but neither 
 like grass ; no difference between dark green and blood. 
 
 Quaere 6th. I wish particularly to know whether a ribband of 
 a deep pink colour appears remarkably different by daylight 
 or candlelight, as well as dark green and crimson ? 
 
 Ans. 6th. A ribband of a deep pink colour appears remark- 
 ably different by candlelight/rom daylight ; he calls it the colour 
 of an orange. 
 
 Quaere 7th. Does he perceive in the day-time much difference 
 between crimson and dark drab ? 
 
 Ans. yth. He can perceive a difference between crimson and 
 dark drab ; he calls crimson blue. I was beholden to one of his 
 brothers who has no defect, who assisted me in making the fore- 
 going experiments. 
 
 It must be observed, he says he has no just ideas of any 
 colour except black, white, and yellow, some little idea of drab. 
 In order to try him, we prepared a basket of creweling or quilt- 
 ing worsted, of, I think, almost all colours and shades, and 
 wished him to choose out a colour nearest resembling blood, 
 and to our astonishment he chose out a dark green. We 
 
A Mary port Family Colour-Blind. 105 
 
 asked him, if a white cloth or stocking should be spotted with 
 blood if he could perceive it ? he said he would not know it from 
 dirt. ,We asked him, if ever he saw blood near slaughter-houses 
 or a smithy door? he says he has perceived a wetness, and 
 judged it to be blood from the little bells or froth frequently 
 upon it, which is all he knew it by. 
 
 We tried him with a glass prism held in the sunshine, which, 
 reflecting upon the wall what philosophers call a spectrum, I 
 could not perceive it struck him more than if reflected from a 
 looking-glass, only a little deeper, which he called yellow. I 
 think these are all the observations I made respecting his parti- 
 cular case ; what was a hindrance, he seemed rather backward in 
 giving us explicit answers, arising from a knowledge of his 
 imperfection in not having the same optics as other men. 
 
 He has another brother and a nephew, nearly similar, it is 
 thought. 
 
 - Please make my respects to J. and M. Cockbain, and accept of 
 same thyself. I remain, thy assured friend, 
 
 J. DICKINSON. 
 
 P.S. My own affairs prevented me from writing thee sooner. 
 To JOHN DALTON, 
 
 At the New College, Manchester. 
 
 MANCHESTER, i^th of qth -Month, 1794. 
 
 RESPECTED FRIEND, JOSEPH DICKINSON, I received and 
 perused thy letter with great pleasure, and consider my best 
 acknowledgments to [be due to thee, and to the others con- 
 cerned in the business. 
 
 I find by it that friend Harris's eye is constituted like my own 
 and that of my brother ; and am induced to think from what I 
 have heard from different quarters, that there are several indi- 
 viduals and branches of families up and down, who do not see 
 colours as the generality of people do, but as we do. It is a 
 subject that has not been much 'handled by philosophers ; 
 I mean, therefore, to make inquiries in different places, to 
 ! ascertain the facts as well as I can, and then endeavour to 
 account for them. The result of my labours will be communi- 
 cated to the public, inj some way or other. The only circum- 
 stance that was unpleasant to me was, that the friend should be 
 
io6 John Dalton. 
 
 rather backward in giving you his judgment. I do not, however, 
 wonder at it, for the reason assigned : but tell him from me, 
 that formerly when I used to call pink sky-blue, and incur the 
 ridicule of others, I used to join in the laugh myself, and then 
 nobody thought I was in earnest ; nor did I think at that time, 
 that there was such a great difference in the appearance of 
 colours to me and to others, as it now seems there is. I thought 
 we differed chiefly in words and not ideas ; but now that I am 
 certain of a real and very great difference, I make no scruple of 
 publishing the circumstance respecting myself, in every company 
 where I happen to be, and boldly assert with a grave face, that 
 pinks and roses are light blue by day, and a reddish yellow by 
 night, that crimson is a bluish dark drab, that all the dark greens 
 (so miscalled) are of a red or blood colour, and the most dis- 
 agreeable colour imaginable for a table, infinitely different from 
 the pleasant verdure of the fields. 
 
 Having made this long introduction, I must beg leave to 
 trouble thee a little farther on the business : I hope I shall rest 
 satisfied with one more communication. Though I am per- 
 suaded friend Harris and I agree in ideas in general, yet I 
 wish] to ascertain the matter by particular observations. My 
 method is this : I get a number of coloured ribbons and look at 
 them by daylight; I put down the name to each, such as I 
 think it merits, and make comparisons betwixt them, guessing 
 as near as I can how one colour might be made from two 
 others, by mixing such and such proportions of the colours. 
 I then do the same by candlelight. I have sent herewith a 
 specimen of colours and my opinions upon them, by which you 
 will understand my meaning more fully. I wish him to give you 
 his opinion of the colours, in like manner, both by daylight and 
 candlelight; he should not see my remarks, so as to be guided 
 by them in making his remarks to you. 
 
 [Unfortunately the colours to which this above paragraph 
 refers, are not forthcoming ; so that both his letter and J. 
 Dickinson's reply lose part of their value ; this is>f less moment, 
 as the history of Dalton's case, and all that really pertains to 
 the subject, will be found in subsequent pages of this chapter.] 
 
 Now, if thou hast read these remarks withjhe colours before 
 
Tests the Colour Blindness of Others. 107 
 
 thee, and hast kept a grave face all the while, thou hast done 
 more than anybody here has yet ; but the person thou art to 
 show the colours to, will find nothing strange in all this, I ex- 
 pect. These observations will sufficiently point out to thee 
 what sort of questions to put, in order to find whether we are 
 alike. Thou wilt please to inform me of the Nos. in which we 
 agree by day or night, and likewise of those (if such there be) 
 in which we seem to disagree. I hope he will be explicit and 
 unreserved ; whatever ridicule is incurred, shall be equally 
 divided amongst the whole fraternity of us ; when we become 
 acquainted with each other, I will heartily take my share. But 
 perhaps we shall be so strong a party, as to be able to turn tails 
 upon our antagonists, and convince them that 'tis they not we, 
 who do not see things in a proper light. 
 
 Besides his remarks on the enclosed colours, I wish to know 
 the following particulars : 
 
 Does he not, in looking properly through a prism at the flame 
 of a candle or fire, see a very grand blue or purple, as well as 
 yellow ? 
 
 Is he, or was any of the family who were in the same predica- 
 ment, in any degree shortsighted? is his sight strong or weak, 
 that is, can he look at a brilliant object without uneasiness ? and 
 do objects appear clear and distinct to him, the colours ex- 
 cepted ? 
 
 If convenient, should wish to know more precisely whether 
 the brother and nephew living, and those dead, were in the 
 same state ? 
 
 I should suppose they would have no objection to their names 
 being mentioned in an account of the subject ; if so, please to 
 give me them. 
 
 N.B. I have kept a duplicate of this letter and the colours, so 
 that they need not be returned. I am, thy sincere friend, 
 
 JOHN DALTON. 
 
 [No date.'] 
 
 RESPECTED FRIEND, JOHN DALTON. In order to gratify 
 thy request more fully, I; have waited a long time with im- 
 patience on my part (and I daresay with more on thine) for 
 the arrival of Captain A. Harris, whose company I thought 
 
io8 John Dalton. 
 
 necessary, in order to obtain a more full investigation of the 
 matter in request ; at last his company being had, we have 
 had an opportunity with his brother John Harris, who, I think, 
 gave us as explicit answers as he well could, both by day and 
 candle light, which is here annexed,* whereby I hope thou 11 be 
 enabled to make a fair comparison between the visionary organs 
 of the said J. Harris and thyself; I should be glad to hear 
 reasons assigned for such a strange phenomenon. 
 
 In looking through a prism at the flame of a candle or fire he 
 sees a blue as well as a yellow, but does not "seem struck with 
 any grand appearance thereof. Neither he nor any of the 
 family are in any degree shortsighted (except a daughter of his, 
 who has no defect respecting colours, is of a very strong sight, 
 and can look at brilliant objects without much uneasiness}. 
 Objects appear clear and distinct to them at a great distance, 
 colours excepted. 
 
 The brother Joseph living, we had an opportunity with by day, 
 who, I think, is nearly similar, except not quite so defective in 
 reds, which thou '11 perceive by his remarks on the colours, which 
 is herewith transmitted.* 
 
 The other two brothers who are dead were in the same state, 
 whose names were Thomas and Jonathan. 
 
 Indeed, friend John, thou conjectured right ; I did not read 
 thy remarks with a grave face, but on the contrary with many 
 fits of risibility which I am subject to, but I think more so on 
 hearing J. Harris' remarks and my own reflections thereon. I 
 find by your accounts you must have very imperfect ideas of 
 the charms, which in a great measure constitute beauty in the 
 female sex, I mean that rosy blush of the cheeks, which you so 
 much admire for being light blue, I think a complexion nearly 
 as exceptional in the fair sex as the sunburnt Moor's or the 
 sable Ethiopian's, consequently (if real), a fitter object for a show 
 than a wife. 
 
 The following are their remarks by daylight and candlelight 
 after thy manner ; but observe these are Joseph's remarks by 
 day only, we had no opportunity with him by candlelight. I 
 showed him the effects of a prism, and observed he was like 
 John, seeing no colours but yellow and blue; I believe red seems 
 
 * See the explanation within brackets in page 106. 
 
A Sky -Blue Rose deemed Beatitiful. 109 
 
 cloudy to them. I am glad to find they have no objection to 
 having their names made use of in what decent manner thou 
 may think proper, provided it may be of benefit to mankind. 
 After relaxing my muscles a little on writing these above remarks 
 of theirs, I have composed myself and am glad. I think I have 
 nothing more to communicate at present on the subject. Wishing 
 it may give thee full satisfaction, and prove of real advantage 
 to thyself and the community at large, is the sincere wish of 
 thy assured friend, J. DICKINSON.* 
 
 As soon as Dalton had collected his ideas on 
 colour-blindness, derived from a study of his own 
 and brother's vision, and the facts obtained by J. 
 Dickinson, he read a memoir on the subject, entitled 
 " Extraordinary Facts relative to the Vision of 
 Colours," to the "Manchester Literary and Philo- 
 sophical Society," at their meeting on October 31, 
 1794. The main facts of his memoir are to be found 
 in the following excerpts : 
 
 " In the course of my application to the sciences, 
 that of optics necessarily claimed attention ; and I 
 became pretty well acquainted with the theory of 
 light and colours before I was apprised of any pecu- 
 liarity in my vision. I had not, however, attended 
 much to the practical discrimination of colours, owing, 
 
 * This Joseph Dickinson of Maryport was a shoemaker, and father 
 of Isaac Dickinson, now of Whitehaven. The said Joseph was sent to 
 learn the art of St Crispin in Roper Street, Whitehaven, in 1778, and 
 had hardly got reconciled to his sleeping garret, when a great tumult 
 was heard in the street ; and on looking out he saw the shipping on fire. 
 He rushed down to the strand, and on to the rocks, where the bold 
 pirate, Paul Jones, was seen hauling aft his starboard sheets and making 
 off after his victory, laughing over his taffrail at the efforts of the trades- 
 folk to rake the gravel out of their great guns in the halfmoon battery. 
 
 Isaac Dickinson, now living at Whitehaven, has colour blindness like 
 the brothers of his grandfather ; his vision resembles very closely that 
 of John Dalton. Isaac objects to be considered " colour-blind," and 
 wishes to know on whose side the minority like himself, or the majority 
 
1 10 John Dalton. 
 
 in some degree, to what I conceived to be a perplexity 
 in their nomenclature. Since the year 1790, the 
 occasional study of botany obliged me to attend 
 more to colours than before. With respect to colours 
 that were white, yellow, or green, I readily assented to 
 the appropriate term. Blue, purple, pink, and crimson 
 appeared rather less distinguishable, being, according 
 to my idea, all referable to blue. I have often seri- 
 ously asked a person whether a flower was blue or 
 pink, but was generally considered to be in jest. 
 Notwithstanding this, I was never convinced of a 
 peculiarity in my vision, till I accidentally observed 
 the colour of the flower of the geranium zonale by 
 candlelight, in the autumn of 1792. The flower 
 was pink, but it appeared to me almost an exact 
 sky-blue by day; in candlelight, however, it was 
 astonishingly changed, not having then any blue in 
 it, but being what I called red, a colour which forms 
 a striking contrast to blue. 
 
 " It may be proper to observe that I am shortsighted. 
 Concave glasses of about five inches focus suit me 
 best. I can see distinctly at a proper distance ; and 
 am seldom hurt by too much or too little light ; nor 
 yet with long application. 
 
 " My observations began with the solar spectrum, or 
 coloured image of the sun, exhibited in a dark room 
 by means of a glass prism. I found that persons in 
 
 who console themselves with being perfectly endowedthe colour-blind- 
 ness exists ? He professes to see colours bright and brilliant as other 
 persons ; and asks, Can anything be grander than a cherry tree with 
 leaves the same colour as the cherries ? Addressing himself to me he 
 remarked : " You say cherries are red, well, what colour is red ? or can 
 there be a more beautiful flower than a sky-blue rose ? People say the 
 rose is pink, but who can clearly describe the colour of pink, it may be, 
 when viewed with a lamp, yellow or green ? " 
 
Describes his Colour-Blindness. 1 1 1 
 
 general distinguish six kinds of colour in the solar 
 image ; namely, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and 
 purple. To me it is quite otherwise I see only two, 
 or at most three distinctions. These I should call 
 yellow and blue ; or, yellow, blue, and purple. My 
 yellow comprehends the red, orange, yellow, and green 
 of others; and my blue and purple coincide with 
 theirs." 
 
 He thus sums up the characteristics of his own and 
 his brother's vision : 
 
 1. In the solar spectrum three colours appear, 
 yellow, blue, and purple. The two former make a 
 contrast ; the two latter seem to differ more in degree 
 than in kind. 
 
 2. Pink appears by daylight to be sky-blue a 
 little faded ; by candlelight it assumes an orange or 
 yellowish appearance, which forms a strong contrast 
 to blue. 
 
 3. Crimson appears a muddy blue by day ; and 
 crimson woollen yarn is much the same as dark blue. 
 
 4. Red and scarlet have a more vivid and flaming 
 appearance by candlelight than by daylight. 
 
 5. There is not much difference in colour between 
 a stick of red sealing-wax and grass by day. 
 
 6. Dark green woollen cloth seems a muddy red, 
 much darker than grass, and of a very different 
 colour. 
 
 7. The colour of a florid complexion is dusky blue. 
 
 8. Coats, gowns, &c., appear to us frequently to be 
 badly matched with linings, when others say they are 
 not. On the other hand, we should match crimsons 
 with claret or mud ; pinks with light blues ; browns 
 with reds ; and drabs with greens. 
 
H2 John Dalton. 
 
 9. In all points where we differ from other persons, 
 the difference is much less by candlelight than by 
 daylight. 
 
 In concluding his paper, he thought it probable 
 that the sun's light and candlelight, or that which we 
 commonly obtain from combustion, are originally 
 constituted alike ; and that the earth's atmosphere is 
 properly a blue fluid, and modifies the sun's light so 
 as to occasion the commonly perceived difference. 
 
 In reference to red by daylight, he says, " I have 
 seen specimens of crimson, claret, and mud, which 
 were very nearly alike. . . . The colour of a florid 
 complexion appears to me that of a dull, opake, 
 blackish blue, upon a white ground. A solution of 
 sulphate of iron in the tincture of galls (that is, dilute 
 black ink) upon white paper, gives a colour much 
 resembling that of a florid complexion. It has no 
 resemblance of the colour of blood. Blood to me is 
 not unlike that colour called bottle-green. Stockings 
 spotted with blood or with dirt would scarcely be 
 distinguishable. ... By day some reds are the 
 least showy imaginable ; I should call them dark 
 drabs." It thus appears, as Dr G. Wilson remarks, 
 that as Dalton saw the red end of the spectrum dark 
 or darkish, so certain red objects showed to his eye 
 as dark blue, dark brown, dark drab, mud-coloured, 
 dirt-coloured, or even like ink ; so he seems to have 
 been in certain circumstances blind to red. 
 
 Sir John Herschel and Sir David Brewster, who 
 both paid much attention to Dalton's case, have 
 expressed their conviction that he saw as long a 
 spectrum as others did, but that the red extremity 
 appeared to him yellow. Herschel, in addressing 
 
Herschel and Brewster on Colour-Blindness. 113 
 
 Dalton, says : " It is clear to me that you, and all 
 others so affected, perceive as light every ray which 
 others do. The retina is excited by every ray which 
 reaches it." And again, " It seems to me that we 
 (the normal-eyed) have three primary sensations 
 where you have only two. We refer, or can refer in 
 imagination, all colours to three yellow, red, and 
 blue. All other colours, we think, we perceive to be 
 mixtures of these, and can produce them by actual 
 mixture of powders of these hues, whereas we cannot 
 produce these by any mixtures of others. . . . Now, 
 to eyes of your kind, it seems to me that all your 
 tints are referable to two." A similar conviction is 
 stated by Herschel, in his treatise on light (" Encyclo. 
 Metropol."), in reference to the colour-blind as a 
 class : " All the prismatic rays have the power of 
 exciting and affecting them with the sensation of 
 light, and producing distinct vision, so that the defect 
 arises from no insensibility of the retina to rays of 
 any particular refrangibility" 
 
 Sir David Brewster (" Letters on Natural Magic," 
 1832, p. 31) thus writes: "In all those cases [of 
 colour-blindness] which have been carefully studied, at 
 least in three of them, in which I have had the advan- 
 tage of making personal observations ; namely, those of 
 Mr Troughton, Mr Dalton, and Mr Listen, the eye is 
 capable of seeing the whole of the prismatic spectrum, 
 the red space appearing to be yellow. ... I have 
 lately shown that the prismatic spectrum consists of 
 three equal and coincident spectra of red, yelloiu, and 
 blue light ; and consequently, that much yellow and 
 a small portion of blue light exist in the red space ; 
 and hence it follows that those eyes which see only 
 
 H 
 
1 14 John Dalton. 
 
 two colours viz., yellow and blue, in the spectrum, 
 are really insensible to the red light of the spectrum, 
 and see only the yellow with the small portion of 
 blue with which the red is mixed. The faintness of 
 the yellow light which is thus seen in the red space 
 confirms the opinion that the retina has not appre- 
 ciated the influence of the simple red ray." 
 
 Though such eminent men as Dugald Stewart and 
 M. Sismondi laboured under the infirmity of abnormal 
 colour-vision, the fact of John Dalton reporting his 
 own case, led the Continental savans, and notably 
 those of the Academy of Geneva, to designate the 
 defect of colour-blindness " Daltonism " and its sub- 
 jects " Daltonians." This was hardly fair to our 
 countryman, to have his physical weakness trumpeted 
 to the world when he had won immortality in the 
 fields of science ; his name, if used at all for special 
 distinction, should have been applied to his discovery 
 of the Atomic Theory. 
 
 Various terms, chiefly of Greek origin, have been 
 applied by Whewell, Herschel, and others, to desig- 
 nate the defect experienced by Dalton. Perhaps the 
 name Ckromato-Pseudopsis, or a false vision of colours, 
 would be generally applicable, but not entirely so, as 
 there are gradations beginning with deficient colour- 
 sight, and ending in monochromic or achromic vision, 
 or true colour-blindness. The term "colour-blind- 
 ness " introduced by Sir D. Brewster is, after the ex- 
 planation just given, most expressive and simple, and 
 as it is generally adopted by scientific men, will be 
 used in this brief sketch. 
 
 Professor Wartmann* of Geneva has recorded a 
 
 * Those who seek for a complete history of the subject under dis- 
 
The Normal Vision of Colours. 115 
 
 case of doubtful colour-vision as occurring in 1684, but 
 the first really well-authenticated instances of colour- 
 blindness were met with in a family of the name of 
 Harris,* residing at Maryport, Cumberland, to which 
 reference has been so pointedly made by John Dalton's 
 inquiries in the foregoing letters to J. Dickinson. 
 
 A few words will show how colour-blind persons 
 differ from their more fortunate neighbours. Without 
 aiming at a scientific analysis of light, I may be per- 
 mitted for the purpose of this memoir to assume that 
 there are three simple elementary or primary colours, 
 red, blue, and yellow, visible by daylight to perfect 
 eyes ; besides white, the mutual neutralisation of 
 these colours ; and black, the absence of these colours. 
 Perfect natural vision is a three-colour vision, and 
 each of the colours may be changed by addition of 
 white into tints, and by addition of black into shades. 
 Then the primary colours may be mixed with each 
 other so as to produce by the addition of red to 
 yellow, scarlets and orange colours; or by the addi- 
 tion of red to blue, crimsons and purples. All these 
 secondary colours are visible both in their entirety, 
 and throughout a long series of tints and shades to a 
 perfect eye ; as also the mixtures of these secondary 
 colours with each other, giving rise to russet browns, 
 olives, &c. 
 
 cussion will do well to consult Professor Wartmann's works translated 
 in Taylor's "Scientific Memoirs," for 1846, and the able monograph of 
 Dr George Wilson, of Edinburgh, "Researches in Colour-Blindness, " 
 Edinburgh, Sutherland & Knox, 1855. 
 
 * Capt. Joseph Huddart, whose biography forms part of the fourth 
 series of "Cumberland Worthies," addressed a letter to Dr Joseph 
 Priestley, the chemist, characterising the peculiar condition of some of 
 the Harris family, which was published in the Philosophical Tran- 
 sactions for 1777., 
 
u6 JohnDalton. 
 
 The colour-blind distinguish white and black per- 
 fectly enough, some few having no other perception 
 of colours than light and shade. The great majority 
 of them, however, distinguish two only of the primary 
 colours, yellow and blue ; but are quite at fault with 
 red, which they confound with green, with brown, with 
 grey, with drab, and occasionally other colours ; and 
 not unfrequently red is altogether invisible, or appears 
 black. So the colour-blind possess a bicolor, or two- 
 colour vision of yellow and blue, and these only when 
 deep or full ; but as they are liable to mistake purple 
 for blue, they in reality are clearly cognizant only of 
 yellow. 
 
 The most serious defect in the colour-blind is in 
 reference to red and its complementary colour green. 
 Now, by artificial light, such as lamps, candles, gas, 
 red is less liable to confusion with green than by day- 
 light ; in other words, artificial light lessens colour- 
 blindness a circumstance that is often adverted to 
 by those so affected, for the purpose of showing that 
 their vision is not so bad as it has been represented. 
 
 The observations of Professor H. W. Dove (Philo- 
 sophical Magazine, Oct. 1852) tend to show that <c we 
 all become sooner blind to red than to other colours, 
 so that between us and the colour-blind persons em- 
 phatically so-called, there is but a difference in 
 degree." ' 
 
 It will be understood that though there is a defec- 
 tive or negative vision of colours in the colour-blind, 
 their vision in other respects is good ; nay, not un- 
 frequently they have a very nice perception of form 
 and outline, not only in full but in faint light ; as was 
 well evidenced in Dalton's case. 
 
Colour-Blindness in all Ranks of Life. 117 
 
 Colour-blindness has been met with in all ranks 
 and stations of life, including the peasant and painter, 
 the professor and the philosopher. The affection is 
 congenital, hereditary, and apparently incurable. 
 It has been traced through five generations, and 
 whilst descending by both the father and the mother's 
 side, it always attaches to the sons rather than the 
 daughters ; as many as six brothers have been found 
 with this defect of vision. The great preponderance 
 of males so affected compared with females, as far as 
 has been hitherto ascertained, seems curious, if not 
 unintelligible, excepting on the supposition of a 
 general reluctance on the part of women to admit 
 of either a moral or physical weakness touching their 
 personal attributes, or calculated in any way to affect 
 their matrimonial prospects. 
 
 Dr George Wilson believed that "the number of 
 males in this country who are subject to this affection 
 of vision is not less than one in twenty, and that the 
 number markedly colour-blind, id est, given to mis- 
 take red for green, brown for green, purple for blue, 
 and occasionally red for black (as in Dalton's case), 
 is not less than one in fifty. The actual number of 
 the markedly colour-blind detected in an examina- 
 tion of 1 1 54 males in Edinburgh, was one in fifty-five, 
 and the parties examined were students, soldiers, 
 and policemen, born in various parts of the British 
 dominions." 
 
 My late esteemed friend, Dr William Mackenzie of 
 Glasgow, one of the best oculists of his day, only saw 
 two cases of colour-blindness in thirty years in 
 40,000 opthalmic patients. This would tend to show 
 that there is no relation between diseased con- 
 
ii8 John Dalton. 
 
 ditions of the eye and the curious phenomena now 
 under discussion. Insensibility to colours is in nowise 
 incompatible with distinct vision in other respects ; 
 nay, probably, as the retina in persons like Dalton is 
 unfatigued by the impression of colour, the sensi- 
 tiveness to light is longer retained ; in other words, 
 ordinary vision is rather strengthened than otherwise, 
 obviously seen in Dalton, who suffered nothing from 
 long application of his eyes. 
 
 Many odd mistakes have been committed by the 
 colour-blind; but how some of them came to be 
 painters, and dyers, and tailors, is difficult to compre- 
 hend. A house painter who could only distinguish 
 black and white, and required his wife's eyes to keep 
 him right, attempted in her absence a stone tint for 
 an outside wall, and had covered some yards of the 
 building with a fine blue before he was corrected. A 
 tailor, to whom black appeared green, or in particular 
 instances crimson, repaired the parson's black silk, 
 and the officer's dark blue coat, with crimson, to the 
 great chagrin of his employers. An officer daily 
 mingling with people in bright colours, purchased .; 
 blue uniform coat and waistcoat, with red breeches to 
 match ! 
 
 When Dalton had made up his mind to visit Paris 
 in 1821, a good external appearance seemed to him 
 very requisite ; accordingly he went to a tailor's shop 
 in Market Street, Manchester, and said : " I am going 
 to Paris, I want thee to sell me some good strong drab 
 cloth." Passing his hand over a piece lying on the 
 table, he remarked, " I think this will suit, just the 
 colour I want, and stout good cloth." " Why," said 
 the tailor, " Dr Dalton, that is a piece of scarlet cloth 
 
The Chromatic Theory not Proved. 1 19 
 
 for hunting coats!" "Ah," replied the Doctor, "I 
 see thou knowest the infirmity of my eyes." 
 
 The seat or cause of colour-blindness is a mystery. 
 Two theories have been advanced on the subject. 
 The one refers the false perception of colours to the 
 chromatic condition of certain portions of the optical 
 apparatus of the eye ; the other to \hzpeculiar organi- 
 sation of its nervous apparatus, including so much of 
 the brain as is essential to vision. 
 
 The chromatic theory was upheld by Dalton, who 
 was strongly of opinion that one of the humours (the 
 vitreous) of his eye was a coloured medium, probably 
 some modification of blue. But the examination of 
 his eyes after death revealed nothing in support of 
 his views. Mr Ransome, who made the post mortem, 
 states that " the aqueous humour of one of them was 
 found to be perfectly pellucid and free from colour. 
 The vitreous humour and its envelope (the hyaloid 
 membrane) were also perfectly colourless. The crys- 
 talline lens was slightly amber-coloured, as usual in 
 persons of advanced age. The tunics, retina, choroid, 
 and sclerotic, with their subdivisions, presented no 
 peculiarity." Dr George Wilson discusses the chro- 
 matic theory at great length, chiefly on the relation 
 which the retina, the yellow spot of the retina (the 
 foramen of Scemmering *), and choroid membrane 
 bear to colour-vision. 
 
 The second, or Cerebro-retinal theory of colour- 
 blindness, has found supporters in some of the best 
 authorities of the day. In reference to the cerebrum 
 
 * Any opinion based on the " yellow spot of Sremmering " should be 
 received with caution. See my " Life of Robert Knox, the Anato- 
 mist," pp. 27 and 31, for some curious observations thereon. 
 
I2O John Dalton. 
 
 or brain part of this theory, the phrenologists attribute 
 the power of distinguishing colours to a particular 
 part of the brain lying over the roof of the orbit, and, 
 when largely developed, rendering one part of the 
 superciliary ridge specially prominent. Dalton's fore- 
 head, and strongly-marked eyebrows, lent no sanction 
 to this opinion ; for as already stated, this portion of 
 his cranium bore considerable analogy to that of Sir 
 Isaac Newton, whose knowledge of colours was ex- 
 ceedingly good. 
 
 The only remaining explanation of colour-blindness 
 is to be found in the retina itself, that portion of the 
 eye upon which vision truly and essentially depends. 
 Now, all the great authorities on optics, Young, 
 Brewster, Herschel, Miiller, construct their theories 
 of colour-blindness entirely on the retina, believing 
 some parts of its structure to be deficient, or that its 
 sensibility to colour is impaired in those whom we 
 call colour-blind. 
 
 In the discrimination of colour, remarkable inequali- 
 ties would appear to exist in different parts of the 
 retina, all of us being more or less blind to red in the 
 outermost parts of our field of vision. The accom- 
 plished Helmholtz* states that " all red colours appear 
 much darker when viewed indirectly. This red-blind 
 part of the retina is most extensive on the inner or 
 nasal side of the field of vision ; and according to 
 recent researches of Woinow, there is at the furthest 
 limit of the visible field a narrow zone, in which all 
 distinction of colour ceases, and there only remain 
 differences of brightness. In this outermost circle 
 everything appears white, grey, or black." 
 * " Popular Scientific Lectures," p. 248. 
 
Helmkoltz, Young, and Schultze. 121 
 
 The Berlin professor had the good fortune to exa- 
 mine the Transactions of the Royal Society of Lon- 
 don, and there met with what he calls a wonderfully 
 simple solution of the theory of colours, laid down at 
 the beginning of the century by the renowned philo- 
 sopher Thomas Young. According to Dr Young 
 " there are in the eye three kinds of nerve-fibres, the 
 first of which, when irritated in any way, produces 
 the sensation of red, the second the sensation of green, 
 and the third that of violet. He further assumes that 
 the first are excited most strongly by the waves of 
 ether of greatest length ; the second, which are sensi- 
 tive to green light, by the waves of middle length ; 
 while those which convey impressions of violet are 
 acted upon only by the shortest vibrations of ether." 
 
 The discussion of this subject would be apt to lead 
 far beyond the lines of this memoir. It may suffice 
 to state that those who suffer from red-blindness are 
 deficient in that class of nerve-fibres which are sensi- 
 tive to red rays, or that these fibres are so sparingly 
 distributed as to be incapable of excitation. 
 
 The observations of Max Schultze on the rods 
 of the retina of birds and reptiles, in which he 
 found a number of rods containing a red drop of 
 oil in their anterior extremity, or looking towards the 
 light, while other rods contained a yellow drop, and 
 others none at all, are of great interest. And as 
 Helmholtz has said, " we may with great probability 
 regard these rods as the terminal organs of those 
 nervous fibres which respectfully convey impressions 
 of red, of yellow, and of blue light." 
 
 Hitherto there has been but one post mortem exami- 
 nation of the colour-blind, namely, Dalton himself, so 
 
122 John Dalton. 
 
 that the theories afloat have not been subjected to the 
 proper test ; and a pathological inquiry is essential to 
 the elucidation of the cause of this anomalous condition. 
 It is worthy of note that Quakers show a greater 
 proneness to colour-blindness than any other class or 
 denomination ; that is, if our present statistics can be 
 relied upon. The Harrises of Maryport were of this 
 persuasion, and where the largest number have 
 occurred in one family, it has been generally among 
 "Friends." The regular avoidance by this worthy 
 sect of anything like gay colours in dress or house- 
 hold adornment, might so far deaden the acuter per- 
 ception of the finer shades of colour., and possibly 
 induce in the course of a few generations a hereditary 
 indifference in that direction, and so subject the eye 
 to a modified colour-blindness. My friend, Dr George 
 Wilson, was disposed to support this theory, and to 
 view it rather as un fait accompli. The period, how- 
 ever, elapsing between the stirring days of George Fox, 
 and the first appearance of colour-blindness in the 
 Maryport family (Harris), being less than a century, 
 implies that the first instances of this defect noticed 
 among Quakers in England, owed little or nothing 
 to the drab surroundings of their ancestors. It would 
 be none the less interesting to ascertain how far 
 colour-blindness prevails among " Friends," as com- 
 pared with the general community ; and if this is to 
 be done, it should be done speedily, as the rank and 
 file of the regiments of drab are rapidly thinning, and 
 bid fair to die out before the end of the present 
 century their present number of bona fide members 
 fairly told, probably not exceeding 9000 persons in 
 England and Wales. 
 
Dangers attendant on Colour-Blindness. 123 
 
 As colour-blindness has hitherto proved incurable, 
 care should be taken by parents and guardians to 
 restrict those affected by it to lines of pursuit, be it 
 art, trade, or profession, in which colour forms no 
 essential part. It would be absurd to send a colour- 
 blind person to house painting, dyeing, and weaving ; 
 and equally futile to make the most educated a 
 botanist, an analytical chemist, or physician. Above 
 all other pursuits railway service and sea-faring should 
 be avoided by such persons ; and it is especially 
 demanded of railway authorities to test the visual 
 capacity of all their employed, seeing that the colour- 
 blind often mistake bright red for green, dark red for 
 brown, and red for black, as well as dark or light 
 shades of all colours for each other : thus the caution 
 signal green is liable to be mistaken for the danger 
 signal red, and the latter, when it appears black, not 
 to be seen at all. That accidents have occurred, and 
 do still occur, from employing the more or less 
 colour-blind, and that many valuable lives have been 
 sacrificed in this way, can hardly admit of a reason- 
 able doubt. 
 
 If there be any organ in the body more likely than 
 another to show weakness of function or defect, it 
 should be the eye, in all its wonderful organisation, 
 and delicacy, and beauty, resting also for its mani- 
 festations on the motions of a matter of extreme 
 tenuity the light, 
 
 " From matter streaming, it makes matter bright, 
 Matter arrests it on its onward flight ; " 
 
 a world of light and colour vibrating through the 
 ethereal atoms of the universe. 
 
124 John Dalton. 
 
 Of what moment was it to Dalton to note the 
 climatic conditions and physiognomy of Nature, the 
 delicate buds of spring, the leafy woods of summer, 
 and the yellow ripening of autumn in all their dis- 
 play of variety of colour, exquisite contrast, and 
 beauty ! The organic kingdoms would present to 
 him little more than an arrangement of form, whereas 
 to the normally-constituted and aesthetic vision they 
 offered alternate brightness and tint, and to the de- 
 votee a hieroglyphic of the Eternal, in whose ma- 
 terial fashionings were to be found the indications 
 of a spiritual existence. Wanting one of the chief 
 senses of the naturalist, or having its capacity and 
 fitness impaired, his scope of observation would be 
 more or less limited to the forms and nomenclature 
 of organisms, so far worthy of pursuit, but, com- 
 paratively speaking, little more effective than peeling 
 off the outer bark of the tree, when a more enlarged 
 observation would treat of the circulating sap ves- 
 sels, the structural pith and entire physiology. In 
 morphology, a subject akin to his breadth of inquiry 
 and powers of generalisation, as it was to Goethe, 
 he might have shone ; for there, as the noble exponent 
 of the science aptly wrote 
 
 " All shapes are similar, yet all unlike, 
 The chorus thus a hidden law reveals." 
 
 The aesthetic feeling being thus so far impaired, 
 Dalton might well remain a bachelor; true beauty, 
 flowing from colour and emotional surprise, could 
 offer no charms to him. For what purpose, beyond 
 the interchange of commonplace thoughts, did he 
 associate with the pretty Quakeresses of Kendal, of 
 
Untouched by Beauty 's Charms. 125 
 
 fair complexion, peach-blossom cheeks, ruby lips, and 
 auburn hair, decked out in simple yet seductive 
 forms of cap and ribbon ? These bright and natural 
 emblems of Hymen worship touched not the inner 
 chords of John Dalton's heart. He might have ex- 
 claimed, in the words of Horace, 
 
 " Meu ! quove color? decens 
 Quo motus ? " 
 
 The " Quo fugit Venus " was not applicable to one 
 who never enjoyed the real flame of love, but only 
 the smallest of flirtations, nay, hardly so much, with 
 a pretty widow. Circumstanced as he was to the 
 aesthetic and beautiful of the world, the best thing 
 he could do for his own satisfaction was to follow the 
 science that dwelt in numbers, algebraic forms, and 
 chemical symbols; for there he could be on a par 
 with other men, making use of black and white 
 lines to illustrate their abstract formulas. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Modifications in the religious sentiments and the tender est social feelings 
 of men, and changes in the special habits of those who exercise an 
 influence on the ideas of the mass, give a sudden predominance to that 
 which might have previously escaped attention" ALEXANDER VON 
 
 HUMBOLDT. 
 
 HIS IDEAS ON QUAKER- WORSHIP THE HANDSOME WIDOW AND LOVE- 
 ABLE SPINSTER POETICAL EFFORT ESSAYS ON THE QUANTITY 
 OF RAIN AND DEW ON THE POWER OF FLUIDS TO CONDUCT 
 HEAT MAXIMUM DENSITY OF WATER THE SECRETARYSHIP OF 
 THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY ESSAYS ON HEAT 
 AND COLD PRODUCED BY CONDENSATION AND RAREFACTION OF 
 AIR CONSTITUTION OF MIXED GASES FORCE OF STEAM EVA- 
 PORATION EXPANSION OF GASES BY HEAT. 
 
 JOHN DALTON, though reticent on reli- 
 gious questions, and never voluntarily 
 entering upon their discussion, felt himself 
 bound to obey regimental orders ; and in 
 outer habiliments, no less than in denominational 
 observances, justly ranked as a " Friend/' or faithful 
 disciple of George Fox. His first visit to London in 
 May 1/92, evidently arose out of a wish to attend 
 the "yearly meeting of Friends/'* where this pious 
 
 * The Prince Regent, afterwards George the Fourth, fond of excite- 
 ment and adventure, laid a wager with one of his Beau Brummel jovial 
 crew that he could appear as a Quaker at the great yearly meeting in 
 London. In suitable drab and broad brim he entered the meeting- 
 house, and took a seat, a little disconcerted, perhaps, to find that 
 " Women Friends " sat apart from the men. Whether his embonpoint, 
 jaunty air, or non-quakerish countenance betrayed him as he passed 
 
His First Visit to London. 127 
 
 and peaceful people most do congregate from all 
 parts of the empire; either as representatives of 
 their respective " monthly meetings/' or as zealous 
 partakers of the wisdom of the higher orders of the 
 ministry assembled to discuss the laws and discipline 
 of the body, and, it may be added, with a solemnity 
 becoming those who seek the Divine Spirit in all 
 matters relating to their moral and religious welfare. 
 
 Coming from the quietude of a small market town 
 like Kendal, he naturally looked upon London as 
 "a most surprising place, worth one's while to see 
 once, but the most disagreeable place on earth for 
 one of a contemplative turn to reside in constantly." 
 The number and noise of the hackney coaches en- 
 gaged his attention as much as any novelty he saw, 
 and his numerical habits led him to count the num- 
 ber of coaches conveying Friends to their meeting- 
 house, and he found no less than one hundred and 
 four in the service. There is no indication of his 
 having made the acquaintance of any of the scientific 
 men in the metropolis on the visit, his time being 
 apparently absorbed with his co-religionists, and a 
 general glance at the wonders of the New Babylon. 
 
 He felt more than usual interest in the mode of 
 worship practised by Friends, as is revealed by a 
 
 through the porch, some of the elders scrutinised him very closely, and 
 were consequently led to express a doubt as to his claims to a seat in 
 the synagogue. After a few minutes' consultation on the subject, an 
 aged Friend approached the Prince, and put this simple question 
 " May I ask thee to say what monthly meeting thou belongs to, friend ?" 
 This interrogation was beyond the card of His Royal Highness, so he 
 found it convenient to withdraw from the meeting; not, however, 
 without a polite uplifting of his broad brim to the wondering Friends 
 as he passed from the threshold of the meeting to the open street. 
 
128 John Dalton. 
 
 record in his Journal of 1795, where he states that, 
 along with another Friend, he " drew up a petition to 
 the yearly meeting soliciting permission to use music 
 under certain limitations." To those who are aware 
 of the extreme simplicity guiding Friends in their 
 religious attitudes, where there is no tuning to the 
 heavenly spheres, no vociferation, but much silent 
 meditation, nay, a silence not infrequently quite pro- 
 found during the hour and a half of their assembling, 
 it is needless to say that so bold an innovation as 
 that suggested by Dalton must have taken the " Con- 
 script Fathers," and, it may be added, " Mothers," 
 seeing that the majority of Quaker ministers are 
 women, with no small amount of astonishment. 
 
 As there is nothing more akin to the higher reli- 
 gious feelings of man than his sympathetic relations 
 with the tender sex, the following love episodes in 
 John Barton's staid and invulnerable bachelorship 
 may find appropriate place here. In a long letter to 
 Elihu Robinson (February 20, 1/94), after describing 
 his residence in the New College, his varied engage- 
 ments, and observations on colour-blindness, he 
 frames a supposition for his Eaglesfield friends 
 " I wonder whether John is going to marry yet or 
 not?" and then describes with becoming discretion 
 his experiences with a pretty love-making widow in 
 the circle of " Friends." For a time he seemed to 
 feel with Shakespeare's " Biron " 
 
 " From woman's eyes this doctrine I derive ; 
 They are the ground, the books, the academies, 
 From whence doth spring the Promethean fire. 
 Why, universal plodding prisons up 
 The nimble spirit in the arteries." 
 
His English Grammar. 145 
 
 issued in 1803 (Ostell, Ave Maria Lane, London, 
 I2mo, pp. 122). The book was dedicated to John 
 Home Tooke, M.P., to whom he expressed his obli- 
 gations in the following terms : " To the literary 
 world it will be unnecessary to observe that in this 
 department, etymology, I have drawn a great deal 
 from one sotirce; but I have not rested satisfied with 
 the ipse dixit of the author of ' The Diversions of 
 Purley/ when time and opportunity afforded me 
 means of confirmation and inquiry." He writes to 
 his brother: "I have sent a copy to Home Tooke, 
 but he has got things to attend to now, instead of 
 works? This was in allusion to Mr Tooke being 
 then arraigned on a charge of high treason. 
 
 This concisely-written Grammar found favour with 
 some literary critics, and was not without a certain 
 degree of merit, were it only as an innovation on the 
 grammatical systems then in use. Thus, he banished 
 the articles from the parts of speech, and associates 
 them with the adjectives under the title of definitives. 
 
 At p. 8, he says 
 
 "It may be taken as an axiom that all time or duration, in 
 the strictness of the terms, is either past or future. But for the 
 purposes of speech we must have a present time of some dura- 
 tion, which must necessarily be comprised of a portion of the 
 past and a portion of the future, having the present, now or 
 instant, as a boundary between them. Its length may be what 
 we please to make it. 
 
 " Grammatically speaking, therefore, there are three times, 
 present, past, and future ; though strictly and mathematically 
 speaking, we can admit only two, past and future," c. 
 
 insisting upon a more careful search, a dusty corner revealed a large 
 parcel of his Grammars. The opinion prevailed that few were sold 
 beyond the wants of his own academical classes. 
 
 K 
 
146 John Dalton. 
 
 The Rev. Sydney Smith, in one of his amusing 
 contributions to the Edinburgh Review, avowed his 
 belief that if " Quakers " had prevailed in numbers, the 
 world would have been a very stupid and dull affair. 
 Not improbably he formed his estimate from some 
 demure Obadiah, or ancient spinster Tabitha of the 
 order drab, as little seen now-a-days as the ultra 
 " broad-brim beaver " or " coal-scuttle bonnet " of a 
 past generation. Though stiff in manners, and formal 
 in phraseology, the "Friends" are a worthy people, 
 who cultivate the homely virtues, and enjoy the ame- 
 nities of life as happily as any class of her Majesty's 
 subjects. Their youths are well trained in schools of 
 their own persuasion ; where order, occupation, and 
 the culture of independent habits and resources, are 
 strongly inculcated. All " Friends " are neat in 
 their attire and personal and domestic relations ; they 
 are much given to hospitality and social fraternisation 
 with members of their own order; and their homes 
 are enjoyable. Another feature of their lives is a 
 tendency to holiday-making and travelling to and fro 
 visiting their brethren a cheap and pleasant mode of 
 being entertained whilst gathering a knowledge of the 
 outer world. 
 
 John Dalton, like his fraternity, had a great pen- 
 chant for rambling during the summer months ; and 
 one of these excursions may be appropriately intro- 
 duced here by quotations from a long letter of his to 
 Elihu Robinson. Though not in exact chronological 
 order, the letter may be viewed as episodical to the 
 general narrative, and help to lighten the dry scienti- 
 fic details prevailing towards the close of this chapter. 
 Dalton's companion was a brother of the " amiable 
 
A Pleasant Excursion. 147 
 
 Hannah/' The young Quaker pedestrians lost their 
 geographical bearings in a way to make them the 
 laughing-stock of an English village. 
 
 MANCHESTER, ist month, 27^, 1798. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN, It is now three months since I received thy 
 kind notice of my letter of last summer. My engagements of 
 teaching in public and private, together with my own literary 
 pursuits and the necessity of frequent visits amongst an exten- 
 sive acquaintance, occupy my time so regularly from 8 in the 
 morning to 12 at night, that I rarely find an opportunity for 
 occasional correspondence. However, I mean herein to give 
 thee a further account of our tour, agreeable to thy request ; 
 only I am afraid that some part will only be a tale twice told, 
 as I am not aware of what I wrote last. 
 
 We had a very pleasant passage across the Mersey from 
 Liverpool towards Chester (about 12 miles), and had a fine view 
 of Beeston Castle (about 30 miles), whither we were aiming ; we 
 reached Chester in the canal boat about 5, and having drank 
 tea, started on foot for Tarporley (10 miles), anticipating the 
 twofold pleasure of a fine view from the castle the next day, and 
 of there partaking of a cold collation in the open air in company 
 with my amiable friend Eliza Rothwell and her daughters, who 
 were on a visit. They had, however, been suddenly and 
 unexpectedly called home the day before ; but had taken care 
 to secure us a welcome reception at their friend's house, which 
 was situate on a hill about three miles from the castle, and in 
 full view of it, a valley intervening. In the morning we had no 
 sooner drawn aside the curtains, than the rising sun shone in 
 upon us, and discovered the most elegant lodging room I was 
 ever in. But that was not all ; the views from the windows on 
 two sides of the room were exquisite ; we seized upon a large 
 reflecting telescope and pointed it to the castle before we were 
 dressed. After spending the morning there we went over to the 
 castle, which answered our expectation, and then proceeded to 
 Whitchurch that night. Rose at 6, and would go to Wem to 
 breakfast (n miles) ; when we had gone two, came to a village 
 where we were told to inquire for a footroad which was about three 
 miles, and said to be at least a mile nearer ; there were many 
 
148 John Dalton. 
 
 cross roads at the village, and we asked at a flax shop on our left, 
 which was the short road, and were directed to turn to our left 
 at a barn, &c., &c., and found all as was told ; presuming, how- 
 ever, that the main road was right forward ; but it happened to 
 be a road still more to the left, as we found to our cost in the 
 sequel. An hour after we got into the main road at right angles 
 to our last track, and turned of course to the left ; soon after 
 came to a stone, but its inscription defaced. We rested awhile, 
 and a person came up who told it was four miles to Wem ; 
 unfortunately, we were standing still when we asked. We pro- 
 ceeded, and another stone presented itself likewise defaced, 
 which we called three, and going on we began to look long for 
 two, when we entered a village where were many cross roads. 
 My companion, impatient for his breakfast, would inquire of 
 somebody, and stepped aside to a shop on his right, whilst I 
 went up to a guide post. I had not got up to it before I heard 
 a voice behind me : " We have been here before this morning? 
 I went on, it repeated, " / say, we have been here before this 
 morning? "What dost thou mean?" said I, turning round; 
 " Well, I say we have been here before this morning, this is the 
 flax shop I inquired at before, and yonder is the barn? I per- 
 ceived it was so. The very same men that had directed us 
 before came out, and seemed as much surprised as we, inquir- 
 ing whether we had been at Wem, as we had asked of them the 
 way about two hours before. Our surprise and chagrin may be 
 easily conceived. They told us to go back the way we had 
 last come, and then they defied us to get wrong ; which we did 
 accordingly. In this manner we paid for a piece of advice, 
 " Never to leave the main road without knowing well on which 
 hand you have it." We could get nothing but bread and water 
 till we got to Wem at 1 1, and then we had each about eight or 
 ten cups of coffee. 
 
 He visited Shrewsbury, Coalbrookdale, Birming- 
 ham, &c. ; his comments thereon need not detain the 
 reader. After spending a fine day at Blenheim House, 
 he continues : 
 
 At Oxford we had a line to one of the Fellows, who showed 
 us what was worth attention at that celebrated place, as the 
 
His Description of Ross. 149 
 
 libraries, gardens, buildings, c. At Slough, we 'saw Dr 
 Herschel's great telescope ; and the royal family at Windsor ; 
 also the college at Eton. The places we visited, and the obser- 
 vations made in the metropolis, I must omit, as they would 
 require some room. In going down to Bristol we stopped a few 
 days at Wilton, at a gentleman's house, where we had an intro- 
 duction ; here we had a full opportunity of visiting Salisbury, 
 Lord Pembroke's, &c., not forgetting Old Sarum, Stonehenge. 
 Thou inquirest more particularly about Ross. 
 
 We travelled from Monmouth by Ross to Hereford in one 
 day ; it is twenty-five miles direct, but we made nearly thirty. 
 Betwixt Monmouth and Ross, we left the road and followed the 
 meandering Wye, surrounded by the most picturesque scenery 
 that can be imagined ; there is a plain about 100 yards broad 
 along the Wye at that place, and the banks rise very abruptly 
 from that plain on each side to a great height, interspersed with 
 trees of various kinds, and rocks rising up amongst them, vying 
 with the trees in height. At one place we disputed whether the 
 appearances were natural or artificial ; whether the remains of 
 an old castle, or some vagaries of nature ; in consequence of 
 which we climbed the hill, and had scarcely satisfied ourselves, 
 when looking round we discovered a profusion of plants we had 
 never before seen, and several of the more rare ones which we 
 had seen. These things took up so much of our time and 
 attention, that if we had met the Man of Ross himself we could 
 scarcely have stopped to ask him how he did. We were an 
 hour in Ross, and dined there ; it is a neat and pleasant town ; 
 we inquired what there was to be seen, and were informed, 
 nothing so remarkable as a view from the churchyard. We went, 
 and were gratified with a sight which immediately suggested to 
 us both the view from Windsor Terrace ; it was indeed nearly 
 equal to it. The church stands upon a hill, neat and well built, 
 with a noble spire ; the yard, walks, &c., remarkably neat, and 
 fine green turf. Of the alms-house we heard nothing. We 
 walked over the causeway indeed, but knew not that we were 
 upon hallowed ground! till we got to Liverpool. Then we 
 learned that a causeway we remembered very well in coming 
 out of Ross was that in question ; it is on the road in a low 
 place, apt to be flooded, where a foot walk is raised a great 
 
ISO John Dalton. 
 
 height, I think, by one or more arches, and paved for about 100 
 yards. I remember when we passed it, a horseman chose to 
 ride over it, and leapt the bar at the end. Were I to go again, 
 I should wish to spend more time at Ross. I do not mean so 
 much to compliment Eaglesfield as to decry Montgomery in 
 what I said. When one goes to a county town, and has to look 
 at every house side for a painted board, and when they have 
 found one, they have not one spare bed for a couple of tra- 
 vellers, it is not to be expected that visitants will go away with 
 a good report. With respect to Wales in general, thou thinkest 
 I am too severe. In Cumberland every other man one meets has 
 a little estate which he cultivates himself, and enjoys the pro- 
 duce ; but in Wales they are all labourers, the masters are never 
 seen, they are not in the country. How can a " Philanthropic 
 Philosopher" observe these things without emotion ? 
 
 I paid a visit this winter to Kendal, and to my esteemed 
 friend John Fell of Ulverston, in whose family, consisting of 
 himself, wife, daughter Margaret, and a relation of theirs, I 
 spent four or five days with great satisfaction. I also spent a 
 day or two at Lancaster for the first time since the death of 
 my fellow-traveller. His amiable sister Hannah has never been 
 well since. 
 
 I must now conclude, with my continued respects for cousin 
 Ruth and thyself ; and the remembrance of my other friends at 
 Eaglesfield is grateful. I remain, c., JOHN DALTON. 
 
 P.S. As one of the committee of Friends' school here, I may 
 observe, that we are yet in want of a master, but expect to agree 
 with one shortly. 
 
 In the midst of his scientific pursuits, upon which 
 his energies were daily concentrated, Dalton had the 
 faculty of unbending himself in the society of women, 
 and could enter with zest into their homely wants 
 and pursuits, especially when they relished his con- 
 versation and offered no objection to his use of 
 tobacco. The purport of the subjoined letter was to 
 get a small spinning-wheel from Cumberland, but it 
 
Smokes his Pipe to the Whirl-go-round. 151 
 
 comprises other subjects worth noting, both as to his 
 social enjoyments and the historical relations of Man- 
 chester. 
 
 1 MANCHESTER, 2 mo., ioth, 1800. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN, I do not know whether I ought not to 
 apologise for troubling thee so often on matters of business ; 
 but not knowing exactly Isaac Harris' address, and wanting 
 simply to tell him that another wheel [small spinning-wheel] is 
 wanted, as like the former as may be, I thought it would be no 
 great inconvenience for thee to inform him. The one we have 
 got gives great satisfaction, and I have the pleasure of seeing it 
 in motion, whilst I smoke my pipe, two or three evenings in the 
 week, though it is more than half a mile from my lodgings. It 
 reminds me of some pleasant evenings spent at Eaglesfield in 
 times of old, and prevents me repining at the loss of them. 
 The second is for two younger sisters who will be anxious for 
 its speedy arrival. 
 
 The high price and scarcity of flour is a serious calamity 
 with you, I suppose, as well as with us ; it is no trifling matter 
 to supply our market with 10,000 stone per week. 
 
 In the literary and philosophical way I suppose thy curiosity 
 will be subsided a good deal. The Literary and Philosophical 
 Society of this place (a concern wholly independent of the aca- 
 demical institution I am in) have lately erected, for themselves 
 to meet in once a fortnight, a very elegant building. The mem- 
 bers are about 70, resident in Manchester. I am just making 
 out a statement of the expenditure : the building has cost us 
 about ^800, and the furniture of the room to meet in upwards 
 of ^100. It is said to be much more elegant than that of the 
 Royal Society. I read two papers last winter ; one relative to 
 an essay of Count Rumford; the other an inquiry whether the rain 
 is sufficient to supply springs and rivers, and afford enough of 
 water besides for the purposes of vegetation ; which I endeavour 
 to show is fact. The rivers of England and Wales I calculate 
 equal to nine times the Thames, and that they all together take 
 off little more than one-third of the water that falls in rain. 
 
 I almost forgot to say anything of my fellow-traveller ; the 
 truth is, I have not seen him for two months ; he is busy and I am 
 busy, and if we meet it is only to have a hearty shake of hands. 
 
152 John Dalton. 
 
 We have had a severe cold or influenza here lately, which 
 most people have had. I never remember to have been so ill 
 in my life ; was confined to the house for several days. It was 
 attended with an extraordinary degree of languor, along with 
 other symptoms of a cold. 
 
 I must conclude with my kind love to cousin Ruth and to 
 friends, and remain thy affectionate cousin, JOHN DALTON. 
 
 To ELIHU ROBINSON, 
 
 Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth. 
 
 Here is a letter explanatory of his Grammar, and 
 containing good news as to the number of his pupils, 
 and his fees as a teacher : " not yet rich enough to 
 
 retire " : 
 
 MANCHESTER, 3 mo., 22^ 1802. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN, Having an opportunity to write thee by a 
 friend, I am unwilling to neglect it, though my time is very 
 limited. Thy favour of the 2d of i mo. came duly. I am 
 obliged to thee for thy remarks on my " Grammar," and do not 
 differ so widely from thee in regard to Fisher's ; for, I think 
 upon the whole, it is as good as any that has succeeded it ; but 
 at the same time I think they are all very bad, or I should not 
 have been at the trouble to write one principally for my own 
 use. I am now in the practice of teaching it, and find it the 
 most intelligible to my young people of any they have met with. 
 
 I believe it has not yet been reviewed ; whether through the 
 negligence of my bookseller or the reviewers, I know not, and 
 have been too busy to mind it till lately : I wrote my bookseller 
 a few days ago on the subject. Some of my friends gave 
 Morris Birkbeck a copy, and he did not like it at first; but 
 upon a second perusal he became a convert. I have seen 
 Wilson's edition of Fisher, but do not recollect particulars. It 
 certainly makes against an elementary treatise, and especially 
 one on grammar, if the language be not intelligible. It seems 
 the expression, " Diversions of Purley," * is not easily under- 
 
 * This must refer to John Home Tooke's publication in 1786, of 
 " Diversions of Purley," the latter of which names was given to the 
 work in compliment to the residence of his friend, Mr Wm. Tooke. 
 
" Not yet Rich Enough to Retire? 1 5 3 
 
 stood without some notes critical and explanatory. Please 
 then to take the, following : 
 
 Explanatory Note. Purley is the name of the house or place 
 where the author resides ; it is noted by the author as being the 
 residence of Bradshaw, the President on King Charles's trial. 
 It is about a mile from Wandsworth, Surrey. 
 
 Critical Note. The title " Diversions" seems very inappropriate 
 to a learned dissertation on the origin and structure of language ; 
 perhaps it was a little vanity in the author to denominate what 
 some people would think very laborious investigations by the 
 name of diversions. However that might be, his Greek title 
 ['Erect Hrepoevra] is appropriate enough, signifying "Winged 
 Words," to denote the speed with which language conveys 
 ideas. 
 
 My Academy has done very well for me hitherto. I have about 
 eight or nine day pupils at a medium, at ten guineas per annum, 
 and am now giving upwards of twenty lessons per week, pri- 
 vately, at two shillings each besides. [I] am not yet rich enough 
 to retire, notwithstanding. 
 
 With my kind love to cousin Ruth, thyself, and other friends, 
 I remain, in haste, JOHN D ALTON. 
 
 To ELIHU ROBINSON. 
 
 On November I2th, 1802, Dalton read to the Liter- 
 ary and Philosophical Society an " experimental 
 inquiry into the proportion of the several gases" or 
 elastic fluids constituting the atmosphere." (Memoirs, 
 Second Series, vol. i. p. 244). These he ascertained 
 by weight to be : 
 
 Azotic gas 
 Oxygenous gas 
 Aqueous vapour 
 Carbonic acid gas 
 
 100*00 
 
 This essay is of no small interest as one of his 
 earliest contributions to pure chemistry, and it 
 
154 John D alt on. 
 
 assumes historic value as announcing in the combi- 
 nations of oxygen and nitrous gas (now called nitric 
 oxide gas) the first example of the law of multiple 
 proportions. In describing the various eudiometrical 
 processes then in use, he preferred the nitrous gas 
 method. The oxygen contained in 100 measures of 
 common air, he found, would combine, in a narrow 
 tube, with 36 of pure nitrous gas, forming nitnV: 
 acid; or with 7 2 > in a wide vessel, forming nitrous 
 acid. The residuum in each experiment was 79 or 80 
 measures of pure nitrogen gas. " These facts clearly 
 point out the theory of the process : the elements of 
 oxygen may combine with a certain portion of nitrous 
 gas, or with twice that portion, but with no inter- 
 mediate quantity." His general conclusion from his 
 own experiments, and those of Davy, was, that 100 
 volumes of air consist of 79 of nitrogen and 21 of 
 oxygen, numbers nearly accordant with the later ones 
 of Dumas. 
 
 He was strongly of opinion that the proportions of 
 these gases would differ at various elevations ; and 
 that at the height of Mont Blanc the ratio of oxygen 
 gas to nitrogen, in a given volume of air, would be 
 nearly as 20 to 80 ; but the observations of Gay 
 Lussac showed the relative composition of air brought 
 from an elevation of four miles, to be the same as 
 that at the earth's surface. 
 
 This subject was one of lasting interest to Dalton, 
 and his more mature views will fall better under con- 
 sideration here than in a subsequent page. In his 
 Memoir, " On the Constitution of the Atmosphere," 
 published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1826, 
 Part ii. p. 174, he recurs to the question, " Whether 
 
On the Constittttion of the A tmosphere. 155 
 
 the uniform diffusion of elastic fluids through each 
 other is occasioned by the repulsion of the element- 
 ary particles of the same kind, which appears to 
 force them through most bodies, as well solid and 
 liquid as aerial, except glass and the metals ; or 
 whether it is caused by attraction or chemical affi- 
 nity : " and adds, " I have long been inclined to 
 adopt the former notion, as most consistent with 
 the phenomena/' It is less needful to dwell on the 
 theoretical considerations adduced in this Memoir, 
 as a sequel to it, recording his final opinions, was 
 read on June I5th, 1837, and published in the 
 Philosophical Transactions of that year (x. p. 347). 
 He describes his experiments on air obtained by 
 himself from the summit of Helvellyn, about 3000 
 feet above the level of the sea ; by a friend, at 
 various stations in Switzerland, about 6000 feet ; and 
 by Mr Green, in a balloon, at elevations of 9600 feet 
 and 15,000 feet. This last air yielded 20.59 an d 
 20.65 oxygen per cent. ; while air collected in Man- 
 chester the same day gave 20.95 on the average of 
 five experiments. He concluded that " in elevated 
 regions the proportion of oxygen to azote is some- 
 what less than at the surface of the earth, but not 
 nearly so much as the theory of mixed gases would 
 require ; and that the reason for this last must be 
 found in the incessant agitation in the atmosphere 
 from winds and other causes." Dr Henry found in 
 Dalton's letter-book (February 1836) the following 
 notice on atmospheric air " Will it not be thought 
 remarkable that in 1836 the British chemists are 
 ignorant* whether attraction, repulsion, or indifference is 
 
 * This note of Dalton's would show that he felt as dissatisfied with 
 
156 John Dahon. 
 
 marked when a mixture of any proportions of azote 
 and oxygen is made?" 
 
 That which Dalton conceived within the scope of 
 British chemists in 1836, is still a matter sub judice ; 
 but what evidence is adduced, and notably by Gay 
 Lussac, Regnault, and Bunsen, is in favour of the 
 variation in the composition of the atmosphere at all 
 attainable elevations as regards oxygen and nitrogen 
 being very small, and not exceeding the slight 
 changes which are noticed at the same spot on 
 different days. 
 
 He read an essay of considerable interest on Janu- 
 ary 28, 1803, " On the Tendency of Elastic Fluids to 
 Diffusion through each other." He took two phials, 
 filled with different gases, and connected them to- 
 gether by a glass tube 10 inches long and -^ inch 
 bore. In all cases, the heavier gas was in the under 
 phial ; yet, after the lapse of a certain time, the gases 
 were uniformly diffused through each other in both 
 phials. Thus he proved that elastic fluids of different 
 specific gravities, if once diffused through each other, 
 do not separate by long standing, so that the heaviest 
 is found lowest, but remain in a state of uniform and 
 equal diffusion. These phenomena of diffusion were 
 afterwards investigated very thoroughly by Professor 
 Graham, who determined the beautiful law that the 
 rate at which gases diffuse is inversely as the square 
 root of the densities of the gases. 
 
 The year 1803 showed a large amount of good and 
 
 the knowledge then extant on the conditions of the atmosphere, as he 
 was with the ideas generally prevalent regarding the height of the 
 aurora borealis, to which reference has been made in p. 95 of this 
 Memoir. 
 
On the A bsorption of Gases. 157 
 
 original work done by Dalton, and was probably the 
 most prolific in scientific gains of any year that he 
 had spent in Manchester from 1793 to 1803. Be- 
 fitting the close of this first decennial period, so 
 truly fertile in the growth of great ideas that 
 tended to elevate the author to high rank among 
 the savans of Europe, Dalton read (October 21, 
 1803) a paper "On the Absorption of Gases by 
 Water and other Liquids," which contains the 
 first announcement of his discovery of the laws 
 of combining proportion and the germ of the 
 Atomic Theory. After stating the laws which 
 he had found to regulate the absorption of gases 
 by water, he contends that gases such as oxy- 
 gen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, &c., when in aqueous 
 solution, are mechanically mixed with water, not 
 chemically combined with it a view that has not 
 met with general approval. He compared his gas 
 dissolved in water to a pile of shot, " a particle of 
 gas pressing on the surface of water is analogous to 
 a single shot pressing upon the summit of a square 
 pile of them ; " and to make this distinct to his 
 readers, inserted an engraving of a pyramidal pile of 
 balls left unshaded, with a dark ball surmounting the 
 apex. " The lower globes are to represent particles 
 of water, the top globe a particle of air resting on 
 particles of water." Two other engravings show a 
 " horizontal view of air in water," and a " profile 
 view of air in water," in which dots and crosses are 
 taken to represent particles of air, with spaces of 
 water between them. 
 
 These engravings are viewed by Dr George Wil- 
 son, " as affording additional illustrations of the 
 
158 John Dalton. 
 
 hold which a belief in the atomic constitution 
 of matter had taken of Dalton's mind, and the 
 use which he made of it in discussing purely phy- 
 sical problems (or, at least, what he considered such), 
 before he had occasion to apply it to chemical ques- 
 tions at all." 
 
 The concluding paragraph of the Memoir on " Ab- 
 sorption," is the first clear indication of his greatest 
 discovery, and is best introduced in his own words, 
 some of which I have taken the liberty to place in 
 italics as worthy of special notice : 
 
 " The greatest difficulty attending the mechanical 
 hypothesis arises from different gases observing dif- 
 ferent laws. Why does water not admit its bulk of 
 every kind of gas alike ? This question I have duly 
 considered, and though I am not yet able to satisfy 
 myself completely, I am nearly persuaded that the 
 circumstances depend upon the weight and number 
 of the ultimate particles of the several gases, those 
 whose particles are lightest and single, being least 
 absorbable, and the others more, according as they 
 increase in weight and complexity. An inquiry into 
 the relative weights of the ultimate particles of bodies is 
 a subject, as far as I know, entirely new. I have 
 lately been prosecuting this inquiry with remarkable 
 success. The principle cannot be entered upon in 
 this paper ; but I shall just subjoin the results, 
 as far as they appear to be ascertained by my 
 experiments." 
 
 Then follows a Table (read October 1803, but 
 published November 1805) of the Relative Weights 
 of the Ultimate Particles of Gaseous and Other 
 Bodies : 
 
Foreshadowing* of the Atomic Theory. 159 
 
 Hydrogen, 
 
 Azote, . 
 
 Carbon, 
 
 Ammonia, 
 
 Oxygen, 
 
 Water, . 
 
 Phosphorus, . 
 
 Phosphuretted hydrogen 
 
 Nitrous gas, . 
 
 Ether, . 
 
 Gaseous oxide of carbon 
 
 4-2 
 4'3 
 5'2 
 
 S'S 
 6.5 
 7-2 
 8-2 
 
 9'3 
 9-6 
 
 Nitrous oxide, . . 137 
 
 Sulphur, . . . 14-4 
 
 Nitric acid, . . . 15-2 
 
 Sulphuretted hydrogen, 15-4 
 
 Carbonic acid, . . 15*3 
 
 Alcohol, . . . 15-1 
 
 Sulphurous acid, . . 19-9 
 
 Sulphuric acid, . . 25*4 
 
 Carburetted hydrogen, . 6*3 
 
 Olefiant gas, ... 5-3 
 
 " Such, then," writes Dr Wilson, "were the steps by 
 which Dalton was conducted to the discovery of the 
 laws of combining proportions. He was testing, by 
 experiment, the truth of a hypothesis as to the cause 
 of the specific solubility of gases in water, which 
 proved in the end to be quite untenable ; but, like 
 Columbus, who missed an El Dorado but found an 
 America, he discovered something better. From 
 what Dr Thomson tells us, he was struck by observ- 
 ing that the quantity of hydrogen in fire-damp is 
 exactly twice that in heavy carbu retted hydrogen, 
 the quantity of carbon being the same in both. His 
 constant reference of the properties of masses to those 
 of their smallest molecules, led him at once to connect 
 these proportions in which the carbon and hydrogen 
 occurred, with the relative weights of their attracted 
 particles." Dr Wilson supposes that Dalton reasoned 
 thus : " Hydrogen and carbon are made up of par- 
 ticles which have different weights, the carbon atoms 
 being all six times heavier than the hydrogen ones ; 
 but if hydrogen and carbon have atoms differing in 
 relative weight, oxygen, nitrogen, and every other 
 elementary substance will have atoms differing in 
 relative weight also ; and these may be ascertained 
 
160 John Dalton. 
 
 by finding the relative weights according to which 
 the masses made up of them combine with each 
 other. To Dalton's mind, fitted, as it were, already 
 with the conception of everything consisting of atoms, 
 it was only necessary to introduce the additional idea 
 of those atoms differing in relative weight, and all 
 the laws of combining proportion rose at once into 
 view. He was gifted with a bold, self-reliant, far- 
 glancing, generalising spirit, and the researches he 
 had long been prosecuting had doubtless strength- 
 ened greatly that faith in the uniformity of Nature's 
 laws, which we all inherit as an essential part of our 
 mental constitution. We may believe that, without 
 an effort, and almost instinctively, he would infer that 
 if hydrogen followed a law of multiple proportion in 
 its higher combinations with carbon, a similar relation 
 would be found to hold in every case where the same 
 elements united to form more than one compound." 
 
 Dalton's views of chemical combination, including 
 both the facts and the hypothesis which expressed 
 and explained them, are generally known as his 
 "Atomic Theory." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE ATOMIC THEORY FROM THALES 
 TO SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 
 
 " For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, 
 Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
 Their embryon atoms." MILTON. 
 
 IOEVAL with the manifestation of the rea- 
 soning faculties that far and pre-historic 
 past of man's development the constitu- 
 tion of the earth and its different aspects 
 and surroundings would hardly fail to excite the 
 imagination of the denizens of the wilde; and, in 
 the course of time, natural phenomena would offer 
 large discussion to the better endowed of the race. A 
 recognition, however faint, of the external world and 
 its living beings, would gratify the dawning mind, and 
 vie in interest with the contemplation of the gods, 
 whose attributes were not seldom associated with both 
 human and terrestrial agencies. In scanning these 
 agencies endless speculations arose, as fanciful in tone 
 as they were ephemeral in duration ; each new thought 
 proving as baffling as its predecessor in the attempted 
 solution of the great problem : What is the con- 
 stitution, the ultimate composition, or real nature of 
 matter itself ? 
 
 The bold expounders of the cosmogony undertook 
 an arduous task, and as their efforts to unravel the in- 
 
 L 
 
1 62 John Dalton. 
 
 tricacies of nature often failed, they found it con- 
 venient to follow the example of the theogonists, and 
 shelter their ignorance under the shadows of the 
 mythological altars of their age and race an orthodox 
 mode of treating scientific difficulties that is not 
 without its counterpart in the history of the state 
 churches of these latter days. The progress of 
 knowledge might well be dilatory amid the almost 
 impenetrable mists of superstition in the past, when 
 to-day the cry of " more light " is still so audible 
 among the adepts of science ; and this, be it remem- 
 bered, after eighteen centuries of Christian indoc- 
 trination, itself ushered into the world upon a large 
 substratum of man's intellectual gains. 
 
 History has made us cognisant of the varied 
 acquirements of the Eastern nations; of the mar- 
 vellous skill and aptitude of the Egyptians ; of the 
 nobler forms of art, the noblest ever vouchsafed to 
 man, being developed pari passu with the grandly 
 philosophic aims of the Greeks ; of the world-wide 
 dominion and scope of the Romans ; of the subtle 
 grasp of the Arabian physicians, and the erudite lore 
 of the schoolmen ; all operating more or less in the 
 direction of enlightenment and civilisation. Yet 
 the science of these modern days culling its data from 
 the great stores of evidence of the past, and favoured 
 by novel experimental appliances and methods of 
 inquiry strictly inductive, can lay claim to little more 
 than a firm step on the threshold of discovery. 
 
 As of yore, so do enthusiastic minds now look 
 hopefully for still higher revelations in science ; and 
 assuredly, if there was ever an epoch in human 
 history marked by bold and progressive lines, and 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 163 
 
 powers to fathom the arcana of the cosmos, it is the 
 present age that has been blessed, beyond all pre- 
 cedent, by discoveries of overpowering brilliancy and 
 magnitude. 
 
 Man looks upon the Earth, its waters and dry land, 
 and admires its meres, its meadows, and its moun- 
 tains ; he soars for miles in its circumambient air ; 
 he mines its superficial crust, and fathoms its ocean 
 depths ; and everywhere marks a marvellous diversity 
 of form and substance in the stratified rock, the 
 tidal wave, and transparent ether. His admiration 
 is enhanced by contemplating the myriads of 
 organisms in active life, taking their start from the 
 primitive organic cell that in its timely growth and 
 maturity may become shaped into the umbrageous 
 palm or gnarled oak ; or find its nidus in the 
 higher organisation of the chimpanzee or cetacea. 
 Yet the organic and inorganic worlds in all their 
 entirety ; the blood and the life thereof, as well as 
 the adamantine conditions of inert matter, when sub- 
 jected to chemical analysis, become resolved into a 
 few primary or elementary substances. They are 
 designated simple or elementary bodies, because 
 they can be shown to exhibit one kind of ponderable 
 matter only, be it light as air, or heavy as lead ; for 
 instance, the gases oxygen and hydrogen, or the 
 metals gold and silver, which the chemist has 
 hitherto failed to resolve into more parts or con- 
 stituents than one. 
 
 To-day the chemist assures us of sixty-three 
 elementary bodies some of them being little heard 
 of, others in vast proportion to the mass ; thus four 
 well-known elements in their various compounds, 
 
1 64 John Dalton. 
 
 constitute the whole of the organic kingdom in- 
 cluding all living things flourishing on the earth or 
 in the ocean. Reflecting on the mode in which 
 Nature works, and the few agencies she employs 
 in the formation of the most composite of her struc- 
 tures, it is probable that in the course of time these 
 sixty-three elements may be reduced to a smaller 
 compass, and eventually man, by the aid of a higher 
 science, may realise the grand idea of 
 
 One God one Law one Element. 
 This word " element " has been in use for thou- 
 sands of years, bearing, however, a very different 
 meaning to that attached to the term by modern 
 chemists ; thus air, water, fire, and earth, were called 
 elements, and in common parlance to-day we hear 
 of the watery or the fiery elements. Now air and 
 water are not primary or elementary in structure, 
 (though they were viewed as such till about one 
 hundred years ago), but, consisting as they do of two 
 or more gaseous substances, belong to the class of 
 bodies designated composite' or compound. The 
 chemist has no faith in substances being deemed 
 elementary till his experiments, or processes of re- 
 duction, fail to elicit more than one kind of matter 
 from his analyses. 
 
 The nature and the number of elementary bodies 
 do not affect this thesis ; but rather, having got an 
 unit or element, say oxygen or gold, chlorine or 
 mercury, it behoves us to know the condition of its 
 minutest particle or ultimate form ? Is it solid, pene- 
 trable, or divisible ; and what are its relations and 
 affinities ? 
 
 It is pretty well established, that with the dawn 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 165 
 
 of philosophy among the Greeks, if not dating back 
 to the Egyptians, with whom, as far as this narrative 
 is concerned, the Hindoos and Chinese may be 
 historically bracketed, the higher minds of these re- 
 spective races were divided in opinion, not only as to 
 the character and import of the visible agencies in 
 the cosmogony, but as to the ultimate and invisible 
 or smallest conceivable particles of matter. And 
 the discussion arising thereon has been continued 
 down to our own day without arriving at a deter- 
 minate or settled conclusion on the subject. 
 
 Two theories have long been upheld, and are still 
 current regarding the constitution of matter. 
 
 1. According to one class of thinkers, there is no 
 limit to the divisibility of matter, the smallest portion 
 of any substance still consisting of an infinity of parts, 
 which could be rendered distinct if our instruments 
 and senses were capable to the task. 
 
 2. The opposing party hold that every material 
 mass in nature is divisible into very minute, in- 
 destructible, and unchangeable particles ; to which 
 particles the name Atom a. Greek term signifying 
 that which cannot be further cut or divided has been 
 given. The preponderance of opinion is in favour 
 of this view, or the atomic constitution of bodies 
 upheld by Dalton, who maintained that all bodies are 
 composed of ultimate atoms, the weight of which is 
 different in different kinds of matter. 
 
 The ancients meditated much on atoms, the primi- 
 tive matter or essence of things, mainly, however, 
 from a physical point of view. And though the 
 opinions they advanced were not infrequently sha- 
 dowed by a fitful intuition, or swayed by a longing to 
 
166 John Dalton. 
 
 define the proximate cause or generative principle, 
 that in the beginning of things educed form out of 
 chaos, and life out of inert matter, they were not 
 devoid of significance in the initiatory stages of the 
 science. The pioneers in this path of speculation, 
 along which the Greek minds took foremost rank and 
 action, may be briefly noted. 
 
 Thales of Miletus, styled the Father of Greek 
 Philosophy, originated the conception of water being 
 the first principle of things, the sole primeval matter 
 that could be rendered by some plastic power into 
 vital organisms, as well as the structureless inorganic. 
 The thought was beautiful, and seemed to flash a 
 significant light over the varied phenomena of nature 
 water, the essential stimulus to vegetation and 
 animal vitality; the refreshing dew and rains, the 
 rivers and seas, and the pervading element seeking 
 the great and unknown deep. 
 
 Then came Anaximenes trying to improve upon 
 Thales, and assigning to air the foremost place in his 
 theory of nature, nay, of such value as to be the 
 equivalent of intelligence, if not a kind of deity itself. 
 Thales and Anaximenes were but carrying out the 
 poetic myths of the age, and not altogether without a 
 glimmering of light bearing upon the chemistry of the 
 universe. 
 
 A more stable doctrine than the foregoing got 
 promulgated by Pythagoras the doctrine of the four 
 elements, culled, it is believed, along with his special 
 views of monads, from the land of mystery Egypt. 
 This dogma found support in the experiment of 
 Empedocks, recorded in page 7. Democritus held 
 by the four elements as evidences of chemical change, 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 167 
 
 but would revert to the Thalesian view of one true 
 and primitive substance. These varied opinions 
 found disciples in the great men of the epoch. Plato 
 looked to the earth as fixed and penetrable, and 
 differing from fire, air, and water, the transmutable 
 elements. Aristotle held with Democritus in the 
 belief of one radical matter of the universe, and cast 
 some doubts on the four so-called elements; yet 
 history generally associates his name with this 
 quaternion, because historians were disposed to ap- 
 prove of the doctrine, and liked a great name to 
 countenance their beliefs. 
 
 Now and then in the dark vista of history, a name 
 shines out like Geber, the head of the polypharmists 
 in the eighth century, who held that arsenic, mercury, 
 and sulphur are the elements of all other chemicals, 
 and that they are mutually transmutable into one 
 another. He also believed that his red solution of 
 gold might turn out the veritable elixir of life. 
 Others again reverted to the ideas of the Greeks, with 
 their primal matter, out of which sprang four elements, 
 and sundry secondary and derivative chemical shapes 
 and shadows. 
 
 The Hindoos had their own views of the constitu- 
 tion of matter ; and in their reasonings upon natural 
 things as springing from four or five elements, they 
 were in the same track as the Greeks. Mr James 
 Mill, in his work on British India, ridicules their views 
 as the offspring of an erratic mind ; but Mr Colebrooke 
 (" Daubeny's Atomic Theory," p. 8), citing Kanadi for 
 his authority, shows that they regarded matter as con- 
 sisting of the smallest possible bodies, or atoms which 
 are indivisible ; that the particles of dust seen in a 
 
168 John D alien. 
 
 sunbeam are composed of several of them ; that a 
 superior force drew the atoms together ; and that 
 the first compound is binary, consisting of two 
 simple atoms, the next compound of three binary 
 atoms, &c. 
 
 The most striking fact in favour of the Hindoo 
 philosophy is furnished by Sir William Jones, from 
 the poem of " Shi'ri'n and Ferha'd," or "the Divine 
 Spirit and a Human Soul Disinterestedly Pious." 
 
 "There is a strong propensity which dances through every 
 atom, and attracts the minutest particle to some peculiar object ; 
 search this universe from its base to its summit, from fire to air, 
 from water to earth, from all below the moon to all above the 
 celestial spheres, and thou wilt not find a corpuscle destitute of 
 that natural attractability ; the very point of the first thread in 
 this apparently entangled skein, is no other than such a prin- 
 ciple of attraction, and all principles besides are void of a real 
 basis ; from such a propensity arises every motion perceived in 
 heavenly or in terrestrial bodies ; it is a disposition to be attracted, 
 which taught hard steel to rush from its place and rivet itself 
 on the magnet ; it is the same disposition which impels the light 
 straw to attach itself to the amber ; it is the quality which gives 
 every substance in nature a tendency toward another, and an 
 inclination forcibly directed to a determinate point." 
 
 It would appear that the orthodox priesthood of 
 the Hindoos objected to this atomic doctrine, as too 
 materialistic ; the same scruples arose in Greece : and 
 it is doubtful if nineteenth-century England is alto- 
 gether free of men of professedly philosophic turn, 
 who look harshly upon the carrying out of the atomic 
 doctrines to their fullest extent. 
 
 If the Oriental sages recognised the fact of matter 
 being ponderable and permanent, the Greeks, and 
 notably Anaxagoras, Leucippus and Democritus, 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 169 
 
 inspired by a higher genius that partly uplifted the 
 veil of Chaos, and admitted a designing intelligence or 
 vovs in the arrangement of matter, were led to the hy- 
 pothesis of its composition of molecular, or indivisible 
 and indestructible atoms. The speculations of these, 
 and other learned Greeks as to the constitution of the 
 universe, show a remarkable coincidence with the views 
 that have been educed from the researches of modern 
 philosophers of our own epoch. Aristotle (Met. I. ch. 
 4) wrote : " Leucippus and his companion Democritus 
 say that the plenum and the vacuum (or the full and 
 the empty) are elements . . . and that these are 
 causes, as matter, of things which are . . . And they 
 say that different things are produced by the differ- 
 ences as to these ; which differences are I. of form, 
 as A. differs from N ; 2. of arrangement, as A.N. 
 differs from N.A ; 3. of position, as Z. differs from N." 
 Leucippus looked upon the cosmos as produced by 
 the falling together ,of small indivisible particles or 
 stones, which he viewed as the principle of things ; 
 and which possess a rapid circular motion. Democritus 
 extended the views of his master, and held the 
 atoms to be too small to be visible, yet they were 
 indivisible, impenetrable, and unalterable. As the 
 atoms were infinite in number, the vacuum was 
 infinite in magnitude. From the meeting of atoms in 
 vacuum, sensible qualities of matter arise, e.g., heat, 
 cold, sweetness, colour, which qualities exist only vopw 
 (by convention), "only atoms and vacuum really exist." 
 Again, he says, there are various shapes ; so every- 
 thing was referred to atoms, to which simple bodies he 
 gave shape, extension, and force. They were the 
 primary elements, and all things were made up of 
 
170 John Dalton. 
 
 them by configuration, combination, and position. 
 Leucippus and Democritus alike held that the 
 number and the shapes of the atoms are both in- 
 finite. 
 
 Here is presented to us the atomic theory of the 
 Greeks, as laid down by Democritus, and which was 
 further elaborated by Epicurus. 
 
 "The atomic philosophy of Epicurus," as sketched by Dr Good 
 in his ."Book of Nature," "allows of nothing but matter and 
 space, which are equally infinite and unbounded, which have 
 equally existed from all eternity, and from different combinations 
 of which every visible form is created. . . . Matter, in its ele- 
 mentary state, consists of inconceivably minute seeds, or atoms 
 so small, that the corpuscles of vapour, light, and heat, are com- 
 pounds of them ; and so solid, that they cannot possibly be broken 
 or abraded by any concussion or violence whatever. The express 
 figure of these primary atoms is various, but not infinitely 
 diversified ; the atoms of each existing shape being infinite or 
 innumerable 
 
 tf When these primary atoms are closely compacted, and but 
 little vacuity lies between them, they produce solids, such as 
 stones and metals ; when they are loose and disjointed, bodies 
 of lax texture, as wood, water, and vapour. 
 
 " The world, thus generated, is perpetually sustained by the 
 application of fresh tides of elementary atoms, flying with incon- 
 ceivable rapidity through infinite space, and occupying the posts 
 of those that are perpetually flying off. Yet nothing is eternal 
 or immutable, but these elementary atoms themselves. 
 
 " Space is infinite, material atoms are infinite, but the world 
 is not infinite. This, then, is not the only world, nor the only 
 material system that exists. The cause that has produced this 
 visible system is competent to produce others ; it has been 
 acting perpetually from all eternity ; and there are other worlds, 
 and other systems of worlds, existing around us." 
 
 It has been supposed that the opinions of Democritus 
 were copied from Moschus a Phoenician ; and that the 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 171 
 
 doctrine of monads advanced by Pythagoras was but 
 the corpuscular atoms of the Egyptians. Pythagoras, 
 according to Aristotle, considered his monads as 
 possessed of size : ra? fiovaSas virokapftdvovo iv e%iv 
 peyeQos (Met. lib. xii. c. 6). 
 
 From the axiom that " like can act upon like," 
 Anaxagoras formed his hom&oinerice (some attribute 
 the doctrine to Aristotle), that Democritus accepted 
 and extended. There was much of the Democritean 
 theory implied by Anaxagoras in his tenet, that every 
 distinct kind of matter has its distinct shape and 
 weight of particles. 
 
 The atomism of Democritus has enjoyed as great 
 historical repute as any scientific theory that ever ema- 
 nated from the Greeks ; and according to my friend, 
 Mr G. H. Lewes, it is one of the profoundest specu- 
 lations yet reached by human subtlety. Leibnitz, 
 belonging to our modern school of philosophers, was 
 led to a doctrine essentially similar : his celebrated 
 monadologie is but atomism with a new terminology. 
 Leibnitz called his monad a force, which to him was 
 the/ft#ftz materia. 
 
 The admirers of Democritus will have it that he saw 
 an Intelligence in the " formative principle " of things ; 
 and that his atomism, developed two thousand five 
 hundred years ago, prefigured the corps de doctrine, 
 established by John Dalton in the nineteenth century 
 of the Christian era, and now accepted as the ground- 
 work of a true chemistry. Admitting to the full the 
 admirable conception of the renowned Democritus, 
 it should be borne in mind that the modern atomic 
 theory sets forth the Law of definite proportions, 
 whilst the ancient theory, as Lewes has so well ex- 
 
172 John Dalton. 
 
 pressed, " is merely the affirmation of indefinite com- 
 binations" 
 
 In further evidence of the keen grasp of the Greek 
 philosophers, Berzelius, the famous Swedish chemist, 
 in his paper on *' Proportions Determinate," quotes 
 from Philo, who in his collection of the choicest 
 philosophical ideas of his time, says : Tldvra #605 
 /jLerpqy, /col apiOjJuw, /col (rraO/jiq) Sfcerafe. (God ordered 
 all things by measure, number and weight.) 
 
 Lucretius, in his "De Rerum Natura," eloquently 
 introduced the philosophic views of Epicurus to the 
 Roman world. A few excerpts from the excellent 
 translation of Lucretius by Professor H. A. J. Munro, 
 M.A., 1st ed., Cambridge, 1864, seem desirable. 
 
 " Bodies again are partly first-beginnings of things, partly 
 those which are formed of a union of first-beginnings. But 
 those which are first-beginnings of things no force can quench ; 
 they are sure to have the better by their solid body ; although 
 it seems difficult to believe that aught can be found among 
 things with a solid body for the lightning of heaven passes 
 through the walls of houses, as well as noise and voices ; iron 
 grows red hot in the fire." &c . . . " Attend till we make clear 
 in a few verses that there are such things as consist of solid and 
 everlasting body, which we teach are seeds of things and first- 
 beginnings, out of which the whole sum of things which now 
 exists has been produced." (Bk. i. 483-490 and 500-502.) 
 
 "Again, unless 'matter had been eternal, all things before 
 this would have utterly returned to nothing, and whatever things 
 we see would have been born anew from nothing. But since I 
 have proved above that nothing can be produced from nothing, 
 and that what is begotten cannot be recalled to nothing, first- 
 beginnings must be of an imperishable body, into which all 
 things can be dissolved at their last hour, that there may be a 
 supply of matter for the reproduction of things. Therefore 
 fi rst-beginnings are of solid singleness, and in no other way can 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 173 
 
 they have been preserved through ages during infinite time past 
 in order to reproduce things." (Book i. pp. 540-550.) 
 
 " Moreover, while the bodies of matters are most solid, it may 
 yet be explained in what way all things which are formed soft, 
 as air, water, earth, fire, are so formed, and by what force they 
 severally go on, since once for all there is void mixed up in 
 things. But, on the other hand, if the first-beginnings of things 
 be soft, it cannot be explained out of what enduring basalt and 
 iron be produced ; for their whole nature will utterly lack a 
 first foundation to begin with. First-beginnings, therefore, are 
 strong in solid singleness, and by a denser combination of these, 
 all things can be closely packed and exhibit enduring strength." 
 (Book i. 565-576.) 
 
 " First-beginnings, therefore, are of solid singleness, massed 
 together and cohering closely by means of least parts, not com- 
 pounded out of a union of those parts, but rather strong in ever- 
 lasting singleness. From them nature allows nothing to be 
 torn, nothing further to be worn away, reserving them as seeds 
 for things. Again, unless there shall be a least, the very 
 smallest bodies will consist of infinite parts." . . . . " Therefore, 
 between the sum of things and the least of things, what differ- 
 ence will there be ? There will be no distinction at all ; for how 
 absolutely infinite soever the whole sum is, yet the things which 
 are smallest will equally consist of infinite parts." (Book i. 
 609-622.) 
 
 " The first-beginnings of things have different shapes, but the 
 number of shapes is finite." (Book ii. 479-80.) 
 
 "Since a fixed limit has been assigned to things which 
 bounds their sum on each side, you must admit that matter 
 also has a finite number of different shapes," (Book ii. 
 512-514). 
 
 Lucretius condemned those who advocated the 
 opinion that the primary matter of all things rested 
 on either fire or air, water or the earth. His specula- 
 tions on the mode by which the primordial elements 
 are acted upon by force, are less clearly expressed. 
 He gives his atoms various shapes and sizes, but does 
 
i/4 John D alt on. 
 
 not admit of their being sentient, or they would " pro- 
 duce nothing but a crowd and multitude of animals." 
 
 It is curious to observe his approximative aim to 
 the atomic theory, and not less his tentative efforts 
 to elucidate the mode in which the primordial ele- 
 ments being " not sentient," are acted upon by forces 
 throughout the whole a problem of much interest 
 and somewhat akin to the determination of force, at 
 present agitating the physicists of Europe. 
 
 Cicero in his " De Natura Deorum," reasoning on 
 the rotundity and apt analogies of the celestial orbs to 
 natural history entities, and the construction of the 
 visible earth, would seem to have fallen upon many 
 lines of thought previously traversed by the Greeks, 
 and adorned by his friend Lucretius, from whose 
 poem several quotations have been made. He was 
 probably incited to this by his love of Athens, and 
 his friendship, as Munro says, with the leading Epi- 
 cureans, both Greek and Roman, to one of whom, 
 Philodemus, as it now appears from the Herculanean 
 fragments recently published, he was greatly indebted 
 in his " De Natura Deorum.'' 
 
 As the ancient schools of philosophy gradually 
 waned and sank below the horizon, there arose, and 
 among the Arabians chiefly, the mystical arts shadowy 
 of themselves, and not less shadowed by spiritual au- 
 thority and interference. Of these arts alchemy was 
 most prominent, and its cultivators seem to have 
 blended what knowledge had come down to them 
 from the Alexandrian school, and a portion of the Aris- 
 totelian philosophy, with the results of their own 
 operations in the laboratory it being as much a 
 matter of policy in the East to be able to cite great 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 175 
 
 names in support of new doctrines, as it is the fashion 
 of Western nations to hold by precedent and 
 privilege in the defence of the status quo of govern- 
 mental rule. 
 
 If the masters in alchemy, and chief men of the 
 Middle Ages, gave the doctrine of atoms a place in 
 their speculations regarding matter and the cosmos, 
 they do not appear to have enlarged the thesis, or 
 to have advanced beyond the doctrines so classically 
 expressed by Lucretius. Dr Angus Smith has gone 
 carefully over the history of the period, but apparently 
 elicited little more than a confirmation of the belief 
 generally entertained, that the mediaeval workers 
 rested their reasonings very much on the existence of 
 four elements, or old Aristotelian dicta, so long viewed 
 by the multitude as infallible. Now and then a ray 
 of light emanated from the dark chambers of these 
 enthusiasts, that partook of novelty rather than logical 
 accuracy, and got shaped into such forms as the 
 " quinta essentia ; " " specific fermentations; " and the 
 ' : materiaprima" the latter tenet being little more than 
 a revival of Plato's TT/XWT^ v\r}, the primary hyle, that 
 might be freely translated as true matter, though 
 others have viewed it as " matter in the abstract." 
 
 The fetishisms and national " idols " were not with- 
 out their visible effect upon the primitive ideas emerg- 
 ing from the chaos of thought, that in time served 
 as modes of interpreting natural phenomena. The 
 mingling of these, and the adoption of a form of theo- 
 logy based on the generative principle that existed 
 in full force in the speculations of the ancients, found 
 illustration in the names of Isis and Osiris, typical 
 of the Alexandrian school of thought, being retained 
 
1 76 John D alt on. 
 
 by alchemy, whilst salt, sulphur, and mercury were 
 connected with the Trinity of Christians. 
 
 After the Arabians, Geber, Raymond Lully, 
 Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and Basil Valentine 
 were among the most conspicuous members of the 
 great school of alchemy ;* men who, in their prac- 
 tical aims and manipulations of ordinary chemical 
 workings, rendered service to the cause of qualita- 
 tive chemistry, as long as they confined themselves 
 to the experimental path ; but as they were led 
 away by their metaphysics and current theological 
 opinions, they rendered but inadequate help to the 
 cause of quantitative chemistry. 
 
 Comte has said that there must be three principal 
 epochs in the growth of every science, and of all the 
 sciences together : " the childish religious,^the boyish 
 metaphysical, and the manly positive of develop- 
 ment." Dr Samuel Brown would have preferred 
 to distinguish these three ages as the superstitious, 
 the fictitious, and the real. In the dreamy age of 
 chemistry, theories in abundance were being offered 
 on the ultimate composition of matter, chiefly in an 
 abstract form, or based on the Pythagorean or 
 Aristotelian methods. The professed cultivators of 
 science were more disposed to give airy attitudes to 
 
 * Dr Angus Smith cites Palissy, the"well-known potter of the i6th 
 century, as taking part in the discussion of the great problem of the 
 day, and actually siding with the notions expressed by Thales, the first 
 of Greek reasoners, a fact that proves him to be less of a philosopher 
 than a potter. Bottcher was wiser, he stuck to his alchemy, and 
 though he failed to make gold, he made the best of Dresden porcelain. 
 Of him it was said : 
 
 "Ye heavens, alchemy has won my votes, 
 A goldmaker 's changed to a maker of pots.'' 
 
" Sir Roger de Coverleyed'' 1 29 
 
 Philosopher John triangled ! or "dephlogisticated," 
 and nearly "Sir Roger de Coverleyed " by "the 
 handsomest woman in Manchester," can only be 
 credited by sober friends on perusing his own nar- 
 rative of this delicate affair. The untoward symp- 
 toms marking his captivity or bondage may seem a 
 little peculiar. 
 
 It seems that another of your maids is become mistress a 
 good omen for the next, whoever she may be. Methinks there 
 may be a question started from some side of the fire when this is 
 read " I wonder whether John is going to marry yet, or not?" 
 I may answer that my head is too full of triangles, chymical 
 processes, and electrical experiments, &c., to think much of 
 marriage. I must not, however, omit to mention that I was 
 completely Sir Roger de Coverleyed a few weeks ago. 
 
 The occasion was this : being desired to call upon a widow, 
 a Friend, who thought of entering her son at the academy, I 
 went, and was struck with the sight of the most perfect figure 
 that ever human eyes beheld, in a plain but neat dress ; her 
 person, her features, were engaging beyond all description. 
 Upon inquiry after, I found that she was universally allowed 
 to be the handsomest woman in Manchester. Being invited by 
 her to tea a few days after, along with a worthy man here, a 
 public Friend [a Quaker minister], I should have, in any other 
 circumstances, been highly pleased with an elegant tea equi- 
 page, American apples of the most delicious flavour, and choice 
 wines, but in the present these were only secondary objects. 
 Deeming myself, however, full proof against mere beauty, and 
 knowing that its concomitants are often ignorance and vanity, 
 I was not under much apprehension ; but when she began to 
 descant upon the excellence of an exact acquaintance with 
 English grammar and the art of letter-writing ; to compare the 
 merits of Johnson's and Sheridan's dictionaries ; to converse 
 upon the use of dephlogisticated marine acid in bleaching ; 
 upon the effects of opium on the animal system, &c., &c., I was 
 no longer able to hold out, but surrendered at discretion. 
 During my captivity, which lasted about a week, I lost my 
 appetite, and had other symptoms of bondage about me, as 
 incoherent discourse, &c., but have now happily regained my 
 freedom. 
 
 I 
 
130 John Dal ton. 
 
 Having now wrote till I have tired my hand, and probably 
 thine eyes in reading, I shall conclude with my love to cousin 
 Ruth and thyself, and to all inquiring friends, 
 
 JOHN DALTON. 
 
 If Dalton could afford to treat his relations to the 
 fascinating widow in a vein of facetiousness, it was 
 far otherwise with his pen, when the object of his ad- 
 miration was worthy of his more thoughtful hours. 
 Little demonstrative in any direction outside his 
 own laboratory, he was not without the higher sen- 
 sibilities of our nature that make the society of 
 women of amiability and mental culture highly en- 
 joyable. In his journeys to Cumberland, he used to 
 pay a visit to a Friend in Lancaster, who had two 
 daughters of both of whom he spoke very highly; 
 but Hannah was evidently his favourite, of whom 
 he writes in the following enthusiastic terms to his 
 brother, September 15, 1796. Considering the high 
 qualifications of the lady, it is to be regretted that 
 Dalton's means were too limited to enable him to 
 marry, or there might have been " a wedding of it," 
 with probably blissful issue to posterity. 
 
 " I may here observe that it has been my lot for three years 
 past to be daily gaining acquaintance of both sexes. I. have 
 consequently had opportunities of estimating and comparing 
 characters upon a pretty extensive scale. Since my first intro- 
 duction to , twelve months ago, I have spent a day .or 
 
 two with them at six different intervals, with the highest .satis- 
 faction, as I never met with a character so finished as Hannah's. 
 What is called strength of mind and sound judgment she pos- 
 sesses in a very eminent degree, with the rare coincidence of a 
 quick apprehension and most lively imagination. Of sensibility 
 she has a full share, but does not affectedly show it on every 
 trivial occasion. The sick and poor of all descriptions are 
 her personal care. Though undoubtedly accustomed to grave 
 and serious reflections, all pensiveness and melancholy are 
 
Describes a Fair Quakeress. 131 
 
 banished from her presence, and nothing but cheerfulness and 
 hilarity diffused around. Her uncommon natural abilities 
 have been improved by cultivation, but art and form do not 
 appear at all in her manner all is free, open, and unaffected. 
 Extremely affable to all, though every one sees and acknow- 
 ledges her superiority, no one can charge her with pride. She 
 is, as might be expected, well pleased with the conversation of 
 literary and scientific people, and has herself produced some 
 essays that would do credit to the first geniuses of the age, 
 though they are scarcely known out of the family, so little is her 
 vanity. Her person is agreeable, active, and lively. She sup- 
 ports conversation, whether serious, argumentative, or jocular, 
 with uncommon address. In short, the tout ensemble is the 
 most complete I ever beheld. Next to Hannah, her sister Ann 
 takes it, in my eye, before all others. She is a perfect model of 
 personal beauty. I do not know one that will bear a comparison 
 with her in this respect, at least in our society. With abilities 
 much superior to the generality, she possesses the most refined 
 sensibility, but in strength of mind and vigour of understanding 
 must yield to her elder sister. I dwell with pleasure upon the 
 character of these two amiable creatures, but would not have 
 thee communicate my sentiments to others." 
 
 In the journal of a tour in the previous year, when 
 he first became acquainted with this lady, he thus 
 describes a walk in her company up the river Lune, 
 as far as Horton : 
 
 " The pleasantness of the evening, the delightful scenery of 
 the country, added to the amiable softness, vivacity, and good 
 sense of our female companion, made it one of the pleasantest 
 walks I ever enjoyed." And again he quaintly remarks : " In 
 going to a tea-party we were introduced by our fair companion 
 to the hospital for old maids, and saw one of no very alluring 
 aspect. Oh what a contrast ! " 
 
 It is not improbable that his intercourse with the 
 pretty Friends of Lancaster gave an impulse to his 
 aesthetic sensibilities, that found occasional pleasure 
 in cultivating the muse 
 
 " Never durst poet touch a pen to write, 
 Until his ink were temper'd with love's sighs ; " 
 
132 John Dalton. 
 
 for, notwithstanding his bucolic and Quaker associa- 
 tions, and the general absence of social opportunities, 
 he had a love of melody, and in listening to his 
 favourite airs would appear more or less spellbound. 
 His " Stanzas Addressed to an ^Eolian Lyre " have 
 been cited as his best attempt at versification. They 
 are as follows : 
 
 STANZAS ADDRESSED TO AN AEOLIAN LYRE. 
 
 Far from the noisy dissonance of strife, 
 
 From war's dire clarion, boding vengeful ire, 
 
 Here let me spend one vacant hour of life, 
 To sing thy well-earned praise, melodious Lyre ! 
 
 When thy soft airs first touched my ravished ear, 
 
 My heart accorded to the tender strain ; 
 Now gently swelling, called forth pity's tear, 
 
 Now languished, pining, for the love-sick swain. 
 
 To every tender feeling of the soul, 
 
 A kindred tone the various breeze excites ; 
 The enchanted heart yields to the mild control, 
 
 And sweetly banquets on thy soft delights. 
 
 At times the notes with gentle zephyrs rise, 
 And trembling touch the chord of fond desire, 
 
 Now mingling, breathe in soft, responsive sighs, 
 Then fluttering, fall, and with the gale expire. 
 
 Again the slowly-rising notes assail 
 
 As if some tender maid, unseen, unknown, 
 Sighed for neglect yet tuneful, swelled the gale, 
 
 To melt the unfeeling heart with sorrow's plaintive moan. 
 
 If e'er a breast was by soft passion moved, 
 
 If e'er it felt love's sympathetic fire, 
 With mine thy strains it cordially approved, 
 
 And breathed in chorus to thy praise, sweet Lyre ! 
 
 A sudden gust now sweeps thy trembling strings 
 What wild luxuriance undulates the air ! 
 
His Poetical Efforts. 133 
 
 The swell majestic all its grandeur brings, 
 And dying gales their softer tribute bear. 
 
 To yonder copse why should I anxious rove, 
 To hear its songsters hail the new-born day ? 
 
 Why pensive court the music of the grove ? 
 Thy charming airs surpass their sweetest lay. 
 
 When vernal showers refresh the parched vale, 
 And Flora's train in richest hues appear, 
 
 Not more their varied tints the eye regale, 
 Than thy ecstatic notes delight the ear. 
 
 Should adverse winds the ruffled soul assail 
 Impassioned looks the rising storm presage 
 
 Thy soothing airs, mellifluous, cannot fail 
 
 To calm each ranc'rous passion's keenest rage. 
 
 When nature bids the busy world to close, 
 And silence reigns, obedient to her power, 
 
 Thy grateful murmurs, lulling to repose, 
 
 Beguile the solemn gloom of midnight hour. 
 
 His description of Hannah's personal charms showed 
 him to possess a larger share of the imaginative faculty 
 than was generally assigned to him by his friends. 
 That he was fully alive to the beauty of natural 
 scenery may be gathered from the following extract 
 from his Journal of August 22, 1796 : 
 
 "We had a pleasant ride from Kendal, for eight 
 miles, when the grand scenery of the Lakes opened 
 upon us, with full force ; the head of Windermere, 
 and about half of the lake, with the surrounding hills, 
 skirted with wood, formed a fine and capacious 
 amphitheatre, which we had in view, more or less, 
 till we arrived at Lowwood. Drank tea there, and 
 immediately after took a boat out to a central part of 
 the lake, when we beheld the sun descending below 
 the summit of Langdale Pikes, whilst its rays still 
 continued to gild the delightful landscape on the 
 
134 John Dalton. 
 
 opposite shore. . . . Came off the lake ; then pro- 
 ceeded to Ambleside, winding round the still lake by 
 twilight. Went out about ten to view the night 
 scene ; the atmosphere was as clear as possible ; 
 Jupiter and the fixed stars shone with uncommon 
 splendour, and suggested an unusual proximity. The 
 moon, risen, but not above the mountains, cast a 
 glimmering light upon the rocky hills just opposite, 
 and produced a fine effect. These circumstances, 
 together with the awful silence around, would have 
 persuaded us we had been transferred to some other 
 planet." 
 
 John Dalton was thirty years of age before he 
 gave any direct or special attention to chemistry, and 
 his first awakening arose from attending a course of 
 lectures on the subject, delivered by Dr Garnet at 
 Manchester. Though versed in experiments on 
 natural philosophy, he saw the advantage of the 
 varied and attractive illustrations of the chemist in 
 obtaining the approval of popular audiences; and 
 wishing to utilise his knowledge, wrote to his brother 
 in June 1796, that he had some thoughts of delivering 
 a course of lectures at Kendal that summer, including 
 six on physics and six on chemistry. " Twenty sub- 
 scribers at half a guinea would be a sufficient induce- 
 ment to commence." Here it is seen that the sum of 
 ten guineas was all he aimed at for twelve lectures to 
 be delivered at Kendal, two days' journey from Man- 
 chester, and with the probability of having to purchase 
 new apparatus, chemicals, and other adjuvantia. 
 
 After an interval of nearly five years (his essay on 
 Colour-blindness being read in October 1794), Dalton 
 made his second communication to the Philosophical 
 
His Theory of Aqueous Vapour. 135 
 
 Society, entitled " Experiments and Observations 
 to determine whether the Quantity of Rain and Dew 
 is equal to the Quantity of Water carried off by the 
 Rivers, and raised by Evaporation : with an Inquiry 
 into the Origin of Springs." Read March I, 1799 
 (Memoirs, vol. v. p. 346). 
 
 As a matter of supposition rather than evidence, 
 Dalton concluded in favour of their equiponderance ; 
 the more valuable part of his essay contains his first 
 distinct enunciation of the theory of aqueous vapour. 
 
 " I. That aqueous vapour is an elastic fluid sui 
 generis, diffusable in the atmosphere, but forming 
 no chemical combination with it. 
 
 " 2. That temperature alone limits the maximum of 
 vapour in the atmosphere. 
 
 "3. That there exists at all times, and in all places, 
 a quantity of aqueous vapour in the atmosphere, 
 variable according to circumstances." 
 
 Count Rumford having attempted to show " that 
 water, and by analogy, all other fluids, do not trans- 
 mit heat in the manner that solids do ; but circulate 
 it solely by the internal motion of their particles," 
 Dalton (April 12, 1799), reac * to the Philosophical 
 Society an essay on the " Power of Fluids to Conduct 
 Heat " (Memoirs, vol. v. p. 373), based on numerous 
 experiments, and calculated to affect the accuracy of 
 the Count's conclusions. Dalton's method of inquiry 
 was original, and in writing to his brother, March 28, 
 1 799, he says: I have lately been making some curious 
 experiments on the congelation of water in certain cir- 
 cumstances. I have cooled it down to 5 or 6 without 
 freezing, by putting it into a thermometer tube. I find 
 it also impracticable to freeze it in such circumstances 
 
136 John D alt on. 
 
 above 15 or 20; when it does freeze it is instantan- 
 eous, and the liquor shoots up the tube as if ejected 
 by a syringe, and often bursts the tube with a report." 
 
 At first he supposed the degree of greatest conden- 
 sation of water to be at 42 Fahrenheit ; that water 
 expands below 42 exactly as it does above namely, 
 according to the number of degrees. Afterwards he 
 found it needful to correct many of his numerical 
 results, and shifted his ground from 42 to 36 and 
 38 as the point of greatest condensation of water. 
 To-day chemists accept Messrs Playfair and Joule's 
 determination of 39* 101 Fahrenheit. 
 
 In May 1800, Dalton was elected Secretary to the 
 Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, in 
 the place of Dr William Harvey. This office he 
 retained until the year 1808, when he was made 
 Vice-President in the room of Dr Roget. 
 
 In 1817 he was raised to the highest dignity in the 
 Society, and continued to occupy the President's 
 chair during the remainder of his life. The Society 
 practised a generous liberality towards Dalton, who 
 contributed so largely to its fame, nay, European 
 reputation, by permitting him to occupy one of the 
 lower rooms of the Society-house in George Street as 
 a study and a laboratory. 
 
 He conferred honour on his secretaryship on June 
 27, 1800, by reading to the Society, "Experiments 
 and Observations on the Heat and Cold produced by 
 the Mechanical Condensation and Rarefaction of Air " 
 (Memoirs, vol. v. p. 515). 
 
 He endeavoured to show " that the capacity of a 
 .vacuum for heat is less than an equal volume of 
 atmospheric air, and that the denser the air is, the 
 
Experimental Essays. 137 
 
 less is its capacity for heat/' indicating a mode of 
 ascertaining " the absolute capacity of a vacuum for 
 heat," and "likewise the capacity of the different 
 gases for heat by a method wholly new ; but this 
 must be left to future investigation." Dalton found 
 that gases expand i-ioth of their volume, nearly for 
 50 of heat, or nearly i-5ooth of their bulk ; and at 
 a later period of his life again took up the subject. 
 
 In October 1801, he read to the Literary Society 
 the following memoirs : " Experimental Essays on 
 the Constitution of Mixed Gases ; on the Force of 
 Steam or Vapour from Water and other Liquids in 
 different Temperatures, both in a Torricellian Vacuum 
 and in Air ; on Evaporation ; and on the Expansion 
 of Gases by Heat " (Memoirs, vol. v. p. 335). 
 
 He begins by saying, " The progress of philosophi- 
 cal knowledge is advanced by the discovery of new 
 and important facts ; but much more when those facts 
 lead to the establishment of general laws. ... In 
 the train of experiments lately engaging my attention, 
 some new facts have been ascertained, which, with 
 others, seem to authorise the deduction of general 
 laws, and such as will have influence in various 
 departments of natural philosophy and chemistry." 
 Contrary to what might have been expected of 
 Dalton, he propounded those general laws before 
 citing the experiments upon which they were ob- 
 tained. However, he denied having made the 
 experiments in support of any preconceived theory ; 
 and remarked " on the contrary, the first-laid, which is 
 as a mirror, in which all the experiments are best 
 viewed, was last detected, and after all the particu- 
 lar facts had been previously ascertained." 
 
138 John Dalton. 
 
 1. When two elastic fluids, denoted by A and B, are mixed 
 together, there is no mutual repulsion amongst their particles ; 
 that is, the particles of A do not repel those of B, as they do one 
 another. Consequently the pressure or whole weight upon any 
 one particle arises solely from those of its own kind. 
 
 2. The force of steam from all liquids is the same, at equal 
 distances above or below the several temperatures, at which they 
 boil in the open air ; and that force is the same under any pres- 
 sure of another elastic fluid, as it is in vacuo. 
 
 3. The quantity of any liquid evaporated in the open air, is 
 directly as the force of steam from such liquid, at its tempera- 
 ture, all the circumstances being the same. 
 
 4. All elastic fluids expand the same quantity by heat ; and 
 this expansion is very nearly in the same equable way as that of 
 mercury, at least from 32 to 212. It seems probable the ex- 
 pansion of each particle of the same fluid, or its sphere of influ- 
 ence, is directly as the quantity of heat combined with it ; and 
 consequently the expansion of the fluid as the cube of the tem- 
 perature, reckoned from the point of total privation. 
 
 The results of these important researches on eva- 
 poration are thus clearly summed up by Dr Balfour 
 Stewart in his excellent treatise on heat (2d edit. p. 
 101), " The law of evaporation, first discovered by 
 Dalton, may thus be stated In a space destitute of 
 air the vaporisation of a liquid goes on only until the 
 vapour has attained a determinate pressure dependent 
 on the temperature, so that in every space void of air 
 which is saturated with vapour, determinate vapour 
 pressure corresponds to determinate temperature." 
 
 " With reference to mixtures of gas and vapour in a 
 confined space, Dalton's experiments lead to the fol- 
 lowing law : * In a space filled with air the same 
 amount of water evaporates as in a space destitute of 
 air ; and precisely the same relation subsists between 
 the temperature and the pressure of the vapour, 
 
More Original Essays. 139 
 
 whether the space contains air or not/ This law of 
 Dalton was verified by Gay Lussac, but recently 
 Regnault has found, by more exact experiments, 
 that the pressure in air is always less (about 2 per 
 cent.) than that in vacuo ; he is, however, inclined to 
 believe that Dalton's law is true in principle, and that 
 the deviations which he noticed are to be explained 
 by the hygroscopic character of the walls of the 
 chamber which contained the vapour." 
 
 His essay " On the Constitution of Mixed Gases, 
 and particularly of the Atmosphere," was not favour- 
 ably received, inasmuch as his views were not so very 
 clearly expressed, and afterwards received much 
 modification at his own hands. The history of the 
 controversy will be found in his " New System of 
 Chemical Philosophy," Part i. pp. 150-193. 
 
 His second essay "On the Force of Steam or 
 Vapour from Water, and various other Liquids, both 
 in a Vacuum and in Air," was deemed by Dr Henry 
 as one of transcendent importance, as first furnishing 
 tabulated [data for the solution of perhaps the most 
 interesting problem in meteorology ; namely, the 
 calculation, after noting the dew point, of the absolute 
 quantity of moisture in a given volume of air. The 
 first sentence of the essay contains the anticipation 
 of a discovery subsequently made by Dr Michael 
 Faraday. Dalton's words are : " There can scarcely 
 be a doubt entertained respecting the reducibility of 
 all elastic fluids, of whatever kind, into liquids ; and 
 we ought not to despair of effecting it in low tempera- 
 tures, and by strong pressure exerted upon the un- 
 mixed gases." 
 
 His experiments made on the vapours of sulphuric 
 
140 John Dalton. 
 
 ether, spirits of wine, water of ammonia, solution of 
 muriate of lime, mercury and sulphuric acid, led him to 
 entertain as a general law, " that the variation of the 
 force of vapour from all liquids is the same for the 
 same variation of temperature, reckoning from vapour of 
 any given force ; thus, assuming a force equal to 30 
 inches of mercury as the standard, it being the force 
 of vapour from any liquid boiling in the open air, we 
 find aqueous vapour loses half its force by a diminu- 
 tion of 30 of temperature ; so does the vapour of any 
 other liquid lose half its force by diminishing its 
 temperature 30 below that in which it boils, and the 
 like for any other increment or decrement of heat." 
 Nothing could well appear more unlike in character 
 than the six liquids operated upon by Dalton ; and 
 though the law he laid down does not universally 
 obtain, "it is nevertheless remarkable," observes 
 Gmelin, "that this law is pretty nearly true in the 
 case of many substances." Dalton's views received 
 further sanction at the hands of such great authorities 
 as Arago, Faraday, and Dove, who have shown that 
 although the hypothesis does not hold generally, it 
 is approximately true for short distances on each side 
 of the boiling point in a large number of instances. 
 
 Though Dalton experimented largely before offer- 
 ing his opinions " On Evaporation, " it does not seem 
 needful to do more than draw attention to the fact of 
 its appearing with his other essays of greater import. 
 His essay, " On the Expansion of Elastic Fluids by 
 Heat," arising, in part, from a discussion in which 
 several French savans took part, led to greater results. 
 Dalton ascertained by repeated experiments that 
 1000 volumes of common air of the temperature 55 
 
The Expansion of Elastic Fluids. 141 
 
 and common pressure expand to 1325 volumes, when 
 heated to the temperature of 212, and he concluded 
 that any gas at any temperature increases in volume 
 for a rise of one degree by a constant fraction of 
 its bulk at that temperature. He also found that 
 hydrogen, oxygen, carbonic acid gas, and . nitrous 
 gas, expand to the same amount as common air ; the 
 minute differences observed being attributable to the 
 presence of aqueous vapour. Gay Lussac obtained in 
 the same year (1801) results differing but slightly 
 from those of Dalton, the expansion for a single 
 degree of Fahrenheit being, according to Gay Lussac, 
 ^^ of the primitive volume at 32, and according to 
 Dalton T |-^. Magnus and Regnault, by more exact 
 experiments, have determined the expansion to be 
 T | T , and their experiments leave little doubt that Gay 
 Lussac's method of expressing the law is much 
 nearer the truth than Dalton's. 
 
 From these experiments Dalton was led to conclude 
 " that all elastic fluids, under the same pressure, ex- 
 pand equally by heat, and that for any given ex- 
 pansion of mercury the corresponding expansion 
 of air is proportionally something less, the higher 
 the temperature. ... It seems, therefore, that 
 general laws respecting the absolute quantity and 
 the nature of heat are more likely to be derived from 
 elastic fluids than from other substances. . . . As 
 every other liquid we are acquainted with is found to 
 expand more in the higher than in the lower tempera- 
 tures, analogy is in favour of the conclusions of De 
 Luc, that mercury does the same." It is scarcely 
 possible, writes Dr Henry, p. 37-8, to over-estimate the 
 value of these sagacious conclusions. They'may be 
 
142 John Dalton. 
 
 affirmed to lie at the basis of the profound and hither- 
 to unrivalled Memoir, by MM. Dulong and Petit, on 
 the "Measure of Temperature." . . . "It is well known 
 that their singularly precise experiments signally 
 confirmed Dalton's sagacious inferences from his less 
 exact researches." 
 
 Dr Henry has dwelt at some length on these four 
 remarkable essays, because, as he says, " independently 
 of their momentous bearing on meteorological science, 
 they are deeply stamped with the impress of Dalton's 
 genius, and furnish instructive types of his modes of 
 working and thinking. His instruments of research, 
 chiefly made by his own hands, were incapable of 
 affording accurate results, and his manner of experi- 
 menting was loose, if not slovenly. His numerical 
 determinations have not, therefore, like even the 
 earlier analyses of Prout, been confirmed by sub- 
 sequent inquiries. Still his experiments, though 
 wanting the exactitude of modern research, were not 
 unskilfully devised, and were most sagaciously inter- 
 preted. They were, perhaps, such as were most 
 needed at the close of the last century, when so many 
 fields of experimental research were untilled, that 
 bold tentative incursions into new domains of thought, 
 large groupings, and happy generalisations of ap- 
 proximate results were more effective instruments 
 of advance than scrupulous precision in details. At 
 all events, from these imperfect experiments, Dalton 
 arrived at the discovery of those general laws of 
 evaporation, and of the relation of air with moisture, 
 which were translated by Biot into the exact language 
 of analytical formulae, and which still constitute the 
 foundation of meteorological science." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR AN EXCURSION VARIETY OF 
 CORRESPONDENCE GRAMMAR AND PUPILS THE ATMOSPHERE 
 FIRST INDICATIONS OF MULTIPLE PROPORTION ELASTIC 
 FLUIDS ABSORPTION OF GASES ATOMIC WEIGHTS AND INDEX 
 TO ATOMIC THEORY. 
 
 educational and scientific walk 
 was var i ec * an d laborious to a degree almost 
 unprecedented in the pages of biography. 
 His faithful plodding truly merited, and 
 in due time, met with paramount success. Happily, 
 in his struggles for a bread-and-butter existence, and 
 his more earnest solicitation for philosophical inspira- 
 tion, he possessed a hardy and robust constitution, 
 and a northern temperament that found its most 
 fitting stimulus in mental efforts and continuous 
 work. How few men, even of the hardy Teutonic 
 race, could have sustained the long and tedious hours 
 that saw Dalton engrossed with the duties of teaching 
 arithmetic and grammar to " young ideas ! " Yet 
 these compulsory engagements were as the play- 
 things to his mind, whose proper pabulum was to 
 be found in experimental research and abstruse 
 inquiries. 
 
144 John Dalton. 
 
 As an instance of his diverging from his ordinary 
 course of study, may be quoted the fact mentioned 
 to his brother in a letter, dated April 14, 1794, of his 
 reading Euler,Bernouille,and D'Alembert on " Sound;" 
 finding, as he says, " no English author comparable 
 to them." The business of teaching still pressed 
 upon his other work ; and in December of the same 
 year he writes to his brother " My time at present 
 is much taken up with tuition at home and in the 
 town together, so that I can scarcely turn to any 
 particular mathematical or philosophical pursuit; but 
 occasionally of late I have been attending to the 
 philosophy of grammar, and to that of sound." 
 Again, in 1801, he writes "Since the year came in 
 I have not been much troubled with V ennui. Eight 
 regular pupils by day, and as many more in the 
 evenings, to whom I have sometimes given fifteen 
 lessons a week ; my Grammar in the press the whole 
 of it to write over and to retouch, and to attend to 
 the press have required a considerable activity both 
 of body and of mind." 
 
 As his classes at the Academy in Manchester were 
 as miscellaneous as the scholars of any school requir- 
 ing indoctrination in English grammar, and as his 
 method of teaching did not exactly coincide with the 
 published authorities on the subject, he deemed it 
 right to issue a work of his own. His first edition of 
 the " Elements of English Grammar " is dated March 
 IO, 1 80 1, and although it is doubtful if it met with 
 much success in point of sale,* a second edition was 
 
 * In confirmation of this view, it is said that Dalton, a few years 
 afterwards, went into the shop of the publishers of his Grammar and 
 asked for a copy, and was distinctly told they had none left. On his 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 177 
 
 their fancy than to sift the evidence of facts, or even to 
 seek an explanation of the phenomena daily educible 
 from their alembics and furnaces. Many obstacles, it 
 is true, lay in the way of chemical research, and men 
 who had to labour without the aid of the thermometer 
 or the balance, and other requisites in experimental 
 science, were unable to grasp the fruits of their 
 industry, be it ever so sagaciously directed. 
 
 As the world grew older and better by experience 
 and improved methods and alchemy, with all its 
 occult operations, should not be robbed of just credit 
 in furnishing much that was valuable to the science 
 the band of investigators greatly increased in num- 
 bers, and probably in wisdom also, though not held 
 altogether free of the imputation of Quot homines, 
 tot sententice ; so many men, so many different 
 opinions. 
 
 Coming nearer to our own day than the mediaeval 
 schoolmen, a few instances may be adduced of men 
 whose writings contain much of the ancient philo- 
 sophy represented in briefer form and newer type, 
 and greatly modified by modern reasonings and 
 research men whose intellects vied with the best 
 of any age, and whose fame will be as lasting as 
 European history. 
 
 Among the great men of the past whose influence 
 still operates on the great men of the present was 
 Descartes, the sickly child and " young philosopher " 
 of the Jesuits ; he who at the age of twenty-one years 
 sought to divest himself of the teachings of the Con- 
 script Fathers of the Church, and to make his mind 
 a tabula rasa for the reception of a higher philosophy. 
 It is true he made the study of mathematics and 
 
 M 
 
178 John Dalton. 
 
 metaphysics of more consequence than science ; 
 hence his claims to the distinction of the father of 
 modern philosophy, and on grounds as substantial 
 as those which elevated Lord Francis Bacon to the 
 title of father of experimental science. In discussing 
 physical questions he was led to discoveries in optics, 
 &c. A few words will show his views in relation to the 
 atomic hypothesis. He followed in part the doctrines 
 of Plato and Pythagoras as to the divisibility of 
 matter without any assignable limit. He banished 
 the notion of a vacuum that so strongly possessed the 
 Greek mind, not that nature had a horror of vacuum, 
 but because the essence of substance being extension, 
 wherever there is extension there is substance, con- 
 sequently empty space is a chimera. He looked 
 upon the substance filling all space as divided into 
 equal angular parts, which, being set in motion, the 
 parts assume a spherical form these motions taking 
 the form of revolving currents or vortices. On the 
 same mode, and it was but a reaffirmation of the 
 doctrine of the Greeks, he explained the motions of 
 the planets. 
 
 Attention should be drawn to Spinoza, that 
 swarthy, olive-complexioned Jew, of penetrating eye 
 and long black hair, who suffered more for his free 
 utterances than Jew ever did at the hands of Jews ; 
 yet this spectacle-maker was withal one of the most 
 religious and philosophical men of the seventeenth 
 century. Let him be, as his enemies averred, 
 pantheist or infidel, nevertheless, his opera posthuma 
 will live for ever. No doubt Spinoza was greatly 
 influenced by Descartes' philosophy, as Goethe and 
 others were by the persecuted Jew. 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 179 
 
 Leibnitz, the stolid German who conversed with 
 Spinoza, looked upon the universe in its threefold 
 relations of i. Its elements ; 2. Their manner of con- 
 nection ; and 3. The end of their combinations. His 
 doctrine of elements, that they were simple unex- 
 tended forces, or monads, constituted his "Monad- 
 ologie." Blinded by a metaphysical, if not a theologi- 
 cal basis, he viewed each monad as a living mirror 
 of the universe and its physical and spiritual forces ; 
 this creation, in his eyes, involved the existence of 
 a monas monadum, or One of the Supreme Infinite, 
 from whom all that was finite was derived. 
 
 The Hon. Robert Boyle, treating of the " origin of 
 form and qualities," records : " There is one universal 
 matter common to all bodies, an extended, divisible, 
 and impenetrable substance. 
 
 In the " Sceptical Chemist" he maintains that the 
 "Aristotelian hypothesis of four elements is not 
 comparable to the mechanic doctrine of the bulk and 
 figure of the smallest parts of matter ; for from these 
 more universal and fruitful principles of the elemen- 
 tary matter may spring a great variety of textures, 
 upon whose account a multitude of compound bodies 
 might greatly differ from one another." 
 
 Again he says: " It seems probable that at the 
 first production of mixed bodies, the universal matter 
 whereof they consist was actually divided into par- 
 ticles of several sizes and shapes, variously moved. 
 . . . 'Tis also possible that of these minute particles 
 many of the smallest and contiguous ones were 
 associated into minute masses, and by their coalitions 
 constituted such numerous little primary concretions 
 
i8o John Dalton. 
 
 as were not easily separable into the particles that 
 compose them." 
 
 Were it desirable or consistent with this sketch of 
 the atomic theory, the list of men who contributed 
 opinions to the general stock of metaphysical reason- 
 ing, qua the part played by atoms in the general 
 cosmos, might be greatly extended. The views of 
 Sir Isaac Newton may fitly close the chapter ; and 
 with the further admission, that no essential progress 
 had been made towards the solution of the knotty 
 question of the ultimate conditions of matter till 
 nearly the close of the eighteenth century. 
 
 " All things considered," says Sir Isaac Newton, 
 "it seems probable that God, in the beginning, 
 formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, 
 movable particles, of such sizes, figures, and with 
 such other properties, and in such proportion to space, 
 as most conduced to the end for which He formed 
 them ; and that these primitive particles, being solids, 
 are incomparably harder than any porous bodies 
 compounded of them ; even so very hard as never to 
 wear or break to pieces; no ordinary power being 
 able to divide what God himself made one in the first 
 creation." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ATOMIC THEORY FROM SIR ISAAC NEWTON 
 TO JOHN D ALTON. 
 
 " To trace in Nature's most minute design 
 The signature .and stamp of power divine. 
 
 The Invisible in things scarce seen revealed, 
 To whom an atom is an ample field." COWPER. 
 
 HE foregoing chapter offers an outline of the 
 efforts made by the ancients to comprehend 
 the nature of the cosmos on the basis of 
 atoms. The same groundwork materially 
 influenced the speculative philosophy that long, and 
 almost lastingly, ruled the direction of modern thought, 
 that is seen cropping out from time to time in the 
 hands of the Cartesians and other metaphysicians and 
 physicists ; and exercising more or less jurisdiction 
 from the days of the poetic Lucretius down to the 
 author of the " Principia." " The chemical atoms " 
 may have passed across the mental vision of Geber 
 and the polypharmists, but any recognition of their 
 apparent nature dates no further back than the year 
 1 777> when ^Wenzel in part indicated the law of 
 reciprocal proportion ; and can only be said to have 
 attained scientific place in 1803, 'when Dalton pro- 
 pounded the essentials of his atomic theory. 
 
1 82 John Dalton. 
 
 To the mind of the observant reader the question 
 will ere this have occurred, " What is an atom like ? 
 its size, configuration, and affinities ; its history, in 
 short?" To meet such interrogations the greatest 
 intellects of every age have devoted their energies ; 
 yet, with all their mental discernment, backed by 
 most ingenious appliances, Nature cannot be made 
 to disclose her arcana, much less to present herself 
 in the nude form that would afford demonstration or 
 conviction to the uninitiated. It may be stated in 
 limine, and with a frank admission of our imperfect 
 knowledge of the status quo of atoms, that inference 
 and hypothesis guide chemists in their discussions on 
 those infinitesimal units or particles of matter. By- 
 and-by, however, it will be made apparent that the 
 framing of the atomic hypothesis is not only justi- 
 fiable, but found to be in accordance with both the 
 phenomena and the facts falling within the operations 
 of the chemist. 
 
 To give the amateur in science a notion of the 
 minute, marvellously minute, conditions in which 
 Nature carries on her mysterious work, a few facts 
 may be adduced in the hope of affording him a certain 
 amount of insight into the outer world of molecular 
 atoms ; be these atoms viewed as parts of the gaseous 
 atmosphere, or as dense liquids, or as the more solid 
 constituents of the organic and inorganic worlds. 
 
 The air we breathe is like a vast ocean trembling 
 with invisible waves, of which no more tangible idea 
 can be formed than that elicited by watching the 
 finest dust of a sunbeam ; that dust consisting of 
 dark molecules, or aggregate masses of atoms float- 
 ing amid the purer ether pervading space. 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 183 
 
 Everybody is familiar with the sting of a nettle, 
 but few persons have examined by means of a lens 
 the delicate hairs on the leaf of the nettle, from which 
 the tiniest of drops escapes, the insertion of which 
 within the human skin causes heat, redness, and 
 irritation. But what is this irritating fluid compared 
 with the deadly poison of prussic acid, a minim or 
 full drop of which, in its pure, anhydrous* state, causes 
 death in a few seconds ! Here is a strange subtlety 
 of action that can arrest pulsation and life at once, 
 yet all its virus is to be found in a single drop of 
 transparent fluid ! This instance of the extreme 
 potential of force clothed in a liquid globule is rivalled 
 in character by the revelations of the microscope 
 displaying to us a world of mimitia, of organic 
 beauty throughout. 
 
 Turning to animal life, the microscope in the hands 
 of Ehrenberg disclosed animalcules so infinitesimal in 
 size that a single drop of water was computed to 
 contain 500,000,000 of them. Here was not only a 
 picture of a universe of atoms, but the living proof 
 of a universe of organic beings equal in number to 
 the entire human population on the surface of the 
 globe ! 
 
 In the fossil world geologists have traced a whole 
 system of rocks (these calcareous masses in England 
 
 * The anhydrous or pure prussic acid is only to be seen, and that 
 very rarely, in the hands of the scientific chemist or experimental 
 physiologist. The medicinal prussic acid only contains about three 
 per cent, of this anhydrous acid. 
 
 The potency of the pure acid, and its general toxicological and 
 therapeutical history, constituted my graduation thesis, an abstract of 
 which will be found in the Edinburgh Quarterly Medical and Surgical 
 Journal, January 1839. 
 
184 John Dalton. 
 
 being about a thousand feet deep) composed entirely 
 of the shells of siliceous animalcules ; yet so small 
 are these debris of a former world of organic life, that 
 a single chalk-enamelled card of my Lady Fashion- 
 able form a zoological cabinet of perhaps a hundred 
 thousand shells ! 
 
 The dark spot on a soap-bubble, just before it 
 bursts, cannot exceed 4oQ Q OQo th part of an inch in 
 thickness ; yet even this is composed of many strata 
 of atoms ; for this iridescent film of moisture must 
 consist at least of one atom of soap and one of water. 
 Now, the atom of soap is composed of soda, stearic, 
 margaric, and oleic acids ; and the latter of, at least, 
 one molecule of oxygen and one of hydrogen ; and 
 each of these possess the essential properties of im- 
 penetrability, extension, and figure. 
 
 Dr Thomson of Glasgow has shown that an atom 
 of lead cannot exceed in weight the 
 
 of a grain ; and that the sulphur united with it 
 in the form of sulphuret could not be more than 
 of the same! Goldbeaters by 
 
 hammering reduce gold to leaves so thin that 360,000 
 must be laid upon one another to produce the thick- 
 ness of an inch ; and sTrnr^rorrth of a grain may be 
 distinguished by a common microscope. But the 
 coating of gold on silver lace is still finer, when it is 
 computed that the TTrrorrbwo^tn of a grain, spread 
 out as a distinct layer of gold, may be seen through a 
 good lens. 
 
 The contemplation of these remarkable proofs of 
 the molecular forms and minutia pervading Nature's 
 great plan, may help the reader's belief to a more 
 infinitesimal condition of matter than has been set 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 185 
 
 forth, or is ever likely to be demonstrated ; and at 
 the same time tend to promote his sanction of doc- 
 trines that chemists have found it needful to frame 
 upon a theoretical consideration of the atomic con- 
 stituents of bodies. 
 
 Not only is our planet, in all its granitic framework, 
 and its liquid and aerial construction, built up of 
 indescribably minute particles, or the atoms of the 
 sixty-three elementary substances noted by chemists ; 
 but, relying on the observations made by the spectrum 
 analysis, which finds the vapours and the metals of 
 earth in the radiant streaming aurora borealis, and 
 in the central nucleus of comets, it is fair to infer 
 that such also is the construction of the great orbs in 
 the firmament. Such phenomena are of striking 
 interest, as illustrating the structural inorganic ana- 
 logies pervading the universe, upon which the natural 
 theologian may found an attractive teleological 
 theme, not so striking or convincing in character, 
 perhaps, as one that might be drawn from the con- 
 templation of the organic morphological types so 
 strikingly visible and intelligible to all men of culture 
 and education. 
 
 The atom in the physical world is like the cell in 
 the biological world that morphological unit or 
 ultimate element of form out of which all the organs 
 in the living body are built up. As every organised 
 being derives its existence from a sphere of protoplasm 
 and cell-growth, so does every chemical change rest 
 on the fresh arrangement of molecular atoms. The 
 microscope enables the anatomist to define the 
 organic cell in some of its phases ; but no one has 
 been able to see or handle a single molecule. Mole- 
 
1 86 John Dalton. 
 
 cular science, therefore, is apt to create a doubt in 
 the minds of many, inasmuch as it is a branch of 
 study which treats of things invisible, and imper- 
 ceptible by our senses, and necessarily beyond direct 
 experiment and proof. 
 
 Any attempt to evolve the beginning or the end- 
 ing vibration of the ultimate atoms of matter would 
 only bewilder the imagination, and reduce the 
 mightiest of intellects to the submissive attitude of 
 acknowledging the infancy of man's knowledge, and 
 the finiteness of his reach compared with the tran- 
 scendent depth of Nature's operations, as displayed in 
 the countless Infinite. 
 
 How are we to arrive at a clear notion regarding 
 the size. of an atom, when its minuteness escapes the 
 detection of the most powerful microscope yet made, 
 or likely to be constructed ? Ehrenberg's researches, 
 some of which have been already mentioned, led him 
 to infer that the diameter of an atom (the molecule 
 of the chemist) was considerably less than six- 
 millionths of a line. Quite recently, Sir W. Thomson, 
 in a paper " On the Size of Atoms," presented four 
 lines of argument 'founded on experiments of phy- 
 sicists, which all lead to substantially the same esti- 
 mate of the dimensions of molecular structure. He 
 says : 
 
 " Jointly they establish, with what we cannot but regard as a 
 very high degree of probability, the conclusion that, in any 
 ordinary liquid, transparent solid, or seemingly opaque solid, 
 the mean distance between the centres of contiguous molecules 
 is less than the hundred-millionth, and greater than the two 
 thousand-millionth of a centimetre. To form some conception 
 of the degree of cross-grainedness indicated by this conclusion, 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 187 
 
 imagine a raindrop, or a globe of glass as large as a pea, to be 
 magnified up to the size of the earth, each constituent molecule 
 being magnified in the same proportion. The magnified struc- 
 ture would be coarser grained than a heap of small shot, but 
 probably less coarse grained than a heap of cricket-balls. 
 
 " Beyond this point' of extreme tenuity, where matter first 
 exhibits that property which is revealed in visible forms, we are 
 forced to consider it in a still more expanded state, as the 
 universally diffused medium of light, heat, and actinism." 
 
 Here it may be observed that science informs us 
 of two modes in which elementary bodies combine, 
 the chemical and the mechanical ; the chemical being 
 generally viewed as a true and vital fusion between 
 atoms, whilst the mechanical is only a simple bond of 
 juxtaposition. My last chapter concluded with a 
 quotation from Sir Isaac Newton, cautiously express- 
 ing a theory on the nature of atoms that rested on 
 mechanical grounds. 
 
 Among others of the last century who broke ground 
 in the direction of a truer science than reigned in 
 the preceding one (the seventeenth), and who deserve 
 honourable mention, were Boscovich, Cullen, Black, 
 Bergman, the Wenzels, Richter, and the two Higgins. 
 
 The Abbe Boscovich, in his work on Natural Phi- 
 losophy, in 1759, gave the fullest expression to 
 the dynamical theory of matter. According to Dr 
 Daubeny ("Atomic Theory," p. 34) 
 
 " Boscovich supposes that matter is made up of a number of 
 unextended indivisible points, which, however, never touch each 
 other, owing to the mutual repulsion subsisting between them, 
 as soon as they come within a certain distance of each other ; 
 which repulsion, increasing gradually in proportion as they are 
 made to approach nearer and nearer, becomes at length too 
 powerful for any force to overcome. 
 
1 88 John Dalton. 
 
 " Dealing with particles as with matter formed of indestructible 
 atoms, ( he supposes that the points of matter alternately attract 
 and repel each other, according to the distance that separates 
 them, until they either come very close to, or are removed to a 
 comparatively great distance from each other; in the former 
 case they are repelled, in the latter attracted ; the former force 
 preventing mutual contact, the latter, which, when considered 
 as acting between the earth and bodies upon it, is no other than 
 gravitation, drawing them all together.' " 
 
 Dr William Cullen, who raised himself from the 
 humblest position in Scottish life to the rank of the 
 most distinguished physician of his epoch, applied 
 his methodical mind to the elucidation of the higher 
 science pertaining to the physical elements, and 
 stepped far beyond the usual limits assigned to a 
 professor of chemistry and medicine. 
 
 Dr Angus Smith had the good fortune to find a 
 manuscript copy of the lectures delivered by Dr 
 Cullen in 1762-63, from which the following facts are 
 gathered. Cullen, reasoning from the prevalent 
 doctrines, was of opinion that no physical element or 
 chemical principle possessed fixed and permanent 
 qualities. He afterwards adds : " Having laid down 
 and demonstrated this fundamental proposition 
 viz., that the changes of the qualities of bodies are 
 all of them produced by combination or separation I 
 now proceed to inform you that combination depends 
 upon attraction, that is, the attraction of cohesion, 
 whereby the small particles of bodies very near each 
 other are disposed to approach, and in a certain 
 contiguity to remain coherent together." He also 
 explained "simple elective attraction and double 
 elective attraction by diagrams," and anticipated by 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 189 
 
 some years the views somewhat similarly expressed 
 and illustrated by Bergman. 
 
 Dr Black, whose name is associated with the 
 doctrine of latent heat, succeeded Dr Cullen, and also 
 imbibed his views. Thus he "taught that bodies 
 combine in definite proportions, and explained double 
 decomposition by means of diagrams, not, indeed, the 
 same as those of Mr Higgins " (to whom allusion will 
 presently be made), but much simpler and more 
 elegant. " I have no doubt," continues Dr Smith, 
 " that all similar diagrams published in London by 
 Dr Fordyce, &c., were derived from the same source. 
 Now, could the doctrine of de- 
 finite proportions be taught, 
 and could double decomposi- 
 tion be explained in this way 
 (I quote Dr Black's explana- 
 tion), let the bodies A and B 
 be united with a force, 10; and 
 the bodies C and D with a 
 force, 6. Suppose the attrac- 
 tion of A for C to be 8, and that of B for D to be 9, 
 if we mix these bodies, A will unite with C, and B 
 with D. To me they conveyed just as much of the 
 atomic theory as the perusal of Mr Higgins' book 
 did " (p. 146). 
 
 Those who wish for ampler explanation of Dr 
 Cullen's views, will find them in a letter of his to his 
 pupil, Dr George 'Fordyce of London, in Oct. 1759 ; 
 which my old teacher, Professor John Thompson, 
 quotes in his Life of Cullen. Both the text and 
 diagrams justify Dr Smith's opinion, that Dr Cullen 
 was the first who used the words and explanations 
 
190 John Dalton. 
 
 in the manner afterwards made so famous by 
 Bergman. And Dr Smith has done Bergman full 
 justice, and attributes to him "a valuable disco- 
 very in the establishment of the permanence of the 
 amount of oxygen in precipitated oxides, the very 
 foundation of analysis, and an important step to- 
 wards the knowledge of permanence of constitution 
 in all substances whatever." 
 
 Richard Kirwan the Irishman, Copley Medallist 
 of the Royal Society of London, and afterwards 
 President of the Royal Irish Academy, experi- 
 mented very much in the direction which Bergman 
 had followed. He is another of those who nearly 
 discovered the atomic theory, who laboured in a 
 legitimate direction, but whose discoveries and 
 theories on the subject are merged in, a higher and 
 simpler law. His "Essay on the Constitution of 
 Acids" contains much original observation, and 
 must have been of some interest to induce the great 
 Lavoisier to translate it into French, and afterwards 
 to criticise its doctrines. 
 
 Among the claimants to the discovery of the earliest 
 stages in the atomic theory, Wenzel has had high 
 place. Thus, according to Dr Henry 
 
 "Wenzel ascertained, by a numerous series of analyses far 
 surpassing in accuracy those of any other chemist of his time, 
 that the different weights of the alkalies or earths which 
 neutralise the same weights of any given acid, also require for 
 their neutralisation an equal quantity of every other acid ; in 
 other words, that the relative proportions between certain 
 quantities of alkalies or earths, which saturate a given weight 
 of one and the same acid, remain the same with all other acids ; 
 hence the persistence of the state of neutrality after double 
 decomposition, whether the two salts are mingled in the exact 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 191 
 
 proportions necessary to entire decomposition or not. Wenzel 
 had the rare merit of discovering all the consequences flowing 
 from this prolific truth; he perceived that the composition of 
 neutral salts being " thus subordinate to definite laws, it is 
 possible by the careful analysis of a few to ascertain the con- 
 stitution of many others by a simple calculation. He did not, 
 however, pursue this important line of research, his main object 
 having been to explain the persistence of neutrality after mutual 
 decomposition." 
 
 Another version, and probably a more correct one, 
 of ' Wenzel's work, will be found in Dr A. Smith's 
 biography of Dalton, derived at least from a careful 
 examination of Wenzel's rare volume, " The Doc- 
 trine of the Affinity of Bodies," published in 1777. 
 Dr Smith shows that the reciprocal saturation which 
 results when two salts decompose each other, is due 
 to Wenzel ; and whilst admitting this great service in 
 seeking for the distinct constitution of bodies, and 
 the constancy of combination, will not concede to 
 him the claim of having established the doctrine of 
 reciprocal proportion, with which his name has hitherto 
 been associated. 
 
 Dr Bryan Higgins of London was a man of parts, and, 
 judging from a pamphlet proposing a course of lectures, 
 in Nov. 1775, for "literary noblemen," not disposed 
 to hide his talents under a bushel. He believed in 
 the existence of seven primary distinct elements of 
 matter earth, water, air, alkali, acid, phlogiston, and 
 light; that each element consists of atoms homo- 
 geneal, impenetrable, immutable in figure, incon- 
 vertible, and in the course of nature neither anni- 
 hilated nor newly created. Dr Angus Smith finds 
 nothing in Dr Higgins' writings to indicate that he had 
 formed any correct idea of definite compounds. "Dr 
 
1 92 John Dalton. 
 
 Higgins thinks of atoms, of simple particles, and 
 even speaks of gases uniting, in some cases, in nearly, 
 if not accurately, a fixed proportion, and yet he sees 
 no law. He does not carry his idea far enough. . . . 
 As far as our subject is concerned, Dr Higgins has 
 small claims. His opinions on atoms might have 
 been held by the ancients, whilst, standing on their 
 shoulders, it would have required much less sagacity 
 to discover than was needed for them. He speaks of 
 the sums and the forces of atoms measuring the 
 attraction of matter, but does not suppose that if 
 matter be atomic, the number of atoms might also 
 in this way be got comparatively" (p. 175). 
 
 Another member of the family of Higgins, one 
 who received his first instructions in chemistry from 
 his relative Dr Bryan, was William Higgins of 
 Pembroke College, Oxford, who issued a volume in 
 1789, entitled " A Comparative View of the Phlogistic 
 and Antiphlogistic Theories, with Inductions." It is 
 needful to offer some quotations from the work of the 
 Oxonian, as larger credit has been given to him than 
 to any other writer whose views have been held 
 anticipatory of Dalton's promulgation of the laws of 
 combination. As phlogiston still held sway with 
 chemists, and formed part of their nomenclature, it will 
 be well to translate, as Dr Henry has done, the terms 
 used by Mr Higgins into the language of modern 
 chemistry. 
 
 Mr Higgins, referring to the combinations of sulphur 
 and oxygen, thus expresses himself: 
 
 " 100 grains of sulphur, making an allowance for water, require 
 100 or 102 of the real gravitating matter of oxygen to form 
 sulphurous acid gas, and as this gas is little short of double the 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 193 
 
 specific gravity of oxygen, we may conclude that the ultimate 
 particles of sulphur and oxygen contain equal quantities of solid 
 matter, for oxygen suffers no considerable contraction by uniting 
 to sulphur in the proportion merely necessary for the formation 
 of sulphurous acid. Hence, we may conclude that in sulphurous 
 acid a single ultimate particle of sulphur is intimately united only 
 to a single particle of oxygen, and that, in sulphuric acid, every 
 single particle of sulphur is united with two of oxygen, being the 
 quantity necessary to saturation." Still more in conformity 
 with modern doctrine is his view of the composition of water : 
 " As two cubic inches of hydrogen require but one of oxygen, 
 to condense them, we must suppose that they contain an equal 
 number of divisions (atoms), and that the difference of their specific 
 gravity depends chiefly on the size of their ultimate particles ; or 
 we must suppose that the ultimate particles of hydrogen require 
 two or three, or more, of oxygen to saturate them. If this latter 
 were the case, we might produce water in an intermediate state, 
 as well as sulphuric or nitrous acids, which appears to be 
 impossible ; for in whatever proportion we mix our airs, or 
 under whatsoever circumstances we combine them, the result is 
 invariably the same. This likewise may be observed with 
 respect to the decomposition of water. Hence, we may justly 
 conclude that water is composed of molecules, formed by the 
 union of a single particle of oxygen to an ultimate particle 
 of hydrogen, and that they are incapable of uniting to a third 
 particle of either of their constituent principles" (pp. 37 and 
 38). Equally meritorious was his sagacious anticipation of the 
 composition of the nitrous compounds : " I am of opinion that 
 in nitrous gas every primary particle of azote is united to two 
 of oxygen, and that these molecules are surrounded by one 
 common atmosphere of fire." He has given a diagram exhibiting 
 the mode in which he supposed the nitrous oxide gas, then 
 recently discovered by Dr Priestley, to be formed, so as to consist 
 of one particle of azote and one of oxygen, the constitution now 
 assigned to it. His views regarding the composition of this other 
 compound of azote and oxygen were purely conjectural. 
 
 "The impartial historian," writes Dr Henry, -"will 
 certainly not withhold from the author of these in- 
 
 K 
 
194 John Dalton. 
 
 genious views, the praise of uncommon sagacity ; 
 though, after a careful perusal of the entire work, he 
 will pronounce them to be rather brilliant conceptions, 
 hastily struck off, than the fruits of sober and sus- 
 tained induction. It is evident that Mr Higgins was 
 guided by no fixed and uniform principle in assigning 
 the atomic constitution of the above compound 
 bodies." 
 
 The title of Mr Higgins' volume was not en- 
 couraging, 'inasmuch as it pertained to phlogiston, a 
 kind of materies morbi that had long tended to re- 
 tard the progress of chemistry, and though then in 
 its last throes thanks to Lavoisier gave a smack of 
 empiricism to the science that men of original con- 
 ception gladly sought to avoid. Hence, it is not a 
 matter of surprise that the work was less known than 
 it should have been. More than this, however : many 
 of Mr Higgins' opinions bearing on this narrative 
 were hidden from view by his larger controversial 
 statements and inconsistencies; and the probability 
 is that the book, though placed in the hands of so 
 distinguished a chemist as Professor Thomson of 
 Glasgow, would have passed into oblivion had not 
 Dalton's memoirs attracted European attention, and 
 caused Mr Higgins to step forth and claim the 
 discoveries of the Manchester schoolmaster for him- 
 self. In 1 8 14 Mr Higgins issued his "Experiments 
 and Observations on the Atomic Theory," for the pur- 
 pose of vindicating his title to be regarded as its 
 discoverer, and by implication charged Dalton with 
 plagiarism. 
 
 In defence of Dalton's fair fame, it is imperative 
 to show how this false imputation of Mr Higgins' was 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 195 
 
 met by Dalton's friends, and especially those who 
 were in almost daily intercourse with him, as well as 
 others living at a distance from Manchester, to whom 
 he had at all times been frank and communicative on 
 scientific subjects. Dr Henry, the able biographer of 
 Dalton, writes : " I have heard my father affirm, on 
 various occasions, and to various persons, that Dalton 
 had never seen Mr Higgins' work till some years 
 subsequent to the publication of the ' New System/ 
 when it was lent to him by my father. And further, 
 it appears from a memorandum of Dr Henry, senior, 
 that Professor John Leslie, on a visit to Manchester, 
 told Dalton that Sir H. Davy, in a paper in the 
 'Philosophical Transactions,' had denied his (Dalton's) 
 claim to the atomic theory, and had set up one for 
 Higgins." This took Dalton by surprise, as he had 
 neither seen Higgins' book nor Davy's memoir. The 
 " Philosophical Transactions " had not reached either 
 of the two Fellows of the Royal Society residing at 
 Manchester (Dalton was not then a Fellow) ; and as 
 already stated, he was obliged to his friend Dr 
 Henry, senior, for a perusal for the first time of 
 Higgins' work. 
 
 Dr Henry's evidence seems conclusive, and it 
 derives large confirmation from the fact that Dalton, 
 at no period of his life, devoted much time to reading. 
 Those who have attentively read the earlier chapters 
 of this memoir will have gathered that he was intui- 
 tively so reliant on his own observations and ideas, 
 and so wedded to his own interpretation of nature, 
 that he omitted to make himself acquainted with the 
 history of the subject engaging his attention. What 
 Playfair said of Dr Hutton is thoroughly applicable 
 
196 John Dalton. 
 
 to Dalton : " that the originality of his own concep- 
 tions, and the little regard he had to authority in 
 matters of theory, relieve us from the necessity of 
 looking to others for the sources of his opinions." 
 
 As regards the effect that Higgins' book had on 
 his contemporaries, Dr Thomson of Glasgow is the 
 best authority. Now Dr Thomson, in his " Annals of 
 Philosophy" (May 1814), vol. iii., p. 331, says " I have 
 certainly affirmed that the atomic theory was not 
 established in Mr Higgins' book. And here is my 
 reason. I have had that book in my possession since 
 the year 1798, and have perused it carefully; yet I 
 did not find anything in it which had suggested to me 
 the atomic theory. That a small hint would have 
 been sufficient, I think pretty clear from this, that I 
 was forcibly struck with Mr Dalton's statements in 
 1804, though it did not fill half an octavo page; so 
 much so, indeed, that I afterwards published an 
 account of it, and I still consider myself as the first 
 person who gave the world an outline of the Daltonian 
 theory." 
 
 Dr R. Angus Smith's criticism on the respective 
 merits of Mr William Higgins and his predecessor, 
 Dr Bryan Higgins, appears so judicious that I cannot 
 do better than quote it. He writes : 
 
 "William Higgins made an advance on Bryan Higgins in 
 this theory of sulphur and heat, and he was a man evidently of 
 an acute mind. But he was destined to find Emerson's saying 
 true, that we often find in the sayings of great men our own 
 rejected ideas. He was heir to the common opinion that atoms 
 existed, and the opinion of Dr Higgins that they united and 
 formed molecules of compound bodies. He applied the reason- 
 ing further, and said that they must then unite in numbers of 
 one or two or three, and that there could be no intermediate com- 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 197 
 
 bination, as there were no intermediate division of atoms. He 
 applied this reason in two or three cases. These cases, such as 
 nitric acid, are so clear and beautiful, that we can only be sur- 
 prised that the general law was not seized on. They are the 
 first clear and satisfactory reasons given for saturation, and for 
 definite proportion in general. Higgins was therefore the first 
 man who used the idea of atoms with such force as to be service- 
 able in chemistry. He used the idea of ultimate particles and 
 the molecular state of bodies to illustrate saturation, and definite 
 and multiple proportion, and gave us, therefore, the fundamental 
 ideas of stoechiometry as they existed in chemical science, from 
 which everything else might have easily flowed" (p. 183). 
 
 Again "I look upon Higgins as the first man who ever in 
 his imagination formed a correct atomic compound, and gave 
 a correct analysis, in spite of his thousands of previous specula- 
 tions and the simplicity of the idea, but one who lost the 
 opportunity of elevating his idea into a great law of nature. It 
 is well to express the claim of a discoverer in the widest and 
 in the fewest words. He expressed the fact of atomic simple and 
 multiple proportion, which is the foundation for all the other 
 atomic laws, although in his mind it was not raised to the 
 dignity of a great law, and it is for great laws only that we can 
 give great honours in this case. 
 
 " Higgins speaks so clearly and simply that we can readily 
 believe that he would have illustrated the laws of chemical com- 
 bination with great beauty had he seen the great value of his 
 ideas. There is no obscurity in his language there is no diffi- 
 culty in telling exactly his place in science ; but there is a diffi- 
 culty in defining it exactly when we have to deal with Dalton, 
 who grasped the whole so much more firmly, enlarged it, placed it, 
 and established it in a series of laws" (pp. 184-5). 
 
 No one, as far as my reading extends, ever made 
 an important discovery in science without the 
 accompaniment of an unwelcome challenge being 
 offered to his claims to priority by his contemporaries. 
 Dalton had taken too great strides in the path of 
 original research, and achieved too much to escape 
 
198 John Dalton. 
 
 the common fate of mortals possessing genius and 
 foresight in advance of their epoch. It was said that 
 his atomic views were not new ; that he had been 
 anticipated by Democritus the Greek, and in his 
 own century by Wenzel, Higgins, and Richter. After 
 showing the fallacy of the claims of the two first- 
 named with his usual painstaking industry and fair- 
 ness, Dr R. A. Smith goes fully into Richter's views, 
 quoting largely from his works,* and with due con- 
 sideration to the merits of this renowned German. 
 
 In his preface, Richter says : " As the mathe- 
 matical portion of chemistry deals in a great measure 
 with bodies which are either elements or substances 
 incapable of being decomposed, and as it teaches also 
 their relative magnitudes, I have been able to find 
 no more fitting name for this scientific discipline than 
 the word stoechiometry, from aToiytiov p , which, in the 
 Greek language, means a something which cannot be 
 divided, and fjierpew, which means to find out relative 
 magnitudes." Here, then, was an effort worthy of 
 Richter to make the study of atomic chemistry a 
 science. He also indicated that the smallest portions 
 of a body are of the same composition as the largest, 
 that the affinity exists in every particle an illustration, 
 Dr Smith remarks, afterwards used by Dalton on the 
 same subject, but in clearer words, and still earlier by 
 Higgins. This idea leads directly to the atomic theory, 
 and theory of equivalents ; but it was not followed 
 out by Richter. Again writes Dr Smith : " The 
 
 * Richter's books are " Anfangsgriinde der Stoechyometrie oder 
 Mess-Kunst. Chymischer Elemente," 3 vols. Breslau und Hirschberg, 
 1792-94; and " Ueber die Neuern Gegenstande der Chymie," 1792- 
 1802. 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 199 
 
 discovery of reciprocal proportions is given by no one 
 before Richter, as far as I know ; but he himself does 
 not speak of it as a discovery, but as a well-known 
 fact, with which he was familiar before he wrote his 
 inaugural dissertation." The following is worthy of 
 quotation from the same pen : 
 
 " It certainly is difficult to tell how discoveries grow, often 
 impossible to tell who is the discoverer ; but this we may con- 
 sider a fair rule, not always easily applied, it is to be confessed, 
 that he is a discoverer who sees distinctly the full bearing of his 
 discoveries ; when this does not happen, there is a difficulty in 
 giving that man the place due to him. It is clear that Richter, 
 like some others already mentioned, had fundamental principles 
 which would have led him to the atomic theory ; but he has 
 evidently been led by foregone conclusions, and the law of 
 planetary distances has been floating in his mind and misleading 
 him when seeking for the differences in the combining weights 
 of bodies. 
 
 "The discovery of reciprocating proportion was a very impor- 
 tant and memorable one, although the scientific world did not 
 recognise it. ... Who discovered this very important fact, it is 
 still left unascertained : as the expression of a law, it is Richter's ; 
 but as a fact regarding neutral salts, the author appears not to 
 be known. 
 
 " As a general summary of Richter's most important works, we 
 may say he found that there was a certain quantitative relation 
 between all bodies ; and he made out the laws so far, that when 
 he knew the quantitative analysis of a salt, he could tell its quan- 
 titative decomposition with another. But he never saw it with 
 sufficient clearness to be able to express the combining quan- 
 tities each by its own distinct number ; nor does he appear to 
 have ever proceeded far enough to be able to assign a cause 
 for the phenomenon, or to connect it with any fundamental 
 idea. 
 
 " It has been said that Dalton had read Richter, and had never 
 acknowledged his claims. It is a melancholy thing to see men 
 of talent and learning so readily distrusting their own class, as 
 
200 John Dalton. 
 
 if dishonesty were so common. I might say the same of Richter, 
 that for more than ten years he continued to publish on 
 stoechiometry, and never once mentioned Higgins ; but his 
 whole works show that he did not see Higgins' writings, or he 
 would have probably got less involved than he did. We learn 
 from Dr H'enry that Dalton had seen Richter's results on 
 reciprocal proportions, and had received assistance from them ; 
 but although they may have assisted him in proving his laws, 
 Richter could never have given him fundamental ideas. These 
 are much wanted in Richter's chemistry. Richter's cotem- 
 poraries did not obtain the atomic theory, although some were 
 students of his work. Berzelius himself did not obtain the 
 atomic theory from Richter, although the most illustrious of the 
 students of Richter's books. Dalton, then, could not have 
 obtained it, and the direction he takes is perfectly different, the 
 road he went quite clear, and the results he came to entirely 
 distinct from that aimed at by Richter.'' 
 
 Other authors, notably Fischer, Berthollet and 
 Proust, took a part in the same direction as Higgins 
 and Richter ; but it would profit nothing to offer an 
 analysis of their work, nor to enter upon the anta- 
 gonistic relations of the two last-named chemists. 
 Having afforded the reader an opportunity of judg- 
 ing of the labours of his predecessors, it is now im- 
 perative to set before him Dalton's own investigations, 
 upon which are based the modern doctrine of the 
 atomic theory. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 JOHN DALTON ESTABLISHES THE ATOMIC THEORY. 
 
 " Philosophy is the art of deciphering the mysteries of nature ; and every 
 theory which can explain the phenomena has the same evidence in its 
 favour that it is possible the key of a cypher can have from its explain- 
 ing that cypher" HARTLEY. 
 
 ]ET the historian, faithful to his trust, render 
 all honour to such illustrious men, as 
 Cullen, Black, Bergman, Wenzel, the 
 kinsmen Higgins, Richter, and Proust, 
 for excavating the foundations, and holding the 
 plumb-line in the erection of an edifice that was to 
 become, in the hands of John Dalton, a noble struc- 
 ture of magnificent proportions. These men were no 
 common masons, but skilled designers, each of whom 
 brought fitting patterns, and true carving power, to 
 the architectural lines of the Temple of Chemistry, the 
 adornment of which was so happily realised by the 
 Grand Master Dalton. 
 
 In obtaining access through the outer approaches 
 of all discoveries in art, science, or philosophy, there 
 must necessarily be sappers and miners, the pioneers in 
 the undertaking ; and though several laboured right 
 soldierly at the fortifications, William Higgins made 
 the boldest effort to carry the citadel that contained 
 the treasures of a new and fundamental doctrine in 
 the physics of chemistry. That he did not entirely 
 succeed was very much owing to his judgment being 
 
202 John Dalton. 
 
 warped by phlogistic theories. It should be observed 
 that whilst Cullen and Black stood in the relation of 
 master and pupil and constant friends, the other, and 
 equally renowned, coadjutors in the preliminary con- 
 struction of the atomic theory acted independently of 
 each other, and lived far apart, so that their labours 
 were comparatively little known to each other, or to 
 the world at large. Had the same freedom of inter- 
 course existed a hundred years ago between nations 
 and their representatives that now prevails, Dalton's 
 discovery in 1803, admittedly based on his own un- 
 aided researches, would probably have been anticipated 
 by ten or more years. Thus had the leading ideas in 
 Mr Higgins' mind, pointing to the law of definite 
 composition and multiple proportion, come to the 
 knowledge of Lavoisier, the whole fabric of the atomic 
 theory would have sprung forth as a happy generali- 
 sation worthy of this noble cultivator of the science. 
 
 After recalling the import of the various essays 
 emanating from Dalton's fertile mind during his first 
 decennial period in Manchester his clear conception 
 of the nature of mixed elastic fluids, his eudiometrical 
 observations, his inquiry into the tendency of elastic 
 fluids to mutual diffusion, and his researches on the 
 absorption of gases by water, through all of which may 
 be traced an obvious and natural affiliation of thought 
 Dr Henry observes : " To the same parentage we 
 may now trace his first vision of the atomic constitu- 
 tion of matter. It is impossible to peruse the essay 
 on the constitution of mixed gases, and especially to 
 contemplate the plate of atomic symbols used by 
 Dalton as late as 1835, by which it is illustrated (see 
 appendix for plate), without perceiving that medita- 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 203 
 
 tion on the constitution of homogeneous and mixed 
 elastic fluids had impressed his mind with a distinct 
 picture of self-repellent particles or atoms. Thus, he 
 affirms, homogeneous elastic fluids are constituted of 
 particles that repel one another with a force decreas- 
 ing directly as the distance of their centres from each 
 other. Again : it follows, too, that the distances of 
 the centres of the particles, or, which is the same 
 thing, the diameters of the spheres of influence of 
 each particle, are inversely as the cube-root of the 
 density of the fluid." But the plate which is repro- 
 duced in the appendix furnishes ocular demonstration 
 that it was in contemplating the essential condition 
 of elastic fluidity that he first distinctly pictured to 
 himself the existence of atoms. As, however, the 
 origin of this great conception is doubtless the most 
 interesting circumstance in his life, I copy verbatim 
 the following minute in my father's handwriting, 
 dated 1830, February 13, of a conversation with Mr 
 Dalton : " Mr Dalton has been settled in Manchester 
 thirty-six years. His volume on meteorology, printed, 
 but not published, before he came here. At p. 132 
 et seq. of that volume, gives distinct anticipations of 
 his views of the separate existence of aqueous vapour 
 from atmospheric air. At that time the theory of 
 chemical solution was almost universally received. 
 These views were the first germs of his atomic theory, 
 because he was necessarily led to consider the gases as 
 constituted of independent atoms. Confirmed the 
 account he before gave me of the origin of his specu- 
 lations leading to the doctrine of simple multiples, 
 and of the influence of Richter's table in exciting 
 these views. Thus far, then, we can trace a natural 
 
204 John Dalton. 
 
 filiation of thought, in unbroken sequence, from (i.) 
 The vigilant and persistent observation of meteoro- 
 logical phenomena, and specially of the variations 
 of the atmosphere in weight, temperature, and moisture; 
 to (2.) The theory of the relations of air and vapour, 
 and of mixed gases; and finally, to the abstract con- 
 ception of elastic fluidity, and of self-repulsive 
 molecules or atoms. There remained, however, a 
 wide space to be traversed, from this general physical 
 conception of the existence of atoms to the experi- 
 mental establishment of the relative weights of the 
 ultimate particles of various chemical elements and 
 compounds, announced by him two years afterwards 
 October 1803. 
 
 Reference to a previous page (158) will show that 
 Dalton, in one of his earliest chemical memoirs in 1802, 
 had discovered, in the combinations of oxygen with 
 nitrous gas, an undoubted example of multiple pro- 
 portions ; or to use his own words : " These facts 
 clearly point out the theory of the process ; the ele- 
 ments of oxygen may combine with a certain portion 
 of nitrous gas, or with twice that portion, but with 
 no intermediate quantity." The steps by which he 
 ascended from this first special example to the general 
 law of multiple proportion seems pretty clearly 
 indicated as resulting from the observations he made 
 on the light carburetted hydrogen and olefiant gas. 
 Dr Thomson of Glasgow, who spent a day or two 
 with Dalton in Manchester, in August 1804, offers a 
 clear narrative of the origin of the atomic theory in the 
 following words : " Mr Dalton informed me that the 
 atomic theory first occurred to him during his inves- 
 tigations of olefiant gas and carburetted hydrogen 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 205 
 
 gas, at that time imperfectly understood, and the 
 constitution of which was first fully developed by Mr 
 Dalton himself. It was obvious, from the experiments 
 which he made upon them, that the constituents of 
 both were carbon and hydrogen, and nothing else ; he 
 found, further, that if we reckon the carbon in each 
 the same, then carburetted hydrogen contains 
 exactly twice as much hydrogen as defiant gas 
 does. This determined him to state the ratios of 
 these constituents in numbers, and to consider the 
 olefiant gas a* compound of one atom of carbon and 
 one atom of hydrogen ; and carburetted hydrogen of 
 one atom of carbon and two atoms of hydrogen. The 
 idea thus conceived was applied to carbonic oxide, 
 water, ammonia, &c., and numbers representing the 
 atomic weights of oxygen, azote, &c., deduced from 
 the best analytical experiments which chemistry then 
 possessed " (" History of Chemistry," vol. ii., p. 291). 
 In treating of carburetted hydrogen long afterwards, 
 in 1810 (" New System," vol. i., p. 444), Dalton writes : 
 " No correct notion of the constitution of the gas 
 about to be described seems to have been formed till 
 the atomic theory was introduced and applied in the 
 investigation. It was in the summer of 1 804 that I 
 collected, at various times and in various places, the 
 inflammable gas obtained from ponds." He had there- 
 fore been working at the analysis of this gas just 
 previously to Dr Thomson's visit. Moreover, in his 
 first table of atomic weights (see page 158), in which 
 hydrogen being unity, carbon was estimated 4-3, 
 olefiant gas is represented by 5*3 that is, C+H, and 
 carburetted hydrogen from stagnant water by 6-3, 
 or C4-2H. This same table supplies other examples 
 
206 John Dalton. 
 
 of the law of multiple proportions, which (in the 
 absence of more direct testimony) we may reasonably 
 presume to have constituted the foundations of that 
 most significant generalisation. Thus carbonic oxide 
 and carbonic acid are denoted by numbers equal to 
 C-fO and C+2O respectively ; sulphurous and 
 sulphuric acid by numbers equal to S+O and S+2O ; 
 and three of the nitrous compounds nitrous oxide, 
 nitrous gas, and nitric acid by numbers equivalent to 
 2N+O, N+O, and N+2O. 
 
 His correspondence with his brother offers substan- 
 tial confirmation as to the date of his original work. 
 Thus, on March 21, 1803, he informs his brother : 
 " I have been, as usual, fully engaged in all my leisure 
 hours in the pursuit of chemical and philosophical 
 inquiries. Even my Christmas vacation was taken up 
 in this way ; indeed, I have had considerable success 
 of late in this line, having got into a track that has not 
 been much trod in before? This is conclusive that he 
 had in the autumn or early winter of 1802 struck 
 upon a new path of such absorbing interest that he 
 would not allow the Christmas holidays to interfere 
 with its fuller development. 
 
 On reviewing the early stages of his scientific life, 
 with the view of tracing the genesis of the atomic 
 theory, you cannot but revert to Dalton's methodical 
 labours to interpret the constitution of the atmo- 
 sphere, a subject upon which he dwelt with the fond- 
 ness of a parent proud of his offspring. Thus, in his 
 preface to the second edition of his " Meteorological 
 Essays," issued in 1834, or forty-one years after the first, 
 he says : " I have been the more anxious to preserve 
 the first edition unchanged, as I apprehend it contains 
 
A Sketch of the A tomic Theory. 207 
 
 the forms of most of the ideas which I have since 
 expounded more at large in different essays, and 
 which have been considered discourses of some 
 importance." 
 
 In Chapter II. of his " New System," treating on the 
 constitutions of bodies, and especially on pure and 
 united elastic fluids, he says, inter alia, that " all bodies 
 are constituted of a vast number of extremely small 
 particles or atoms of matter, bound together by a 
 force of attraction. . . . Besides this, we find a force of 
 repulsion. This is now generally, and I think properly, 
 ascribed to the agency of heat. An atmosphere of 
 this subtle fluid constantly surrounds the atoms of all 
 bodies, and prevents them from being drawn into 
 actual contact." Again " In prosecuting my inquiries 
 into the nature of elastic fluids, I soon perceived it was 
 necessary, if possible, to ascertain whether the atoms 
 or ultimate particles of the different gases are of the 
 same size or volume in like circumstances of tem- 
 perature and pressure." 
 
 His inquiries into the density of the gases afforded 
 to his mind clear evidence in support of the existence 
 of ultimate indivisible particles, and led him, uncon- 
 sciously perhaps, to the revival of the atomism pro- 
 pounded by Democritus and others, that now and 
 then cropped out in history, with, however, little or 
 no scientific significance, and when resuscitated by 
 Descartes and Newton, not treated as applicable to 
 the laws of chemistry. 
 
 " From a careful examination of all the evidence 
 before me," says Dr Henry, " I am led to conclude 
 that the facts and reasonings on which the first table 
 of atomic weights was based, were assembled by 
 
208 John Dalton. 
 
 Dalton during the years 1802,* 1803, anc * 1804, and 
 that the discovery of the law of multiple proportions 
 was, in the order of mental operations, the immediate 
 antecedent of the atomic theory of chemical com- 
 bination. Thus it will be seen, on inspection of the 
 table given in page 158, that of the fifteen compound 
 atoms whose weights are assigned, not fewer than 
 nine are examples of multiple proportions viz., the 
 two carburetted hydrogens, the two compounds of 
 carbon and oxygen, the two compounds of sulphur 
 and oxygen, and the three of oxygen and nitrogen. 
 It is also worthy of remark, as confirming the 
 genealogy of the atomic theory, already traced from 
 the abstract conception of elastic fluidity, that of the 
 twenty-one bodies comprehended in Dalton's earliest 
 table, sixteen are either permanent gases or vaporis- 
 able bodies ; and that of the remaining five, Dalton 
 calculated the atomic weights of the three solids, car- 
 bon, sulphur, and phosphorus, from the analysis of their 
 aeriform combinations with hydrogen and oxygen, 
 and those of the two liquids, sulphuric and nitric 
 acids, from the lower aeriform compounds of sulphur 
 and azote respectively with oxygen. Not a single 
 metal, alkali, or earth, appears in this first table. 
 The atomic weights of these solid bodies were first 
 published by him in the description of Plate IV. of 
 his " New System," Part I., p. 219, 1808. - 
 
 It seems pretty clearly established that the 
 
 * The earliest examples of his atomic weights were probably ob- 
 tained before November 1802. In the preface to the first part of his 
 " New System," Dalton writes : "In 1803 the author was gradually 
 led to those primary laws which seem to obtain in regard to heat and 
 to chemical combinations, and which it is the object of the present 
 work to exhibit and elucidate." 
 
A Sketch of the A tomic Theory. 209 
 
 hypothesis of the atomic theory arose in Dalton's 
 mind from the study of matter in an aeriform 
 condition ; that its first practical application in 
 chemistry was to gaseous bodies, and particularly to 
 such as combine in multiple proportions. How far 
 Dalton was influenced by the law of reciprocal pro- 
 portions or equivalents of Richter may admit of 
 question ; but looking to the evidence adduced by Dr 
 Henry, senior, as well as his son (Dalton's biographer), 
 there is reason to think that some of the earlier specu- 
 lations which gave birth to the atomic theory were 
 in part suggested by the experiments of Richter on 
 the neutral salts. The German chemist, having ascer- 
 tained the quantity of any base as potass, for example 
 which was required to saturate a hundred measures 
 of sulphuric acid, then set to work to determine the 
 quantities of the different acids which were adequate 
 to the saturation of the same quantity of potass. In 
 this fashion a table was formed exhibiting the pro- 
 portions of the acids and the alkaline bases constitut- 
 ing neutral salts. " It immediately struck Mr Dalton," 
 writes Dr Henry, "that if those saline compounds were 
 constituted of an atom of acid and one of alkali, the 
 tabular numbers would express the relative weights of 
 the ultimate atoms." Dr Henry continues : " My own 
 belief is, that during the three years (1802-4) in which 
 the main foundations of the atomic theory were laid, 
 Dalton had patiently and maturely reflected on all 
 the phenomena of chemical combination known to 
 him, from his own researches and those of others, and 
 had grasped in his comprehensive survey, as signifi- 
 cant to him of a deeper meaning than to his prede- 
 cessors, their empirical laws of constant and reciprocal 
 
 O 
 
2io John Dalton. 
 
 proportion, no less than his own law of multiple 
 proportion, and his own researches in the chemistry 
 of aeriform bodies." 
 
 A few quotations from Dalton's chapter on 
 " Chemical Synthesis " will be serviceable in illustrat- 
 ing his theory. 
 
 "ON CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS. 
 
 "When any body exists in the elastic state, its ultimate 
 particles are separated from each other to a much greater dis- 
 tance than in any other state ; each particle occupies the centre 
 of a comparatively large sphere, and supports its dignity by 
 keeping all the rest, which by their gravity, or otherwise, are 
 disposed to encroach upon it, at a respectful distance. When 
 we attempt to conceive the number of particles in an atmosphere, 
 it is somewhat like attempting to conceive the number of stars 
 in the universe ; we are confounded with the thought. But if 
 we limit the subject, by taking a given volume of any gas, we 
 seem persuaded that, let the divisions be ever so minute, the 
 number of particles must be finite ; just as in a given space of 
 the universe, the number of stars and planets cannot be 
 infinite. 
 
 " Chemical analysis and synthesis go no further than to the 
 separation of particles one from another, and to their reunion. 
 No new creation or destruction of matter is within the reach of 
 chemical agency. We might as well attempt to introduce a 
 new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate one already in 
 existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen. All 
 the changes we can produce consist in separating particles 
 that are in a state of cohesion or combination, and joining those 
 that were previously at a distance. 
 
 " In all chemical investigations it has justly been considered 
 an important object to ascertain the relative weights of the 
 simples which constitute a compound. But unfortunately the 
 inquiry has terminated here ; whereas from the relative weights 
 in the mass, the relative weights of the ultimate particles or 
 atoms of the bodies might have been inferred, from which their 
 
A Sketch of the A tomic Theory. 2 1 1 
 
 number and weight in various other compounds would appear, 
 in order to assist and to guide future investigations, and to 
 correct their results. 
 
 " Now, it is one great object of this work to show the im- 
 portance and advantage of ascertaining the relative weight of 
 the ultimate particles, both of simple and compound bodies, the 
 number of simple elementary particles which constitute one com- 
 pound particle, and the number of less compound particles which 
 enter into the formation of one more compound particle. 
 
 " If there are two bodies, A and B, which are disposed to 
 combine, the following is the order in which the combinations 
 may take place, beginning with the most simple, namely : 
 
 i atom of A + i atom of B = i atom of C binary. 
 
 1 atom of A -f 2 atoms of B = i atom of D ternary. 
 
 2 atoms of A + I atom of B = i atom of E ternary. 
 
 i atom of A -|- 3 atoms of B = i atom of F quaternary. 
 
 3 atoms of A -f- i atom of B = i atom of G quaternary, &c., &c." 
 
 This was followed by rules of guidance respecting 
 chemical synthesis, and the introduction of plates 
 exhibiting the modes of combination. The elements 
 or atoms of bodies viewed as simple were denoted by 
 a small circle with some distinctive mark, and their 
 combinations were also represented in a way to be 
 understood. He also furnished a plate of the "arbi- 
 trary marks or signs chosen to represent the several 
 chemical elements or ultimate particles." 
 
 His atomic weights were inexact, but this was to 
 be expected in the infancy of the science. He seemed 
 to be aware of this, and expressed great caution, both 
 as to the accuracy of his numbers and his weights, and 
 not less our viewing substances as simple in their 
 nature, which a higher analysis might prove to be 
 compound. 
 
 Here it is needful to consider the laws of proper- 
 
212 JohnDalton. 
 
 tional combination which are everywhere accepted 
 as true by chemists. These laws are generally 
 viewed as three in number, but Dr George Wilson 
 held out for a fourth : all the laws refer to combination 
 by weight. Three of these, as Wilson affirms, were 
 discovered by Dalton, and all of them were brought 
 into new prominence by his labours ; and his atomic 
 theory, or rather hypothesis, as it should be called, is 
 an endeavour to explain them, by assuming a peculiar 
 ultimate constitution of matter which absolutely 
 necessitates their existence. These laws are based 
 upon one, deeper and more fundamental than them- 
 selves, which is assumed in their enunciation, and is 
 to the following effect: The same compound consists 
 invariably of the same components. Water, for 
 example, always consists of oxygen and hydrogen ; 
 common salt of chlorine and sodium. 
 
 I. The first of these laws is designated the law of 
 definite or constant proportion, by which we understand 
 that the elements forming a chemical compound are 
 always united in it in the same proportion by weight. 
 Thus, water not only consists invariably of oxygen 
 and hydrogen, but the weight of oxygen present is 
 always eight times greater than that of hydrogen ; 
 or in other words, eight-ninths of the weight of 
 water are always oxygen, and the remaining ninth 
 hydrogen. 
 
 It is the same with every compound. Thus, common 
 salt always contains thirty-five parts of chlorine to 
 twenty-three of sodium ; marble, twenty-two of carbonic 
 acid to twenty-eight of lime. In virtue of this law, a 
 number can be found for every body, simple or com- 
 pound, expressing the ratio in which (or in a multiple or 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory . 213 
 
 sub-multiple of which) it combines with every other. 
 Any series of numbers may be taken to represent these 
 combining ratios, provided the due proportion is main- 
 tained among them, so that the number for oxygen 
 shall be eight times greater than that for hydrogen, 
 that for nitrogen fourteen times greater, and so on, 
 according to the relations which analysis brings out. 
 The scale recognised by Dalton, and used here, makes 
 hydrogen I, and counts from it upwards. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that such tables represent 
 relative, not absolute, weights. Of the smallest pos- 
 sible quantity of oxygen which can combine with 
 the smallest possible quantity of hydrogen, we know 
 nothing ; all that we are certain of is, that it is eight 
 times greater than that of hydrogen, whatever that 
 be. None of the numbers taken singly has any 
 absolute value ; the 16, for example, which in tables 
 of this kind we are discussing stands against sulphur, 
 does not represent 16 grains, i6-millionths of a grain, 
 or any other absolute quantity ; its value appears 
 only when it is taken in connection with the number 
 attached to hydrogen, to which the exact arbitrary 
 value of I has been given. 
 
 As in the analysis of every chemical substance, it 
 must have been assumed that it would prove definite 
 in composition, others before Dalton must have been 
 cognisant of this law of constant proportion. Caven- 
 dish, in his " Analysis of Water," Bergman, in test- 
 ing the saturation of the salts, could not fail to see 
 the law that received special attention at the hands 
 of Wenzel, Richter, and Proust, before the year 
 1792. 
 
 2. The second law of combining proportions 
 
214 John Dalton. 
 
 brings out the fact that the same elements, in almost 
 every case, combine in more than one proportion to 
 constitute several compounds. This law is named 
 that of Multiple Proportion, and shows that when one 
 body combines with another in several proportions, 
 the higher ones are multiples of the first or lowest. To 
 illustrate this, the two compounds of hydrogen and car- 
 bon may be cited, and with all the more effect that they 
 were the bodies operated upon by Dalton, and which, 
 indeed, suggested to him the law. In one of these 
 (plefiant gas) there are six parts, by weight, of carbon, 
 to one of hydrogen ; in the other (tnarsh gas or fire- 
 damp), there are six parts of carbon to two of 
 hydrogen ; or, the weight of carbon being the same in 
 both, there is exactly twice as much hydrogen in the 
 first as in the second. 
 
 The law of multiple proportion was specially realised 
 by Dalton from a solitary case that of the compounds 
 of carbon and hydrogen described above. So strongly 
 did the facts strike Dalton's mind, that he at once 
 predicted the applicability of the law to all kinds of 
 compounds. 
 
 In this direction of inquiry, or rather discovery, it i$ 
 supposed that Dalton was anticipated by Mr William 
 Higgins, who showed the combinations of sulphur with 
 oxygen, one ultimate particle of sulphur and one of oxy- 
 gen constituting sulphurous acid ; and moreover, that in 
 the compound of nitrogen and oxygen the ingredients 
 are to each other as I to 1,2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. 
 Here was a clear enunciation of the law of multiple 
 proportion, yet the author can hardly have seen the 
 importance, or he would have laboured to the end, 
 and completed the chapter he had so well begun. 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 215 
 
 His work made no impress on the public mind, and 
 Dalton had not even heard of it till his rediscovery of 
 the law came to be discussed. Had Higgins, as Dr 
 Wilson remarks, seen the value and importance of the 
 law as Dalton saw it, he would have done as Dalton 
 did, who spent ten or twelve of the best years of his 
 life in verifying its truth by analysis of as large a 
 series of compounds as he could possibly compass. 
 
 3. "The third law of combination is named that of 
 Reciprocal Proportion, and is to the effect, that if two 
 bodies combine in certain proportions with a third, 
 they combine in the very same proportions with each 
 other. Thus sixteen parts of sulphur combine with 
 eight of oxygen, and twenty-seven parts of iron com- 
 bine with eight of oxygen ; but sixteen parts of sul- 
 phur is the very quantity that combines with twenty- 
 seven of iron. We may reverse the numbers : eight 
 of oxygen combines with twenty-seven of iron, and 
 sixteen parts of sulphur with twenty-seven of iron ; 
 but eight of oxygen is the very number that combines 
 with sixteen of sulphur. Or, a third time, eight of 
 oxygen and twenty-seven of iron combine respectively 
 with sulphur ; but twenty-seven of iron is the quantity 
 that combines with eight oxygen." 
 
 The theoretical interest attached to this law of 
 reciprocal proportion is of large practical value to 
 the chemist in all his analyses. For instance, if 
 he ascertains the proportion in which one body com- 
 bines with any other, that, or a multiple, or sub- 
 multiple of that, is the proportion in which it com- 
 bines with every other with which it can combine 
 at all. 
 
 It is in relation to this law more than to the others 
 
216 John Dalton. 
 
 that the combining weights of bodies are named 
 their equivalents. This term expresses, in a way no 
 other does, that a certain weight of one body is 
 equivalent to, or goes as far as, a certain but different 
 weight of another, in the construction of a similar 
 compound. One part by weight of hydrogen, for 
 example, goes as far in combining with eight of 
 oxygen to form an oxide as twenty-seven of iron, or 
 197 of gold. These compounds have all the same 
 value ; the weight of oxygen is the same in all, and 
 the 197 parts of gold do not neutralise the eight of 
 oxygen 197 times more effectually than the one of 
 hydrogen does, but only as well and with the pro- 
 duction of a similar compound. 
 
 With this law of reciprocal proportion Wenzel's 
 name is honourably associated as far back as the year 
 1777; yet, for reasons already expressed, little or 
 nothing was heard of his indefatigable labours in this 
 direction. Even his countryman Richter, who began 
 to publish in 1792, and who spent many years in 
 analysing the different salts, with a view of ascertain- 
 ing the exact weight of acid and base required for 
 mutual saturation, so as to be able to express this by 
 a number attached to each, hardly received recogni- 
 tion at the hands of his contemporaries. 
 
 A fourth law of combination has been instituted by 
 Dr Wilson, and though not generally accepted, is never- 
 theless thought worthy a place in this memoir, from 
 its being advanced by a practical chemist. Dr Wilson 
 called it the law of Compound Proportion, which 
 "teaches that the combining proportion of a com- 
 pound body is the sum of the combining proportions 
 of its components." The combining proportion of 
 
A Sketch of the A tomic Theory. 2 1 7 
 
 water, for example, is found by experiment to be 
 nine (or a multiple of nine), hydrogen, as before, being 
 taken as unity ; but zinc is the sum of eight parts of 
 oxygen and one of hydrogen, its constituents. The 
 equivalent of carbonic acid appears upon trial to be 
 twenty- two ; but carbonic acid is found on analysis 
 to consist of six parts of carbon and sixteen of 
 oxygen, which exactly make up twenty-two. The 
 combining weight of lime is twenty-eight ; but lime 
 consists of twenty calcium and eight oxygen, which 
 are also twenty-eight. 
 
 " This law is of as much interest and practical value 
 as the preceding one, and supplies the chemist with 
 a most important means of checking the results of 
 empirical analysis in the case of compound bodies. 
 The merit of discovering it belongs entirely to Dalton." 
 Other chemists have looked upon this law as part of 
 the general hypothesis, and resting on the ground of 
 experimental evidence ; and the late Dr Whewell, 
 Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in discussing 
 Dalton's atomic theory in the " History of the Induc- 
 tive Sciences " does not mention or allude to it. 
 
 Modern chemistry seeks to determine the constitu- 
 tion of atoms and " the phenomena attendant, both 
 upon the state of combination, and the two antithetical 
 processes of atomic analysis and synthesis," and is 
 based on the laws just propounded. 
 
 With the exception of the law of constant propor- 
 tion, these laws were wrought out by Dalton for 
 himself, and were by him first fully made known to 
 the world. Before this discovery chemistry was little 
 more than an empirical art, treating of the qualities or 
 properties of bodies ; now it is a science possessing 
 
218 John Dalton. 
 
 the character of a science of quantity* And as this 
 science of quantity has come more and more to the 
 light, it has widened, and made more accurate the 
 range of chemistry as a science of quality. 
 
 As proving the value of the laws of chemical com- 
 bination, and the direct application of quantitative to 
 qualitative chemistry, the manufacture of sulphuric 
 acid, or oil of vitriol, so well known in the arts, may be 
 instanced. Before Dalton's researches, every manu- 
 facturer had his own views as to the quantity of 
 sulphur required in the process a complicated 
 process, resting its operations on the burning of 
 sulphur in leaden chambers and was apt to per- 
 suade himself of his superior management. Now 
 Dalton showed that, adopt whatever quantity of 
 sulphur you may, only a certain portion by weight of 
 sulphur can unite with a certain proportion of oxygen 
 in the air to constitute sulphuric acid, and that to 
 put a larger quantity in the retorts than could be 
 associated with the oxygen, not only did no good, but 
 was a positive waste of material. Hosts of instances 
 of a similar nature might be adduced to prove the 
 great strides made in the pursuit of a real chemistry 
 since the establishment of the laws of combination, 
 or the application of the atomic hypothesis. 
 
 Dalton's early inquiries in natural philosophy 
 
 * Were it pertinent to this narrative, much might be offered on the 
 apt analogy subsisting between the laws regulating the infinitely 
 great world of the firmament and the infinitely small world of atoms. 
 The quantitative method that enters the mind of the chemist seeking 
 to determine the groundwork of his science, and the conception of 
 gravitation by the astronomer discovering the movements of the 
 heavenly orbs, are based on the same method : both depend, as Comte 
 would say, on " weight properly generalised." 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 219 
 
 would necessarily make him more or less familiar 
 with the opinions held on the atomic constitution of 
 matter by modern physicists and metaphysicians ; 
 and possibly his reading of the Greek and Roman 
 authors had given him a notion of the views of 
 Democritus and the Epicureans. However this may 
 be, in framing his views of an atomic theory to 
 illustrate or give effect to his laws of combining 
 proportion, he assumed the existence of certain 
 ultimate particles or molecules possessed of a definite 
 and unchangeable weight, shape, and size. These he 
 called atoms, to signify that they were indivisible ; 
 not, however, affirming this absolutely, but indivisible 
 in relation only to the chemical and other disintegrat- 
 ing forces existing in nature, none of which were 
 supposed able to divide them. Thus Dalton viewed 
 the ponderable masses of the different and elementary 
 bodies as consisting of a countless multitude of undi- 
 vided atoms. 
 
 On the shape and size of the atoms Dalton could 
 offer no opinion. From inspecting his diagrams it 
 might be supposed that he looked upon them as 
 spherical. The size of the atoms apparently never 
 entered into his speculations, knowing full well that 
 they were inconceivably small, and altogether beyond 
 the grasp of our senses aided by the highest appliances 
 of art. 
 
 Where Dalton's reasonings, based on experimental 
 inquiry, passed beyond the thoughts of all his pre- 
 decessors, from Newton and Liebnitz down to his own 
 contemporaries engaged in discussing the atomic con- 
 stitution of bodies, was his introducing the question 
 of weight in his treatment of the ultimate particles. 
 
22O John Dalton. 
 
 It was "this stride in advance of all speculators in 
 atomics," and before he had completed his analysis of 
 a score of compounds, that gave him such confidence 
 in propounding his hypothesis "that the ultimate 
 atoms of the elementary bodies do not possess the 
 same, but different weights, and that the difference 
 between their weights is identical with that which 
 subsists between the combining proportions of the 
 elements themselves." 
 
 He could not, of course, pronounce any opinion on 
 the absolute weight of atoms, millions of the heaviest 
 of which might not affect the most delicate balance ; 
 but he thought that if it were possible to weigh them 
 one by one, we should find that whatever was the 
 absolute weight of any one would be found to be the 
 weight of each of the others of the same kind ; thus, 
 if one atom of hydrogen weighed the millionth of a 
 millionth of a grain, each of the hydrogen atoms would 
 weigh the millionth of a millionth also. Again, we 
 should find that all the oxygen atoms were eight times 
 heavier than the hydrogen ones, all the nitrogen four- 
 teen times heavier, all the gold atoms 197 times heavier. 
 In short, as Dr Wilson observes, " the proportion in 
 which bodies combine with each other are supposed 
 to depend upon the weights of the atoms which make 
 them up, and to be identical with them. All the 
 numbers, accordingly, which before the hypothesis is 
 considered represent combining proportions, as soon 
 as it is adopted, come to represent weights of ultimate 
 atoms or atomic weights." 
 
 Dalton looked upon the ultimate particles in the 
 act of combination as being brought into closer 
 proximity, or fused together, but in no way losing 
 
A Sketch of the Atomic Theory. 221 
 
 their individuality ; so that when the compound they 
 form is decomposed, they separate, and reappear with 
 all their original properties. " The smallest possible 
 quantity of water is in this way conceived to consist 
 of one atom of hydrogen and one of oxygen bound 
 together, without loss of the individuality of either, by 
 the unknown and invisible tie which we term chemical 
 affinity." 
 
 This brief exposition, divested as far as practicable 
 of unnecessary technicalities, may enable the reader 
 to form some notion of Dalton's great discovery. 
 Dalton's views of chemical combination, including 
 both the facts and the hypothesis which expressed 
 and explained them, are generally known as the 
 " Atomic Theory." Dr Wilson observes : " To 
 Dalton himself, the evidence in support of the 
 existence of ultimate indivisible particles appears to 
 have seemed so conclusive, that he considered the 
 doctrine of atoms in the light of an induction from the 
 data furnished by observation and experiment, and 
 this without reference to any other than purely 
 physical questions. We cannot sufficiently reiterate 
 that he was an atomist before he was a chemist. In 
 his lips, therefore, the name ' Atomic Theory/ was 
 consistent, and had a clear meaning. It was John 
 Dalton's atomic theory of chemical combining pro- 
 portions ; his theory of atoms connected with his 
 discoveries in chemistry, so as at once to account for, 
 and to expound them. To those, however, who can- 
 not by any process of generalisation establish to their 
 own satisfaction, or to that of others, the actual 
 existence of atoms (and it includes almost every one 
 who thinks on the subject at all), and for whom the 
 
222 John Dalton. 
 
 doctrine of atoms is only a questionable, and, we may 
 say, an indifferent hypothesis, Dalton's view is 'an 
 atomic hypothesis of combining proportion.' It 
 matters comparatively little, however, whether we 
 say atomic theory or atomic hypothesis, provided we 
 keep perfectly distinct what is matter of assumption 
 concerning atoms from what is matter of fact 
 concerning laws of combining proportion." 
 
 In a subsequent chapter a few words will be offered 
 on the influence of the atomic theory in the develop- 
 ment of the science of chemistry, and the mode in 
 which the new doctrine was received by the con- 
 temporaries of Dalton both at home and abroad. In 
 the meantime some recognition should be made of 
 his social life, and his public appearances as a lec- 
 turer in London and the larger cities of Britain. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 " For the highest degree of organization 
 
 Gives the highest degree of thought." PARMENIDES. 
 
 PORTRAITURE SOCIAL HABITS TEACHING AND ITS REWARDS 
 LECTURES AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, LONDON HIS RESIDENCE 
 HIS RETICENCE ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS LECTURES IN EDINBURGH 
 GLASGOW, AND LONDON HIS CORRESPONDENCE ON A VARIETY 
 OF TOPICS. 
 
 JOHN DALTON'S stature was slightly above 
 the middle height, say sixty-eight inches. 
 His robust, muscular frame bore con- 
 siderable resemblance to a class of men 
 daily met with in the agricultural districts of Cum- 
 berland. Seen in country garb, and judged from his 
 mere physique, he might have been looked upon as 
 possessing sufficient of the athlete to become a prize- 
 winner in the Carlisle wrestling-ring ; nor would his 
 deep, somewhat gruff voice have been an unworthy 
 accompaniment of such bucolic championship. His 
 slight stoop forward, in part arising from his studious 
 and sedentary habits, and unpolished gait, betrayed 
 the absence of physical training; yet after middle 
 age, it appears he could, without a day's preparation, 
 walk as rapidly and continuously as the most dis- 
 ciplined pedestrian ; nay, climb the dark brow of the 
 mighty Helvellyn, of three thousand feet, with ease 
 and alacrity. 
 
224 John Dalton. 
 
 The real strength and pith of the man lay not 
 in bone and muscle, but in an ample nerve-power and 
 the possession of a fine cerebral development. He 
 had an expressive, thoughtful countenance, and a 
 healthful masculine organisation that could not fail to 
 attract attention. All the portraits of Dalton display 
 a broad, expansive head, bearing no small resemblance 
 to that seen in the engraved portrait of Sir Isaac 
 Newton. And it would appear that the members 
 of the British Association who were present at 
 the Cambridge meeting, in the year 1833, were 
 impressed with Dalton's likeness to Roubiliac's 
 statue of Newton in Trinity College Chapel. Mr 
 Woolley, also an intimate friend of Dalton's, who 
 had a cast of Newton's head placed near Dalton 
 after his decease, has recorded "that the likeness 
 which had been observed during life was in death 
 most striking." 
 
 As far as a careful comparison instituted within an 
 interval of four days can be relied upon, I should say 
 the configuration of the head in the statue of Sir 
 Isaac Newton at Grantham resembles very much that 
 of Dalton's standing in front of the Manchester In- 
 firmary. Whether this analogy of form be strictly 
 dependent on the similarity of the crania of the two 
 philosophers, or is in part borrowed from the ideal 
 conception of the sculptors aiming to give breadth to 
 the intellectual organs, is beyond my decision. The 
 statue of Dalton by Chantrey appears to me, both in 
 pose and general treatment, one of his best works. 
 The artist, however, has given undue and unnatural 
 prominence to the part of the forehead immediately 
 above the eyebrows. Among other relics of their 
 
His Portraiture. 225 
 
 accomplished President preserved by the Literary and 
 Philosophical Society of Manchester, is Dalton's hat, 
 from the shape of which it is easy to see that Dalton's 
 head was of the bracycephalic type, with great width 
 across the temples, or in the tranverse axis of the 
 cranium. 
 
 The massive, full contour of Dalton's head impresses 
 you with the stamp of intellectual power, and a 
 capacity for the highest of human efforts ; and nobly 
 distinctive as it appeared, it was not a whit more 
 noble in form than the brain-structure it enclosed was 
 in fitting ' response to those claims which science 
 exacts from her more distinguished votaries. His 
 prominent eyebrows shaded in deeper setting eyes 
 of quiet discernment, whilst the use of large spec- 
 tacles added to his general philosophic seeming 
 and force of character. In his marked nose, rather 
 massive jaws, and firm, deep chin, you saw the 
 features of the sturdy race of the " north countrie," 
 not altogether free of an air of severity at times ; 
 these, however, were somewhat toned down by 
 lips less masculine than usual, and a physiognomy 
 that offered blandness as well as firmness and pene- 
 tration. 
 
 The portrait accompanying this memoir is taken 
 from an admirable likeness of John Dalton by Mr J. 
 Lonsdale, engraved by C. Turner, A.R.A. The origi- 
 nal picture was in the possession of James Thomson, 
 Esq., F.R.S., of Clitheroe. In preferring Lonsdale's 
 portrait to that by Allen, or the engraving taken from 
 Chantrey's bust, I am guided by those who knew 
 Dalton long and intimately. There are, it is said, 
 other excellent portraits of the philosopher, whose 
 
 P 
 
226 John Dalton. 
 
 marked facial lineaments were easily rendered by 
 artists of ordinary distinction. 
 
 If his cranium, and forehead especially, had much 
 of the contour and type of Sir Isaac Newton, his 
 general demeanour and scientific methods tallied not 
 a little with what I used to observe of his worthy con- 
 temporary, Gay Lussac. This noble Frenchman and 
 true savant dressed in country fashion, and steadily 
 held by the subject-matter of his prelections without 
 offering much rhetorical adornment to his science. 
 Perhaps Dalton and Gay Lussac had closer personal 
 and scientific affinities than any two men of their 
 epoch. As it might appear a little incongruous to 
 enter into historical parallels in this brief memoir, I 
 rest content with drawing attention to the cognate 
 scientific relations of Dalton to Berzelius the renowned 
 chemist, and Alexander Von Humboldt the philoso- 
 pher ; both of them possessed the intellectual traits and 
 Teutonic perseverance so markedly seen in Dalton's 
 character. The Swede was the faithful historian and 
 honest exponent of his science, over which his friend 
 Dalton had thrown a halo of light; the German tra- 
 veller had the keen grasp that could embrace the 
 "Principia" of Newton, the atomic theory of Dalton, 
 and all the ancient and modern philosophies bearing 
 on the elucidation of natural phenomena. 
 
 Dalton dressed in Quaker's costume, wearing knee- 
 breeches, dark-grey stockings, and buckled shoes, the 
 fashion of that day. He always appeared in neat 
 attire and good broadcloth, with gloves, gaiters, and 
 a handsome walking-cane, headed or not with silver 
 or gold. His broad-brim beaver showed the finest 
 texture, and his white neckcloth was spotless. He 
 
His Faculties unbent over a Pipe of Tobacco. 227 
 
 did not invariably adopt the phraseology of " Friends " 
 by addressing individuals as "thou" and "thee;" nor 
 was he quite so formal in other ways as the old- 
 fashioned representatives of his religious deno- 
 mination. In general society he was somewhat 
 reserved, and as a good listener, not much disposed 
 to break the line of conversation unless he could do so 
 succinctly, and with a word or two of dry humour 
 that generally told very happily. Considering his 
 self-possession, to which he was to the manner born, 
 he did not appear to advantage in miscellaneous 
 groupings of people, and still less amid the gatherings 
 of the elite and philosophic of the metropolis. This 
 apparent deficiency in his mental manifestations arose 
 from his bringing up, his want of social opportunities, 
 and his comparatively little intercourse with men and 
 women of high culture. When placed among his own 
 circle, and encouraged to certain trains of thought 
 favouring his tendency to exposition, he had no 
 difficulty in sustaining an animated conversation, and 
 at the same time greatly interesting his hearers. 
 His colloquial faculty was at its best over a pipe of 
 tobacco, surrounded by two or three friends in an 
 evening : then he was at home, and felt as a philo- 
 sopher who had something to say, and could say it 
 well. As a general rule, he exhibited much of the 
 golden silence so vauntingly preached by Thomas 
 Carlyle, but so seldom practised by that great his- 
 torian, whose loquacity is rather a paramount feature 
 in his social fraternisations. 
 
 John Dalton enjoyed the constantly happy pri- 
 vileges attendant on a healthy organisation, scarcely 
 experiencing even a day's illness, excepting from 
 
228 John Dalton. 
 
 adventitious circumstances, such as the porter-poison- 
 ing in London to be presently noted, or an attack of 
 the prevailing epidemic, influenza. He had a good 
 pulse and a good digestion,* and these constitute 
 nine-tenths of the groundwork of a man's success in 
 the world of competition. How great soever the 
 mental gifts may be in an individual, the exercise of 
 them remains more or less in abeyance under the dark 
 clouds of dyspepsia, and other ills to which human 
 flesh is heir. No puny-framed person has reached the 
 higher honours of statesmanship, and no bilious phleg- 
 matic lawyer, as far as I know, has attained the wool- 
 sack. The men of eminence who have figured in 
 history, be they soldiers, philosophers, physicists, or 
 others, have been strong-stomached, or, as Paley, who 
 was a true example of the kind, used to say, good 
 trencher men. Dalton's organic functions, aided by 
 balmy sleep, went on pari-passu with his prescribed 
 mental labours and laboratory work. Calmness and 
 serenity ruled the mind as equality governed the 
 bodily operations of the philosopher. He ate mode- 
 rately, and generally drank only water, even in his 
 old age, when, if ever, the most temperate of men 
 may stand in need of wine and stimulants. 
 
 There are but faint tracings of historical interest in 
 the life of a man who had to pursue the calling of a 
 
 * No class of people in Her Majesty's dominions look more atten- 
 tively to their victuals than the worthy Society of Friends, whose 
 daughters are neat cooks and dainty purveyors. Dalton was a true 
 Friend, who, on his journeying from home, seldom omitted to note his 
 stomach supplies, and what they cost him. Thus he wrote : " Mr J. 
 Pearson and I walked to Hayfield (four miles), breakfasted there on 
 tea, two basins of milk, four eggs, bread and butter, muffins, &c. : for 
 what? for gd. a piece ! " 
 
In his Capacity of Schoolmaster. 229 
 
 schoolmaster, and to practise the sedate virtues of a 
 bachelor Quaker, whose walk was mainly confined to 
 a circle neither enlivening in tone nor brilliant in social 
 qualities. Dalton's life was truly in his works, his 
 science, and his discoveries ; in any other direction it 
 was monotonous in form and details, and most unevent- 
 ful in character. Each day of the week, except the 
 first (Sunday), found him engaged teaching grammar, 
 arithmetic, and caligraphy, or lecturing on physics 
 and chemistry to more advanced students. It is 
 true, he had grown up with this kind of occupation 
 from a very early age, and apparently felt it the most 
 suited to the habits and contemplative moods of his 
 mature years. Teaching was the sustentation fund 
 of both his virtues and his philosophies ; and he 
 showed his wonted sagacity in holding on by the 
 essentials of life, for, as an Englishman of obscure 
 birth, what could he expect, or what has science ever 
 obtained, at the hands of the so-called paternal 
 government of this great country ? My genial and 
 lamented companion of other days, Professor Edward 
 Forbes, used to reply to such a query, " More kicks 
 than ha'pennies, my friend ! " 
 
 His ordinary fees for instruction were at first one 
 shilling ; then eighteenpence ; and at a later period of 
 his life he exacted half-a-crown. He earned a few 
 guineas as a " professional chemist," making the low 
 charge of half-a-guinea for an ordinary chemical 
 analysis showing the different constituents to be found 
 in a gallon of water : the same kind of work to-day 
 would fetch ten guineas. For special instruction in the 
 laboratory, or practical chemistry, his fee was 35. 6d. 
 With the increased demand for his services arose a 
 
230 John Dalton. 
 
 higher remuneration ; so that after his sixtieth year 
 his pecuniary means were ample. The story is told 
 of Dr Bardsley, a Manchester physician of eminence, 
 calling once on Dalton, and observing half-a-crown 
 lying on the table, said, "You throw your money 
 about carelessly." " Ay," replied Dalton, " a woman 
 has just gone away that I have been teaching a bit of 
 arithmetic to, and thou see she has left me half-a- 
 crown." 
 
 The mode by which he earned a livelihood became 
 after long years of pursuit so essentially a part of his 
 nature, that he had no disposition to cast it aside when 
 by dint of success he had gathered a modest independ- 
 ence. To follow a settled course, that in time lapsed 
 into a regular groove of thought as well as of action, 
 was characteristic of Dalton, who claimed for per- 
 severance a place among the highest of virtues in a 
 man's career, the main step in the ladder of progress, 
 and the promotion of a life's well-doing. He was a twin 
 brother in sentiment with the monk of old whose motto 
 was Laborare est orare a text that Dalton typified 
 in a high degree in his course through the world. 
 Energetic and laborious, and quietly pushing along 
 the road to material prosperity, he might hope for the 
 verification of the saying " If thou dost well unto 
 thyself, all men will speak well of thee." * 
 
 Schoolmastering was less of a drudgery to him 
 
 * The schoolmasters in the days of palmy Rome occasionally got a 
 remunerative quid pro quo for their services to youth, in enjoying official 
 positions worthy of the best men in the commonwealth. The Emperor 
 Vespasian, though no scholar himself, had sense to see that it was for 
 the public good that men of letters should be encouraged ; and he 
 caused Quintillian, one of the most successful teachers of the day, to 
 be elevated to the Consulship. 
 
Perseverance his Motto. 23 1 
 
 than to most persons of his class ; for having set his 
 pupil to his tasks, with a general remark as to the 
 mode of pursuing them, he left him very much to do 
 what he best could by persevering exertions, whilst 
 he turned his own attention to chemical experiments, 
 and the calculations naturally arising out of their 
 consideration. Inasmuch as this laboratory work 
 was comparatively little checked by solicitations 
 for help on the part of his scholars, he worked double 
 tides in each diurnal earning his bread and butter, 
 and at the same time realising the data or foundations 
 upon which he was enabled to erect a grand super- 
 structure of theoretical and practical science. 
 
 With all his eagerness in the paths of philosophy, 
 he had sufficient of the shopkeeping Briton in his 
 composition to keep his eye open to the main chance 
 of being able to live prudently well, and to save 
 money to meet the wants and infirmities of old age. 
 This careful procedure was justifiable in his early 
 struggles, when, as a teacher of natural philosophy, he 
 could only realise about 100 a year in one of the 
 great commercial capitals of Lancashire, where opu- 
 lence so largely abounded. By and by his lectures 
 delivered in the cities of England and Scotland 
 brought considerable grist to the mill, and gave clear 
 promise of further accession of means and sources 
 of independence. Such fortune in prospect did not 
 alter his mode of living; and it is to be feared that his 
 habits of saving, so long practised, got too retentive a 
 hold to be cast aside in the declination of life, when 
 the mind is apt to be disquieted by its prospects of 
 the future. If frugal and economic, to a degree worthy 
 of a fellside patriarch rather than a bachelor of inde- 
 
232 John Dalton. 
 
 pendent resources, he was by no means wanting in 
 generosity on a great demand for its exercise ; whilst 
 he privately afforded aid to the well-deserving of his 
 old friends in lack of money. 
 
 The many valuable memoirs furnished by Dalton 
 to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Man- 
 chester between the years .1 800 and 1803 called forth a 
 large share of attention both at home and abroad. 
 In proof of which the Directors of the Royal Institu- 
 tion of Great Britain, consisting of Count Rumford, 
 the founder, of Humphrey Davy, Dr Wollaston, and 
 others eminent in science and literature, invited 
 Dalton to deliver a course of lectures to the 
 members of the institution. These lectures em- 
 braced mechanics and physics, and inaugurated 
 the session 1803-4. Dalton's first appearance before 
 a London audience was on December 22, 1803. 
 
 In a letter to Mr John Rothwell we get more know- 
 ledge of his London experiences : 
 
 LONDON, January 10, 1804. 
 
 I was introduced to Mr Davy, who has rooms adjoining 
 mine in the Royal Institution. He is a very agreeable and in- 
 telligent young man, and we have interesting conversations in 
 an evening. The principal failing in his character is that he 
 does not smoke. Mr Davy advised me to labour my first 
 lecture ; he told me the people here would be inclined to form 
 their opinion from it. Accordingly I resolved to write my first 
 lecture wholly, to do nothing but to tell them what I would do, 
 and enlarge on the importance and utility of science. I studied 
 and wrote for nearly two days, then calculated to a minute how 
 long it would take me reading, endeavouring to make my dis- 
 course about fifty minutes. The evening before the lecture, 
 Davy and I went into the theatre ; he made me read the whole 
 of it, and he went into the furthest corner ; then he read it, and 
 I was the audience. We criticised upon each other's method. 
 
Lectures at the Royal Institution. 233 
 
 Next day I read it to an audience of about 150 or 200 people, 
 which was more than was expected. They gave a very general 
 plaudit at the conclusion, and several came up to compliment 
 me on the excellence of the introductory. Since that time I 
 have scarcely written anything ; all has been experiment and 
 verbal explanation. In general, my experiments have uniformly 
 succeeded, and I have never once faltered in the elucidation of 
 them. In fact, I can now enter the lecture-room with as little 
 emotion nearly as I can smoke a pipe with you on Sunday or 
 Wednesday evenings. 
 
 On his returning to Manchester at the end of 
 January, he wrote as follows to his brother : 
 
 February I, 1804. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER,-! have the satisfaction to inform thee that 
 I returned safe from my London journey last seventh day 
 (Saturday), having been absent six weeks. It has, on many 
 accounts, been an interesting vacation to me, though a laborious 
 one. I went in a great measure unprepared, not knowing the 
 nature and manner of the lectures in the institution, nor the 
 apparatus. My first was on Tuesday, December 22d (1803), 
 which was introductory, being entirely written, giving an 
 account of what was intended to be done, and natural philosophy 
 in general. All lectures were to be one hour each, or as near as 
 might be. The number attending were from one to three 
 hundred of both sexes, usually more than half men. I was 
 agreeably disappointed to find so learned and attentive an 
 audience, though many of them of rank. It 'required great 
 labour on my part to get acquainted with the apparatus, and to 
 draw up the order of experiments and repeat them in the 
 intervals between the lectures, though I had one pretty expert 
 to assist me. The scientific part of the audience was wonder- 
 fully taken with some of my original notices relative to heat, the 
 gases, &c., some of which had not before been published. 
 Had my hearers been generally ' of the description I had ap- 
 prehended, the most interesting lectures I had to give would 
 have been the least relished ; but as it happened, the expecta- 
 tions formed had drawn several gentlemen of first-rate talents 
 together, and my eighteenth, on heat, and the cause of expan- 
 
234 John Dalton. 
 
 sion, &c., was received with the greatest applause, with very 
 few experiments. The one that followed was on mixed elastic 
 fluids, in which I had an opportunity of developing my ideas 
 that have already been published on the subject more fully. 
 The doctrine has, as I apprehended it would, excited the atten- 
 tion of philosophers throughout Europe. Two journals in the 
 German language came into the Royal Institution whilst I was 
 there, from Saxony, both of which were about half filled with 
 translations of the papers I have written on the subject, and 
 comments on them. . . . 
 
 In lecturing on optics, I got six ribbands blue, pink, lilac, 
 and red, green, and brown which matches very well, and told 
 the curious audience so. I do not know whether they gene- 
 rally believed me to be serious, but one gentleman came up 
 immediately after, and told me he perfectly agreed with me : 
 he had not remarked the difference by candle-light. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1805, he went to 
 reside in Faulkner Street, at the house of the Rev. 
 William Johns, with whom he continued to lodge and 
 board for the greater part of his life. Miss Johns has 
 thus recorded the characteristic simplicity with which 
 this engagement was formed : " As my mother was 
 standing at her parlour window one evening towards 
 dusk, she saw Mr Dalton passing on the other side of 
 the street, and on her opening the window, he crossed 
 over and greeted her. ' Mr Dalton/ said she, ' how 
 is it that you so seldom come to see us ? ' ' Why, I 
 don't know,' he replied, ' but I have a mind to come 
 and live with you.' My mother thought at first that 
 he was in jest ; but finding that he really meant what 
 he said, she asked him to call again the next day, 
 after she should have consulted my father. Accord- 
 ingly he came and took possession of the only bed- 
 room at liberty, which he cpntinued to occupy for 
 nearly thirty years. And here I may mention to the 
 
Resides with the Rev. W. Johns. 235 
 
 honour of both, that throughout that long connection 
 he and my father never, on any occasion, exchanged 
 one angry word, and never ceased to feel for each 
 other those sentiments of friendly interest which, on 
 the decline into years of both, ripened into still 
 warmer feelings of respect and affection." 
 
 No one ever worked more methodically or lived 
 more regularly than Dalton did during his long and 
 happy residence with the family of Mr Johns. He rose 
 at eight o'clock in the morning ; if in winter, went 
 with his lantern in his hand to his laboratory in 
 the rooms of the Literary and Philosophical Society, 
 and not above two minutes walk from his lodgings, 
 lighted the fire, and came over to breakfast when the 
 family had nearly done. Went to the laboratory, and 
 stayed till dinner-time, coming in in a hurry when it 
 was nearly over, eating moderately, and drinking water 
 only. Went out again, and returned about five o'clock 
 to tea, still in a hurry, when the rest were finishing. 
 Again to his laboratory till nine o'clock, when he re- 
 turned to supper; after which he and Mr Johns 
 smoked a pipe, and the whole family seems much to 
 have enjoyed this time of conversation and recreation 
 after the busy day. 
 
 A lady, whose bedroom commanded a view of 
 Dalton's laboratory, always knew the morning hour 
 to a minute by observing him noting the condition of 
 his thermometers outside his window. It was by 
 exercising the same methodical habits that enabled 
 him to accomplish so much real work. Literally 
 everything went on like clockwork with him from 
 day to day; even the few hours of recreation he 
 snatched in the week were guided by rule and habit. 
 
236 John Dalton. 
 
 As a boy, he enjoyed rustic amusements, among 
 which a game at bowls was deemed as innocent as 
 any ; and in Manchester he attended a bowling-club 
 which met regularly every Thursday afternoon at a 
 tavern at Broughton and at Stretford, where he played 
 with all the zest and earnestness of a young man, 
 watching the movements of the bowls, and swaying 
 his body to and fro in accordance with their direction 
 and speed. After the game was over, upon which 
 some moderate betting took place, tea was served ; 
 and in the evening the members, with the exception 
 of Dalton, who did not know a king of spades from a 
 knave of hearts, played whist ; whilst all enjoyed the 
 fragrant weed, smoking, as was the fashion in those 
 days, long churchwarden pipes. After " blowing a 
 big cloud," Dalton left the snug parlour of the " Dog 
 and Partridge," returned to town, and of course to his 
 laboratory, to note the state of his barometer and 
 thermometer. On being questioned as to his reasons 
 for selecting Thursday for his country amusement, he 
 replied that he liked his Saturday holiday in the 
 middle of the week. 
 
 He would occasionally spend a few minutes in 
 reading the newspapers, the politics of which do not 
 seem to have interested him very greatly, or he 
 would have shown less reticence on public affairs. 
 Mr Johns and his family thought him Toryish in 
 principle ; others maintain that he was a Whig, as 
 almost all true and well-educated Quakers are. His 
 manhood was developed during the most eventful 
 era in European history French revolutions and 
 terrorism ; Napoleonic wars abroad, and English 
 radicalism at home yet in none of his letters to his 
 
Reserved on Questions of Public Interest. 237 
 
 brother and friends does he allude to the great 
 changes affecting the ancient dynasties, or the 
 threatened disorganisation of the interests of society 
 at large. 
 
 How differently did Dalton comport himself, and 
 wisely, too, compared with his French contemporaries 
 Berthollet, Monge, Arago, Raspail, who entered con- 
 spicuously into all the turmoil of politics, as ready to 
 ascend the tribune, and to raise their voices and 
 swords against aristocratic rule, as to determine the 
 nature of a chemical salt, or to measure an arc of the 
 meridian. 
 
 Reflecting on his position as a teacher, naturally 
 involving comment on modern as well as ancient 
 history, and not less his religious affinities and the 
 stirring times in which he lived, his reserve on ques- 
 tions of deep and lasting interest to his species 
 appears somewhat remarkable. Though by no 
 means a recluse in habit like Cavendish, nor a dreamy 
 philosopher like Spinoza, he seems to have bestowed 
 little or no thought upon the current topics of the 
 day political or philanthropic; or, if he entertained 
 any opinions thereon, he refrained from expressing 
 them. Nor did he engage in the metaphysical or 
 purely philosophical questions agitating the leading 
 minds of Europe, the discussion of which brought the 
 views of Locke, Hobbes, and Hartley, and those of 
 the Scottish school of philosophy, headed by Hume, 
 in competition with the Cartesians and the Cyclopaed- 
 ists abroad. He was not a many-sided, but rather a 
 single-minded man, who concentrated all his energies 
 on his favourite studies chemistry and meteorology, 
 and both were closely allied. The occasions on 
 
238 John Dalton. 
 
 which he was induced to deviate from his own special 
 path of meditative culture were so rare as not to be 
 worth naming. His life was spent in his laboratory 
 almost to the exclusion of all other pursuits, be they 
 patriotic, or moral, or political in aim. It is said that, 
 when urged to come more into the world, and to take 
 part in matters of real public interest, that he replied 
 in the words he made use of when asked why he did 
 not get married ? " Oh ! I never had time." 
 
 He manifested much kindly good-will towards 
 his friends and old Cumbrian acquaintances, and 
 liked to promote the sociable relations of his Man- 
 chester visiting circle ; but his sympathies were 
 hardly catholic enough to include the joys and griefs 
 of the world outside his own, or the larger interests of 
 humanity. He adhered to his social groove, and that 
 was pretty Quakerish, in the same rigid way that he 
 stuck to his scientific calling. He wanted academic 
 culture, and the refined thought that tends to ennoble 
 men, be their walk what it may in life nay, seemed 
 proud of his broad Cumbrian dialect and plainness of 
 speech. No mention is made of his being a reader of 
 history or belles-lettres, and there is nothing to indicate 
 his having given much consideration to the influ- 
 ences exercised by the leading minds either of the 
 Elizabethian historical period, or by the poets and 
 writers in whose hands a graceful literature flourished 
 in the century of his birth. 
 
 Attention has already been directed to the circum- 
 stance of Dalton showing but little regard for any 
 kind of reading be it historical, geographical, or 
 scientific even at a time when his contributions to 
 the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester 
 
" Cotdd carry all his Books on his Back? 239 
 
 were numerous, and his " Meteorological Essays " and 
 " New System of Chemistry " were cast before the 
 public for no other purpose than being consulted. 
 He acted in this respect as if he were a light to his 
 own path beyond all other lights visible or attainable. 
 And what is more incongruous and inconsistent 
 with the character of a man aspiring to a keen grasp 
 and comprehension of all available knowledge, he 
 seems to have discouraged reading in others. On 
 the council of the Philosophical Society he stood in 
 the way of acquiring the kind of library suited to so 
 cosmopolitan an institution, and was in the habit of 
 saying to the remonstrances of those who inculcated 
 the introduction of good works and in good quantity, 
 " I could carry all the books I have ever read on my 
 back !"* He was not aware that he was in part re- 
 proving himself by this statement, inasmuch as more 
 careful reading, and the wish for higher culture, would 
 have added vastly to his own resources, and given 
 breadth and light to the needful literary exposition 
 of his scientific work. 
 
 Dalton's first appearance in North Britain, his 
 impressions of Edinburgh and the reception he met 
 with there, and in Glasgow as a lecturer, may be 
 gathered from his letter to Mr Johns, who was looking 
 after Dalton's schoolmastering interests in Manchester. 
 
 EDINBURGH, April 19, 1807. 
 
 RESPECTED FRIEND, As the time I proposed to be absent 
 is nearly expired, and as my views have recently been somewhat 
 
 * His stock of books, as early as the year 1800, were beyond the 
 power of any man's back. Note is made of them in a subsequent page, 
 in discussing the character and amount of his chemical and other ap- 
 paratus. 
 
240 John Dalton. 
 
 extended, I think it expedient to write you for the information 
 of inquirers. Soon after my arrival here I announced my 
 intention by advertisement of handbills. I obtained introduction 
 to most of the professional gentlemen in connection with the 
 college, and to others not in that connection, by all of whom I 
 have been treated with the utmost civility and attention. A class 
 of eighty appeared for me in a few days. My five lectures 
 occupied me nearly two weeks. [Owing to several persons 
 being disappointed in not hearing him, Dalton arranged a 
 second course.] 
 
 Hitherto I have been most highly gratified with my journey ; 
 it is worth coming 100 miles merely to see Edinburgh. It 
 is the most romantic place and situation I ever saw ; the houses 
 touch the clouds. At this moment I am as highjabove the 
 ground as the cross of St James's spire ; yet there is a family or 
 two above me. In this place they do not build houses side by 
 side as with you, they build them one upon another nay, they 
 do what is more wonderful still, they build one street upon 
 another ; so that we may in many places see a street with the 
 people in it directly under one's feet, at the same time that one's 
 own street seems perfectly level and to coincide with the surface 
 of the earth. My own lodgings are up four flights of stairs from 
 the front street, and five from the back. I have just 100 steps 
 to descend before I reach the real earth. I have a most 
 extensive view of the sea. . . . The walks about Edinburgh 
 are most delightfully romantic. The weather is cold ; ice 
 every morning, and we had a thick snow a few days ago. Upon 
 walking up on to an eminence, I observed all the distant hills 
 white, the nearer ones speckled. I saw five or six vessels just 
 touching the horizon ; they seemed to be about ten or twelve 
 miles off, and their white sails looked like specks of snow on 
 the sea. I saw a dozen or two at anchor in the river, and a most 
 charming view of the Fifeshire hills on the other side of the 
 
 Forth. Adieu. My best regards to you all. 
 
 J. DALTON. 
 
 He gave a second course of lectures to the Royal 
 Institution of Great Britain in 1809, and in December 
 of that year addressed the following letter to Mr 
 
Philosophizes and Dines Cheaply. 241 
 
 Johns, in which there is a curious mingling of potatoes 
 and philosophy, with an eye to Bond Street fashions 
 and pretty women : 
 
 On Tuesday I spent greater part of the day (morning, they 
 call it here) with Mr Davy in the laboratory of the Royal 
 Institution. Sir J. Sebright, M.P., who is becoming a student 
 of chemistry, was present. On Wednesday I attended Mr 
 Bond's lecture on astronomy, and prepared for mine the next 
 day. On Thursday, at two, I gave my first lecture. Mr 
 Pearson, a former acquaintance, went home with me after the 
 lecture, and we had a long discussion on mechanics. Mr Davy 
 had invited me to dine with the club of the Royal Society at 
 the Crown and Anchor at five o'clock ; but I was detained till 
 nearly six. I got there, and called Davy out. All was over ; the 
 cheese was come out. I went, therefore, to the nearest eating- 
 house I could find to get a dinner. Looking in at a window, I 
 saw a great heap of pewter plates, and some small oblong tables 
 covered with cloths. I went in and asked for a beefsteak. 
 "No." What can I have? "Boiled beef." Bring some 
 immediately. There was nothing eatable visible in the room, 
 but in three minutes I had placed before me a large pewter 
 plate covered completely with a slice of excellent boiled beef 
 swimming in gravy, two or three potatoes, bread, mustard, and 
 a pint of porter. Never got a better dinner. It cost me n^d. 
 I should have paid 75. at the Crown and Anchor. I then went 
 to the Royal Society, and heard a summary of Davy's paper on 
 chemistry, and one of Home's on the poison of the rattlesnake ; 
 Sir J. Banks in the chair. Davy is coming very fast into my 
 views on chemical subjects. On Friday I was preparing for my 
 second lecture. I received a visit from Dr Roget. On the 
 evening I was attacked with sore throat. I sweated it well 
 in the night with clothing, but it was bad on Saturday, and I 
 was obliged to beg a little indulgence of my auditors on the 
 score of exertion. However, I got through better than I 
 expected. I kept in on Sunday and Monday and got pretty 
 well recruited. On Tuesday I had my third lecture, after 
 which I went to dine at a tavern to meet the Chemical Club. 
 There were five of us, two of whom were Wollaston and Davy, 
 
 Q 
 
242 John Dalton. 
 
 secretaries of the Royal Society. We had much discussion on 
 chemicals. Wollaston is one of the cleverest men I have yet 
 seen here. To-day, that is Thursday (for I have had this letter 
 two or three days in hand), I had my fourth lecture. I find 
 several ingenious and inquisitive people of the audience. I 
 held a long conversation to-day with a lady on the subject of 
 rain-gauges. Several have been wonderfully struck with Mr 
 Ewart's doctrine of mechanical force. I believe it will soon 
 become a prevalent doctrine. I should tell Mrs J. something 
 of the fashions here, but it is so much out of my province, that 
 I feel rather awkward. I see the belles of New Bond Street 
 every day, but I am more taken up with their faces than their 
 dresses. I think blue and red are the favourite colours. Some 
 of the ladies seem to have their dresses as tight round them 
 as a drum, others throw them round like a blanket. I do not 
 know how it happens, but I fancy pretty women look well either 
 way. 
 
 I am very regular with my breakfast, but other meals are so 
 uncertain that I never know when or what. Hitherto I have 
 dined at from two to seven o'clock ; as for tea, I generally have 
 a cup between nine and ten, and, of course, no supper. I am 
 not very fond of this way of proceeding. They say things 
 naturally find their level, but I do not think it is the case in 
 London. I sent for a basin of soup the other day before I went 
 to lecture, thinking I should have a good threepenny-worth, but 
 I found they charged me one shilling and ninepence for a 
 pint, which was not better than some of our Mary's broth. Of 
 course, I could not digest much more of the soup. 
 
 Another letter, similarly addressed, shows the 
 narrow escape that Dalton had from lead-poisoning 
 in the use of his favourite beverage porter. 
 
 LONDON, January 29, 1810. 
 
 You may perhaps have heard from Dr Henry that I have 
 been nearly as ill as formerly, that I have been nearly poisoned 
 since I came here. I had been about three weeks when I 
 discovered it was the porter which produced the effects. I 
 
Among the London Celebrities. 243 
 
 have not had a drop since, and have never had any more of the 
 symptoms. [This was owing to the presence of lead in the 
 porter drawn through leaden pipes at the bar of the public- 
 house.] 
 
 I have had a pretty arduous work, as you may imagine, 
 having had three lectures to prepare each week, to attend two 
 others, and to visit and to receive visits occasionally besides. 
 I find myself just now in the focus of the great and learned 
 of the metropolis. On Saturday evening I had a discussion 
 with Dr Wollaston, and a party at Mr Lowry's. On Sunday 
 evening, last night, I was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks, at 
 his house, by Sir John Sebright. Sir Joseph said, " O Mr 
 Dalton, I know him very well ; glad to see you ; hope you are 
 well," &c. There were forty or more of the leading scientific 
 characters present, many of whom were my previous acquaint- 
 ances, such as Sir Charles Blagden, Drs Wollaston, Marcet, 
 Berger, and Roget ; Messrs Cavendish, Davy, Tennant, 
 Lawson, &c. We had conversation for about an hour or 
 more in Sir Joseph's library, when the company dispersed. To 
 judge from the number of carriages at the door it might be 
 a court levee. 
 
 I paid a visit, in company with Dr Lowry, to Dr Rees, the 
 other day ; we spent an hour in conversation in the doctor's 
 library. The doctor seems a worthy philosopher of the old 
 school ; his evening lucubrations are duly scented with genuine 
 Virginia. 
 
 From all that can be learned of Dalton's mode of 
 lecturing, it would appear that his facts and experi- 
 ments were more worthy of approval than either his 
 manner or his language. London audiences were 
 accustomed to listen to the eloquence of Davy, and 
 the academic exposition of Wollaston and other 
 celebrities ; so that Dalton could hardly expect the 
 laudation of critics. One of them, a writer in the 
 Quarterly Review, vol. xcvi., said, " His voice was 
 harsh, indistinct, and unemphatical, and he was sin- 
 
244 John Dallon. 
 
 gularly wanting in the language and power of illus- 
 tration, needful to a lecturer on these high matters 
 of philosophy, and by which Davy and Faraday had 
 given such lustre to their discoveries. Among other 
 instances of his odd appropriation of epithets, we re- 
 collect that in treating of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 
 &c., those great elements which pervade all nature, 
 he generally spoke of them as these articles, de- 
 scribing their qualities with far less earnestness than 
 a London linendraper would shew in commending 
 the very different articles which lie on his shelves." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ''The character of the true philosopher is to hope all things not impossible, 
 and to believe all things not unreasonable^ SIR JOHN HERSCHEL. 
 
 VISIT FROM M. PELLETAN DALTON'S APPARATUS CHEMICAL PRO- 
 GRESS GAY LUSSAC'S LAW OF COMBINATION BY VOLUME 
 DALTON'S OBSTINACY ROYAL SOCIETY NEW SYSTEM OF 
 CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY ACADEMY OF SCIENCES POLAR EXPE- 
 DITION VISITS PARIS UNDER HAPPY AUSPICES. 
 
 JONS. PELLETAN of Paris visited Manches- 
 ter in 1820, for the sole purpose of paying 
 his respects to the founder of the atomic 
 theory. He fancied that Dalton would be' 
 a professor's chair, surrounded by adepts 
 in science and hundreds of ingenuous youths ; residing 
 in a handsome mansion in a handsome square of the 
 city, or enjoying his otium cumdignitate in a suburban 
 villa, with roses embellishing its porch ; in short, the 
 great representative man of Manchester, and well- 
 known and appreciated by every citizen. Judge of 
 his surprise when Monsieur Dalton, le philosophe, could 
 only be found after much inquiry, and when found, 
 was engaged looking over the shoulders of a boy figur- 
 ing numbers on a slate. The Frenchman, doubting 
 his senses, asked the grey-headed gentleman if he 
 really had the honour of addressing Monsieur Dalton. 
 " Yes," replied Dalton ; " will you sit down till I put 
 this lad right about his arithmetic." " What ! a philo- 
 sopher of European fame acting as schoolmaster 
 
246 John Dalton. 
 
 impossible!" As the stranger gathered confidence, he 
 asked Dalton's permission to see his laboratory and 
 philosophical instruments, the employment of which 
 had led to such remarkable discoveries in physics. 
 " Oh," said Dalton, pointing to a miscellaneous 
 collection of apparatus, occupying a corner of the 
 room not much larger in area than what, in Mrs 
 Gamp's eye, would be needful for the reception of an 
 infant's cradle, and the appurtenances thereunto 
 belonging, "that's all the apparatus* I possess." 
 
 M. Pelletan might well be astonished on seeing 
 the humble lodging of the philosopher, who pursued 
 the vocation of schoolmaster, and who had with such 
 meagre apparatus determined so many knotty points 
 in the history of chemistry. He returned to his own 
 
 * The bulk of Dalton's apparatus, both that employed in his 
 researches, and that used for illustrating his lectures, is carefully 
 preserved in the rooms of the Literary and Philosophical Society, of 
 which society he was so long the ornament. These fill a large glass 
 case, and could not by any possibility have been thrust into the corner 
 of the biggest room in the Institution. Why Dalton should have 
 spoken to others as well as M. Pelletan in so depreciating a tone of his 
 instruments of research, is only explicable on the grounds of his wishing 
 to show that, unlike other experimentalists, he did not rely on intricate 
 and costly tools for the carrying on of his scientific investigations. He 
 used to indulge in the same disparaging comments on the quantity of 
 books in his possession, saying that he " could carry them all on his 
 back." Considering Dalton's accuracy of statement on all matters, it 
 is curious to note in his catalogue of books, made in 1800, that he then 
 possessed a good collection of works on chemistry, natural philosophy, 
 mathematics, classics, history, and belles lettres, &c. In the same year he 
 took stock of his philosophical instruments, and recorded under different 
 headings : " Electrical, Magnetic, Optical, Hydrostatical, Botanical, 
 Astronomical, Chemical, Meteorological Apparatus ; Mathematical and 
 Mechanical Utensils and Tools ;" also, " Phonic and Musical Appa- 
 ratus." This collection must have been greatly supplemented before 
 M. Pelletan's visit in 1820. 
 
Simple Apparatus and Big Achievements. 247 
 
 country thankful to know that France could recognise 
 her men of science in a spirit worthy of an enlightened 
 age ; nor was he less indignant that rich and boastful 
 England permitted the greatest of her sons to waste 
 his strength in practising the common duties of a 
 common schoolmaster. England had spent 800 
 millions sterling in upholding a rotten Bourbonic 
 dynasty, but could not afford 200 a year to the 
 man whose scientific discoveries had made her name 
 known to the ends of the civilised world. 
 
 Few things in Dalton's remarkable career as an 
 experimentalist were more surprising than the crude- 
 ness of his chemical apparatus. Among other econo- 
 mic chemical contrivances, he used his empty penny 
 ink-pots, through the corks of which he inserted glass 
 tubes of less than a farthing value. And no doubt 
 he turned these to good account. If the reader will 
 refer to the appendix containing a list of his works 
 and contributions to chemical science, he cannot 
 fail to be struck at the amount of work achieved 
 by Dalton with such simple means. 
 
 Dalton read no less than one hundred and sixteen 
 essays to the Literary and Philosophical Society of 
 Manchester. These essays, it must be admitted, 
 though original and suggestive in aim, are of unequal 
 merit. Some are worthy of his best days, but the 
 majority were got up for the purpose of meeting the 
 wants of the society. It should be observed that the 
 higher office-bearers of every scientific society are 
 bound to do their best to render their society worthy 
 of public regard ; and as the contributions of 
 members are often irregularly offered, it behoved 
 Dalton to be ready with a paper when the programme 
 
248 John Dalton. 
 
 of the meeting seemed less attractive than usual. In 
 addition to the large number jusf named, he made 
 various contributions to the scientific journals of the 
 day ; thus, he furnished twelve essays to Nicolson's 
 Journal, seven essays to Thomson's " Annals of 
 Philosophy," and one to Phillip's " Annals of 
 Philosophy ; " three papers to the Philosophical 
 Transactions, and one to the " Annales de Chimie." Of 
 weightier import, as embracing much that appeared 
 in an isolated form, were his editions of his " New 
 System of Chemistry," and his " Meteorological 
 Essays and Observations."* 
 
 Then it ought to be borne in mind that this array of 
 chemical volumes, and essays, and fragmentary papers 
 were the mental offspring of a man whose time was 
 not at his own disposal ; he had to labour for his 
 daily bread, and this could only be obtained by 
 devoting the best part of each day to the vocation of 
 schoolmastering. 
 
 At a later period of his career, about the year 1840, 
 when he took offence at the refusal of the Royal Society 
 to insert his " Essay on the Phosphates and Arseni- 
 ates," he printed it in a separate form, with the in- 
 dignant comment, " Cavendish, Davy, Wollaston; and 
 Gilbert are no more ; " and concluded by saying, " I 
 intend to print my essays in future to be appended to 
 my other publications." Accordingly he printed four 
 short essays, viz., " On Microcosmic Salt ; " " On the 
 
 * These valuable scientific works were little heard of outside the 
 strictly professional circle. On December 22, 1800 (seven years after 
 their issue), Dalton records " It appears that my ' Meteorological 
 Essays ' have cost nearly ,45 ; that 300 have been sold for .45, that 
 33 have been given away or lost, and that 417 remain on hand." 
 
Still believing in his Strength. 249 
 
 mixture of Sulphate of Magnesia and the Biphosphate 
 of Soda ; " " On the quantity of Acids, Bases, and 
 Water in the different varieties of Salts, with a new 
 method of measuring the Water of Crystallisation, as 
 well as the Acids and Bases ; " and " On a New and 
 Easy Method of analysing Sugar." Dr Henry says 
 " the last two announce a discovery of considerable 
 importance." Dalton found that certain salts, rendered 
 perfectly anhydrous by heat, when dissolved in water, 
 caused no increase of its volume, showing that the 
 salt enters into the pores of the water ; also that salts 
 containing water, when dissolved in a measured 
 quantity of pure water, increased the volume of the 
 solvent by a quantity precisely equal to their con- 
 stituent water, the solid matter, as before, entering the 
 pores of the water. Sulphate of magnesia was the 
 subject of several experiments ; but he adds, " I have 
 tried the carbonates, the sulphates, the nitrates, the 
 muriates or chlorides, the phosphates, the arseniates, 
 the oxalates, the citrates, the tartrates, the acetates, 
 &c., &c., and have been uniformly successful ; only 
 the water adds to the bulk, and the solid matter adds 
 to the weight. This fact," he continues in his last 
 paper on sugar, " was new to me, and I suppose to 
 others. It is the greatest discovery that I know of 
 next to the atomic theory." He proceeds to apply this 
 new principle to the analysis of sugar. 
 
 These views of Dalton's, though regarded at first as 
 more or less imperfect, were nevertheless confirmed 
 by Gay Lussac and Thenard, and in a remarkable 
 manner by Dr Lyon Playfair and Mr Joule.* 
 
 * The subject is fully discussed by Dr Henry, p. 194, &c. 
 
250 John Dalton. 
 
 To attempt the briefest review of Dalton's nume- 
 rous works would require a volume equal to the pre- 
 sent ; moreover, such laborious investigations as his, 
 extending over a period of forty years, can only claim 
 the consideration of the man of science pursuing 
 similar paths of inquiry, or the enthusiastic, or 
 rather the cyclopaedic, historian. Much of his work, it 
 ought to be remarked, is rendered valueless to-day 
 by the great strides made in the domain of analytic 
 chemistry during the last thirty years. Chemistry 
 has mightily changed, and is daily changing its 
 operations as these affect both the organic and in- 
 organic kingdoms, and is prepared, as Dr Samuel 
 Brown said a quarter of a century ago, "to cast its 
 light into the subterraneous physics (to borrow the 
 title of Beccher's chaotic opus} of geology, and into 
 the still more secret physics of physiology, pathology, 
 therapeutics, all its gifts and promises being, even 
 ostentatiously, fraught with practical benefits and 
 intentions. In short, notwithstanding the prowess of 
 Herschel and the astronomers, or of Cuvier and the 
 naturalists, and notwithstanding the presence of such 
 questioners as Maedler and Owen, chemistry is the 
 science of the century ; and that, not by any means 
 for what has yet been done or conceived in it, nor yet 
 for the unprecedented conquests which the chemists 
 are making ready to attempt with success, but be- 
 cause there are sciences at work which cannot ad- 
 vance a step farther, we do not say in mere breadth, 
 but in depth, until this eminently terrestrial yet 
 cosmical and ideal science be carried nearer perfec- 
 tion." 
 
 "Dalton," writes Dr Henry, "was not great in 
 
" A Lawgiver of Chemical Science!' 25 1 
 
 experimental chemistry. It may be urged that, as a 
 chemist, he was entirely self-taught, and commenced 
 his labours at a time when the resources of the 
 experimentalist were scanty and imperfect. Yet 
 there must have been some inherent deficiency in his 
 mental or manual endowments disqualifying him for 
 accuracy in experimenting. For his great contempo- 
 rary, Berzelius, created for himself, and through his 
 numerous pupils for Europe, that system of exact 
 analysis, based upon an infinitude of minute pre- 
 cautions upon rigid weighings, upon vigilant wash- 
 ings on the filter, upon the greatest attainable purity 
 of reagents which has raised chemistry to its present 
 rank among the experimental sciences. Davy and 
 Gay Lussac, too, not many years his juniors, work- 
 ing simultaneously with him in the same mighty era 
 of chemical progress, devised for themselves instru- 
 ments and processes of research susceptible of 
 extreme precision. If we compare the experimental 
 researches of Dalton detailed in his New System, 1810, 
 and in subsequent special chemical memoirs, with the 
 marvellous discoveries revealed in rapid succession in 
 the years 1807-1 1 by the genius of Davy, and recorded 
 in those masterworks of investigation, his ' Bakerian 
 Lectures,' or with the somewhat later transcendent 
 monographs of Gay Lussac on cyanogen, iodine, and 
 the compounds of nitrogen eternal monuments of 
 exact and exhaustive chemical working we cannot 
 hesitate to admit Dalton's vast inferiority in experi- 
 mental chemistry. Nature, it would seem, with a wise 
 frugality, averse to concentrate all intellectual excel- 
 lences in one mind, had destined Dalton exclusively 
 for the lofty rank of a lawgiver of chemical science/' 
 
252 John Dalton. 
 
 In acknowledging the justice of the foregoing 
 criticism, it is curious to note that, like Black, Caven- 
 dish, Priestley, and Lavoisier, Dalton sought the more 
 arduous paths of his science, by making the chemistry 
 of the gases his special study. Luckily for him, he 
 began his chemical career when the phlogiston phan- 
 tom that troubled his predecessors was vanishing 
 like the dim twilight before the rising sun of another 
 day in science, that of positive chemistry. Dalton 
 did not consider himself bound by the prescriptive 
 rights of antiquated doctrinaires, or even the current 
 credentials of his contemporaries; butenteringupon the 
 great field of chemistry, unshackled by traditions and 
 beliefs, he pursued his own method of culture and 
 cropping. His innovations upon the old lines of 
 conservative chemistry must have been as disturbing 
 to some of the old-fashioned followers, as Sir H. 
 Davy's discoveries of the nature of the oxides were 
 to the old Aberdonian professor who "couldna be 
 fashed " to notice them. At length, impelled by the 
 entreaties of his colleagues to place his pupils au 
 courant with the latest discoveries in science, the 
 professor made a compromise of his opinions by 
 observing to his class, in the following Scottish 
 manner " Both potash and soda are now said to be 
 metallic oxides the oxides, in fact, of two metals 
 called potassium and sodium by the discoverer of 
 them, one Davy, in London a varra troublesome 
 person in chemistry." 
 
 Within a year of Dalton's issuing his " New System 
 of Chemical Philosophy/' Gay Lussac published an 
 important memoir on the law of combination of the 
 gases by volume in equal or multiple proportions, 
 
Obstinately opposes Gay Lussac' s Views. 253 
 
 which law appeared to furnish strong support to the 
 atomic theory. Unaccountably as it may appear, 
 Dalton, instead of welcoming the precise experi- 
 mental results of Gay Lussac, offering as they did 
 such valid confirmation of his own doctrines, raised 
 various objections to them, and apparently never 
 gave in his adhesion to the view so ably and correctly 
 enunciated by his French contemporary. All the 
 great chemists of the day sanctioned the words of 
 Berzelius on this question " If we substitute the 
 term atom for volume, and contemplate bodies in 
 the solid instead of the gaseous state, we find in the 
 discovery of Gay Lussac one of the most immediate 
 proofs in favour of this hypothesis of Dalton." And 
 as Dr Henry observed, "The simple relation dis- 
 covered by Gay Lussac was independent of, and sup- 
 plemental to, that revealed by Dalton." It was so 
 treated by Dr Prout in his masterly essay (" Annals of 
 Philosophy," vol. vi., 1815), and has been since univer- 
 sally thus regarded. Moreover, Dalton himself, in de- 
 termining the important atomic weight of water (vol. i., 
 p. 275), bases his calculation on the experiments of 
 Humboldt and Gay Lussac, and concedes the fact 
 (though at a later period he doubted it) that two 
 measures of hydrogen require just one of oxygen to 
 saturate them. 
 
 Dalton's self-will, or rather obstinacy, that pre- 
 vented him accepting Gay Lussac's beautiful law, 
 also prevailed in other directions. Thus, he adhered 
 to his own system of atomic symbols (given in the 
 appendix to this memoir), and "steadily persisted in 
 denying the superior precision and expressiveness 
 of the admirable system of chemical formulae pro- 
 
254 John Dalton. 
 
 posed by Berzelius in 1815, and now employed by 
 all European chemists." Dr Wollaston's equiva- 
 lents received no higher consideration at Dalton's 
 hands. 
 
 This disposition to call in question the well- 
 matured opinions of others, and particularly of such 
 nobly efficient, nay, almost unparallelled, workers in 
 the field of chemistry as Gay Lussac and Berzelius, 
 indicated a trait of non-amiability or direct perverse- 
 ness of feeling in Dalton's psychological nature that 
 is not at all reconcilable with his general deport- 
 ment and the simplicity of his character. Like many 
 Quakers of the old school, and possibly some of 
 the present, he was self-opinioned beyond the 
 warranty of good manners ; but as a man of inductive 
 thought, and constantly engaged in experimental 
 inquiries, his refusal to test for himself what had 
 been advanced by the greatest French chemist of his 
 era seems altogether inexplicable. 
 
 Owing to the same cause, call it want of breeding, 
 or a fellside rough independence, he occasionally 
 showed abruptness of manner, and more or less rude- 
 ness of speech, even at the meetings of the Literary 
 and Philosophical Society of Manchester, where, as 
 President, it behoved him to practise dignity and 
 forbearance. On one occasion, whilst acting in that 
 capacity, he had to listen to a long-winded paper 
 on some subject foreign to his own studies, and 
 unhesitatingly remarked at the conclusion, "Well, 
 gentleman, I daresay this paper is very interesting 
 to those who take an interest in it." 
 
 Dalton did not like to be cross-examined and 
 cross-questioned on scientific subjects, and when 
 
The Royal Society too Contracted. 255 
 
 persons indeavoured in this way to get information 
 from him, he used to say, " I have written a book 
 on that subject, and if thou wishest to inform thy- 
 self about the matter, thou canst buy my book for 
 33. 6d." 
 
 In the year 1810 Davy solicited Dalton to offer 
 himself as a candidate for the fellowship of the 
 Royal Society, but he declined, on the ground, it is 
 supposed, of the admission-fee being so heavy. 
 Others have opined that he might have doubts of his 
 election, with Davy so influential in the counsels of 
 the Society, and still opposed to the atomic theory, 
 and moreover, disposed to treat Dalton with a certain 
 amount of hauteur, \i not professional jealousy. Taking 
 the prevalent opinion, that the fees were a hindrance, 
 the Society, being aware of his humble vocation and 
 means, should have endeavoured to open the way for 
 his admission. Something has been said about 
 precedent and custom ; but the laws of the Society 
 were not like those of the Medes and Persians, and it 
 would have been a simple procedure to elect him, 
 and then to pass a resolution exempting him from 
 paying any fees. Surely if any man in England 
 merited public distinction in the first decennial period 
 of this century, it was John Dalton, who had thrown 
 fresh light on the study of meteorology, and proved 
 himself equal to the highest conceptions in science in 
 framing the atomic theory. The leading minds of 
 the metropolis committed an oversight in not 
 enlisting within their ranks the ablest worker in 
 chemistry, by which they incurred the censure of the 
 savans of Europe. Manchester showed a higher 
 appreciation of their renowned citizen, and honoured 
 
256 John Dalton. 
 
 itself by elevating him to the highest office in the 
 Literary and Philosophical Society. 
 
 In November 1810, appeared the second part of 
 the first volume of a " New System of Chemical 
 Philosophy." It was dedicated to Sir H. Davy (then 
 Mr Davy, and Sec. R.S.) and to Dr William Henry, 
 " as a testimony to their distinguished merit in the 
 promotion of chemical science and as an acknow- 
 ledgment of friendly communications and assist- 
 ance." To his brother he writes, November 17, 
 " Herewith I send six copies of my ' Chemistry/ Part 
 II., which I have just brought out. The work is not yet 
 finished, but I have no doubt the judicious reader will 
 thank me for the delay, having been spending a great 
 part of my time for the two last years in prosecut- 
 ing inquiries, the results of which are now published." 
 
 The following excerpts from the Preface are inter- 
 esting : 
 
 When the first part of this work was published, I expected 
 to complete it in little more than a year ; now two years and a 
 half have elapsed, and it is yet in a state of imperfection. The 
 reason of it is the great range of experiments which I have 
 found necessary to take. Having been in my progress so often 
 misled by taking for granted the results of others, I have deter- 
 mined to write as little as possible but what I can attest by my 
 own experience. On this account, the following work will be 
 found to contain more original facts and experiments than any 
 other of its size on the elementary principles of chemistry. 
 
 Whatever may be the result of my plan to render the work 
 somewhat like complete by the addition of another volume, I 
 feel great satisfaction in having been enabled thus far to 
 develop that theory of chemical synthesis , which the longer I 
 contemplate the more I am convinced of its truth. Enough is 
 already done to enable any one to form a judgment of it. The 
 facts and observations yet in reserve are only of the same kind 
 as those already advanced ; if the latter are not sufficient to 
 
Corresponding Member of the A cademy of Sciences. 257 
 
 convince, the addition of the former will be but of little avail. 
 In the meantime, those who with me adopt the system will, I 
 have no doubt, find it a very useful guide in the prosecution of 
 all chemical investigations. 
 
 Had amity and peace, rather than diplomacy and 
 war, ruled the destinies of Europe at the earlier part 
 of the century, Dalton's claims to the honours con- 
 ferred by continental savans on foreigners of merit 
 would have been recognised on the first propounding 
 of the atomic theory. The French Institute took 
 an early opportunity, namely in 1816, of testifying 
 their high regard for Dalton, by electing him a corre- 
 sponding member of the Academy of Sciences. This 
 was the first honour awarded to Dalton, and he 
 valued it greatly. 
 
 Early in the year 1818 an expedition was fitted 
 out for investigating the Polar regions, and the Royal 
 Society had the power of recommending " a natural 
 philosopher " to go on the expedition. Sir H. Davy, 
 in a very handsome manner, offered the post to 
 Dalton, not omitting to mention the probable remu- 
 neration of ^500 for the voyage. Dalton was then 
 fifty-two years old, and wisely declined the proposi- 
 tion, on the grounds of not being able to quit the 
 regular habits of a sedentary life for a seafaring one, 
 and that on a voyage of uncertain duration, besides 
 involving a great interruption to his chemical investi- 
 gations. 
 
 All who sought excellence in art and the higher 
 walks of science used to bend their steps to Paris, a 
 city that held out superior advantages to the learned 
 men of Europe, be they naturalists, historians, or 
 physicists. Its libraries, museums, and galleries of 
 
 R 
 
258 John D alt on. 
 
 art its schools of learning, and other admirably 
 organised institutions its architecture, its garden- 
 esque and floral culture, and not least, its fashionable 
 resorts and gaiety, made the City of the Seine the 
 grandest capital of Europe. To the insular English 
 mind it was, and still is, peculiarly attractive. How- 
 ever he may have been prompted to cross the Straits 
 of Dover, Dalton, accompanied by two intelligent 
 friends, travelled to Paris in 1822, and was richly 
 rewarded for the effort. 
 
 Dalton had unfortunately preserved only very brief 
 notes of this interesting journey. The first person 
 upon whom he called was M. Breguet, the celebrated 
 mechanician, and a member of the Institute, merely 
 with the object of placing in his hands a watch con- 
 structed by Breguet, that required some repairs. 
 When M. Breguet learned the name of his visitor 
 he welcomed him with the liveliest enthusiasm, and 
 immediately engaged him and his two companions to 
 dinner, where they met M. Arago, M. Fresnel, and 
 other distinguished persons. 
 
 " Saturday, July 6th : Received a visit from 
 two Swedish chemists from Abo, in Finland, 
 pupils of Berzelius, Bonsdorf, and Nordenskiold. 
 Visited the Venerable Abb< Gregoire. /th, Sun- 
 day : Attended the service at the British Ambas- 
 sador's chapel. From one to two hundred present, 
 chiefly English, and more than half ladies. Very 
 genteel and attentive congregation. Good sermon, 
 well calculated for Paris, on the evidences of Chris- 
 tianity. After 4 P.M. took coach with companions 
 for Arcueil, to dine by invitation with the Marquis 
 Laplace and lady. Met Berthollet, Biot and lady, 
 
Takes his Seat in the French Institute. 259 
 
 Fourier, &c., &c. A most agreeable and interesting 
 visit, and a beautiful place. Monday, 8th July: 
 Walked down to the Arsenal ; saw Gay Lussac for half 
 an hour ; went to the Jardin du Roi ; saw the wild 
 beasts and the anatomical preparations, &c. ; took 
 coach home, and then went to the Institute. About 
 one hundred persons present ; was introduced by Biot, 
 and placed in the square adjacent to the officers ; was 
 announced by Gay Lussac (as president) as a corre- 
 sponding member (English) present. The sitting 
 was from three to five o'clock.* After my announce- 
 ment, my two companions were introduced to the 
 same bench during the sitting. Sunday, I4th : Gay 
 Lussac and Humboldt called and spent an hour on 
 meteorology, &c. Took a coach to Thenard's ; break- 
 fast d la fourchette with him, family, and Dr Milne- 
 Edwards. Went to the laboratory near M. Biot's, and 
 saw a full set of experiments on the deutoxide of hydro- 
 gen, most curious and satisfactory. M. Thenard then 
 went with us through the laboratory ; showed us the 
 new theatres for chemistry, physique, &c., and then 
 went to M. Ampere's, who had previously prepared 
 his apparatus for showing the new electro-magnetic 
 phenomena. Saw a set of these experiments, which, 
 with the aid of Dr Edwards, were made intelligible 
 to me. 1 5th: Took coach to the Arsenal; spent 
 
 * Dr Robert Knox was present at the seance, and told me that on 
 Mr Dalton's name being announced the president (Gay Lussac) and the 
 other members of the Institute rose from their seats, and bowed to the 
 Manchester philosopher. Such honours, it was remarked at the time, 
 were not offered Napoleon le Grand when he took his seat among the 
 renowned FORTY of France. I remember in the year 1838 seeing 
 Lord Brougham enter the Institute, without, however, eliciting any 
 special mark of attention from its members. 
 
260 John Dalton. 
 
 an hour with Gay Lussac in his laboratory ; saw his 
 apparatus for specific gravity of steam, vapours, &c. 
 also M. Welters, the improver of chemical distillation, 
 &c. Walked to the Jardin du Roi ; dejeuner a la 
 fourchette with Monsieur and Madame Cuvier and 
 youngest daughter. M. Cuvier went with us to the 
 museum, and accompanied us for some time, and 
 then left a gentleman to attend us through the 
 museum, being himself engaged, but occasionally 
 meeting us ; spent two hours in the museum the 
 most splendid exhibition of the kind in the universe 
 it beggars description. Left after two, and took a 
 coach to the Institute ; took a cup of coffee, &c., and 
 then entered the library ; saw and spoke to MM. 
 Milne-Edwards, Biot, Cuvier, Laplace, Berthollet, 
 Breguet, &c. ; entered the Institute, heard papers by 
 Milne-Edwards, Biot (on " The Zodiac de Denderah "), 
 Fourier, on "The Population of Paris," after which 
 notice was given for strangers to withdraw, when Gay 
 Lussac called to me to stay, if I chose, being a mem- 
 ber, which I did. The business was about election of 
 members, and lasted nearly half an hour, after which 
 we broke up. Saw M. Pelletan on coming out, who 
 kindly inquired of me my health, &c. ; went with 
 Vanquelin in a coach to dine, when my companions 
 met me ; saw M. Payen, a young chemist of promise." 
 Mr Dockray, one of Dalton's companions, says "I 
 was particularly struck by observing the impression 
 made on Mr Dalton by the solemnities of Roman 
 Catholic worship, and the evident sincerity of profound 
 devotion which he saw there ; and I do not doubt it 
 was to him a page of human nature which till then 
 he had never had an equal opportunity of witnessing. 
 
The French Philosophers at Arcueil. 261 
 
 Second, I think, only to this, for impressiveness of 
 novelty, was the Gallery of the Louvre. I do not 
 doubt but that he felt there was, in the masterpieces 
 of art which he saw there, a new world of interest and 
 wonder on which he would gladly have had the 
 opportunity of longer meditating." Mr Dockray also 
 furnished the following narrative of Dalton's meeting 
 with the philosophers at Arcueil : 
 
 " At four in the afternoon, by a coach, with Dalton 
 to Arcueil, Laplace's country seat, to dine. On 
 alighting, we were conducted through a suite of rooms, 
 where, in succession, dinner, dessert, and coffee tables 
 were set out ; and onwards through a large hall, upon 
 a terrace, commanding an extent of gardens and 
 pleasure-grounds. It is in these grounds that are 
 still remaining the principal Roman works near Paris, 
 the vestiges of Julian's residence as Governor of Gaul. 
 Avenues, parterres, and lawns, terraces, and broad 
 gravel-walks, in long vistas of distance, are bounded 
 by woods and by higher grounds. As yet we had 
 seen no one, when part of the company came in view 
 at a distance a gentleman of advanced years and two 
 young men. Was it possible not to think of the groves 
 of the Academy and the borders of the Ilyssus ? We 
 approached this group, when the elderly gentleman 
 took off his hat, and advanced to give his hand to 
 Dalton. It was Berthollet. The two younger were 
 Laplace's son and the astronomer-royal, Arago. 
 Climbing some steps upon a long avenue, we saw, at 
 a distance, Laplace walking uncovered, with Madame 
 Biot on his arm ; and Biot, Fourier, and Courtois, 
 father of the Marchioness Laplace. At the front of 
 the house this lady and her grand-daughter met us. 
 
262 John Dalton. 
 
 At dinner, Dalton on the right hand of Madame La- 
 place, and Berthollet on her left, &c. Conversation 
 on the zodiac of Denderah ^and Egypt (Berthollet and 
 Fourier having been in Egypt with Napoleon), the 
 different eras of Egyptian sculpture, the fact that so 
 little at Rome of public buildings is earlier than 
 Augustus, &c. After dinner, again abroad in the 
 beautiful grounds, and along the reservoir and aque- 
 duct of Julian. These ancient works, after falling 
 very much into decay, were restored by Mary de 
 Medicis. Dalton walking with Laplace on one side 
 and Berthollet on the other, I shall never forget." 
 
 "The enjoyment and advantage of his stay in 
 Paris," says Dr Henry, " were greatly enhanced by 
 the friendly attentions of Dr Milne-Edwards, who 
 kindly acted 'as interpreter between him and those of 
 the French savans who did not speak English. 
 Dalton was always accustomed to mention Dr Milne- 
 Edwards in terms of grateful regard, and appears to 
 have maintained some intercourse with him by 
 correspondence." 
 
 It is said that Mademoiselle Clementine Cuvier, 
 the only child of the famous Baron George Cuvier, 
 was his chaperone to many public places in Paris ; and 
 that Dalton regarded her as the most attractive and 
 amiable young creature he had ever seen, and whose 
 early death he sensibly lamented. He never spoke of 
 her without betraying some emotion. One day he said 
 to a friend, " Ah ! she was a bonny lass; she treated me 
 like a daughter." 
 
 In 1822 some of Dalton's friends proposed him as 
 a candidate for the Fellowship of the Royal Society ; 
 he was elected, and paid the usual fees. Nineteen 
 
The Royal Society and Prize of 50 Guineas. 263 
 
 years previous to his admission to the Royal Society 
 he had been deemed worthy of lecturing to the select 
 audiences of the Royal Institution, London ; and for 
 six years he had enjoyed the honour of being corre- 
 sponding member of the French Academy of Sciences. 
 Moreover, long before this tardy recognition of his 
 own countrymen, he had received the sincere homage 
 of the most distinguished savans in Europe, many 
 of whom had visited or corresponded with him: and his 
 works had claimed the attention and warm approval 
 of the best reviewers of the Continent, and, in short, 
 wherever science was taught and understood. 
 
 In the year 1825 King George IV. founded two 
 annual prizes of fifty guineas, to be at the disposal of 
 the Royal Society. Sir H. Davy, in his anniversary 
 discourse of 1826, made known the award of the first 
 prize to Mr John Dalton, " for the development of the 
 chemical theory of definite proportions, usually called 
 the Atomic Theory, and for his various other labours 
 and discoveries in physical and chemical science." 
 
 To Mr Dalton belongs the distinction of first unequivocally 
 calling the attention of philosophers to this important subject. 
 Finding that in certain compounds of gaseous bodies the same 
 elements always combined in the same proportions ; and that 
 when there was more than one combination the quantity of the 
 elements always had a constant relation, such as I to 2 or I to 
 3, or to 4, he explained this fact on the Newtonian doctrine of 
 indivisible atoms, and contended that the relative weight of one 
 atom to that of any other atom being known, its proportions or 
 weight in all its combinations might be ascertained ; thus 
 making the statics of chemistry depend upon simple questions 
 in subtraction or multiplication, and enabling the student to 
 deduce an immense number of facts from a ferw well-authenti- 
 cated, accurate experimental results. Mr Dalton's permanent 
 reputation will rest upon his having discovered a simple prin- 
 
264 John Dalton. 
 
 ciple universally applicable to the facts of chemistry, in fixing 
 the proportions in which bodies combine, and thus laying the 
 foundation for future labours respecting the sublime and tran- 
 scendental parts of the science of corpuscular motion. His merits 
 in this respect resemble those of Kepler in astronomy. . . . 
 Mr Dalton has been labouring for more than a quarter of a 
 century with the most disinterested views. With the greatest 
 modesty and simplicity of character he has remained in the 
 obscurity of the country, neither asking for approbation, nor 
 offering himself as an object of applause. He is but lately 
 become a fellow of this Society, and the only communication he 
 has given to. you is one, compared with his other works, of com- 
 paratively small interest ; the feeling of the Council on the 
 subject is therefore pure. I am sure he will be gratified by this 
 mark of your approbation of his long and painful labours. It 
 will give a lustre to his character, which it fully deserves ; it 
 will anticipate that opinion which posterity must form of his 
 discoveries ; and it may make his example more exciting to 
 others in their search after useful knowledge and true glory. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " There is a history in all men's lives, 
 Figuring the nature of the times deceased ; 
 The which observed, a man may prophecy, 
 With a near aim, of the main chance of things 
 As yet not come to life. " SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 DR DALTON'S HOLIDAYS MEMBER OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE 
 D.C.L HIS CLAIMS TO A PENSION OPINIONS OF DRS HENRY 
 AND SEDGWICK ON THE SUBJECT COURT PRESENTATION 
 REFUSES KNIGHTHOOD ILLNESS VISITS TO EAGLESFIELD 
 DEATH AND FUNERAL OF DALTON. 
 
 JITH the exception of his weekly half-holi- 
 day at the bowling-green, Dalton kept all 
 his terms of service most faithfully, and 
 seldom moved out of town till the summer 
 holidays : these he almost invariably spent amid 
 the lakes and mountains of Cumberland and West- 
 moreland. No change could well be greater than 
 passing from the din and smoke of Manchester to 
 the sylvan banks of Windermere, and the pine- 
 clad slopes of northern England. The air was 
 pure, transparent, and bracing, and his ascent of the 
 highest mountains, by bringing every muscle into 
 operation, naturally called for a larger amount of 
 oxygenation to his system. It was a joyous time to 
 Dalton, who no sooner touched his native heather 
 than he seemed to throw off the incubus of age, and 
 all the depressing influences of urban life. He began 
 
266 John Dalton. 
 
 his trips to the Lake Country when his meteorological 
 fervour was at its height, in the third decade of his 
 life, and as this fervour never entirely abated, he went 
 on from year to year for forty years, or as long as his 
 limbs could support him, in his fatiguing explorations. 
 The pleasure of his holidays was enhanced by the 
 opportunity of embracing work with play, and a 
 certain amount of science with large social liberty. 
 How placidly he spent his first day in boating from 
 Low Wood, and viewing Langdale Pikes and the 
 magnificent scenery around Ambleside ! The next 
 morning he was early afoot, armed with his barometer 
 and thermometer, and marching with the firm and 
 constant step of a mountain guide, would climb three 
 thousand feet. It was difficult to his companions, 
 indeed to all but the experienced pedestrian, to keep 
 pace with him in his ascent. This fast walking elicited 
 from one of his Quaker friends the remark, " Why, 
 John, what are thy legs made of? " John's legs were 
 so true to their fellside growth, that the civic restraint 
 of months together seemed in nowise to impair their 
 capacity for the greatest demands of pedestrianship. 
 
 After his return in an evening from measuring the 
 height of Helvellyn his favourite mountain for 
 observation how he enjoyed the roadside hostelry 
 its snug parlour, its neat service, its savoury ham, 
 and the fresh trout from the " beck " its oat-cakes, 
 and cream cheese, followed by draughts of good 
 home-brewed ale. After a bountiful supply of the 
 inner man, he would take his seat on the rude bench 
 outside the trellised porch of the " White Swan Inn " 
 and smoke his " Virginian," whilst he looked with 
 placid admiration on the green meadows and purling 
 
Enjoys tlie English Lakes and Mountains. 267 
 
 waters backed by wooded knolls, and these again 
 overtopped by higher and higher ranges, presenting 
 endless variety of form and colour, either sparkling 
 in light, or dimly shadowed by passing clouds, but 
 ever suggestive and beautiful to the aesthetic mind. 
 On one of these excursions, in 1812, he made the 
 acquaintance of Mr Jonathan Otley, who knew every 
 nook and corner of the Lake District, and who wrote 
 by far the best work on the subject "A Descriptive 
 Guide to the English Lakes and Adjacent Mountains," . 
 a book now held old-fashioned, * but the basis of 
 all that has been since published in tourist form. 
 Mr Otley has given an interesting narrative of his 
 excursions with Dalton, from which it would appear 
 that the philosopher embraced every opportunity of 
 studying the constitution of the atmosphere, and the 
 transition from cloud to sunshine and from sun- 
 shine to shadow, in "those loftier regions." The 
 heights of the mountains, and their marked geolo- 
 gical features ; the dew point ; the quantity and 
 density of vapour ; the fall of rain ; the direction of 
 the winds, and, in short, all the natural phenomena 
 presenting themselves to the experienced observer, 
 were duly rioted and commented upon. He was not 
 easily deterred by the threatening aspects of the 
 weather, but seemed satisfied with the prospects of 
 the day if he could only see, as he used to say, as 
 much blue sky as would make a pair of breeches. 
 Dalton's party was sometimes too large to be ac- 
 
 * To those who really wish to know the Lake District as it ought to 
 be known, let me commend the beautifully- written volume of my clever 
 friend Mrs E. Lynn Linton, entitled, " The Lake Country," neatly illus- 
 trated by her husband. 
 
268 John Dalton. 
 
 commodated under one roof, and the search for night- 
 shelter in the farm-houses of these outlying districts 
 often caused much diversion. There were no grand 
 hotels in those days, and the shifts to which innkeep- 
 ers and their daughters were placed, rather than lose a 
 customer, may be instanced from Dalton's experience. 
 When describing one of his many trips to the Lake 
 District, Dalton was asked by a young lady friend 
 if he had seen the celebrated beauty, Mary of Butter- 
 mere,* the daughter of the landlord of the inn in that 
 place. " No," said he, " but I have slept in her bed ; 
 for one night I arrived wet and tired at Buttermere 
 to find the inn full ; but by dint of persuasion a room 
 was found for me, and Mary got out of her bed, and 
 I got in, and right warm it was, I can tell thee." 
 
 The death of Sir H. Davy caused a vacant seat in 
 the French Academy of Sciences, and Dalton who had 
 for fourteen years enjoyed the honour of being a corre- 
 sponding member, was in 1830, raised to the rank of 
 one of its eight foreign associates, the highest com- 
 pliment in its power to bestow, and universally re- 
 garded as the crowning distinction in European 
 
 * Mary of Buttermere, the theme of many a fanciful story and 
 rural ditty, and the heroine of a three-volumed novel, gave a personal 
 colouring to the picturesque and romantic scenery of the Lakes in days 
 gone by. Her marriage to Hatfield the forger was sad enough ; in her 
 second espousals she was fortunate in having a worthy yeoman, to 
 whom she bore a family of handsome children, her daughters being as 
 pretty as she was in her youth. I made her acquaintance under pain- 
 ful circumstances. She had then passed the climacteric of age, and 
 the existence of a cancerous breast, in the removal of which I assisted, 
 had considerably affected her looks ; yet through these lines and sallow 
 colouring that organic disease had made so striking, the lineaments of 
 the beautiful in form still prevailed. She died at the How, near Cald- 
 beck, and, as far as I can recollect, in the year 1836. 
 
Foreign Associate of the French InstiUite. 269 
 
 Science. In the words of Baron Cuvier in his eloge 
 on Dr Joseph Priestley, " L' Academic de Paris lui 
 accorda un prix non moins noble et plus difficile 
 encore a obtenir, parcequ'il est plus rare, Tune de 
 ces huit places d'associes etrangers, auxquelles tous 
 les savans de 1'Europe concourent, et dont la liste, 
 commengant par les noms de Newton, de Leibnitz, et 
 de Pierre le Grand, n'a degenere dans aucun temps 
 de ce premier eclat." 
 
 John Dalton placed a proper estimate on the 
 honours and distinctions conferred upon him by the 
 universities and learned societies of his own country, 
 and that estimate was, if possible, enhanced by the 
 unsolicited and gratifying acknowledgments paid to 
 his scientific status by several of the more renowned 
 continental academies ; e.g., Berlin, Munich, and 
 Moscow. His highest honour, that marked his supre- 
 macy in the world of thought, was the Foreign Asso- 
 ciateship of the Academy of Sciences, for there he 
 ranked among the eight elite of Europe. It may be 
 remarked parenthetically, as a circumstance highly 
 flattering to our national genius, that of the eight 
 chairs of honour offered to the competition of the 
 world at large by the French Institute, no less 
 than four of these were occupied at one time by 
 Englishmen. 
 
 With all his quiet reserve and reticence, it was 
 manifest to the Johns family that Dalton liked the 
 company of men of distinction, and especially those 
 devoted to science, and was not a little proud of the 
 numerous visitors who found their way to Manchester 
 on his account. The presence of such men as Professor 
 Thomson the chemist, Sir John Leslie, Dr Chalmers, 
 
270 John Dalton. 
 
 and Sir D. Brewster, of world-wide fame, from the 
 sister kingdom, could not fail to be gratifying to his 
 amour-propre ; and this pleasure was enhanced on the 
 appearance in his humble lodgings or laboratory of 
 eminent savans from the Continent. Owing to his 
 staid demeanour, and plain, dry mode of accosting 
 others, that occasionally implied indifference, or even 
 rusticity and rudeness, his reception of foreigners was 
 not always what it should have been, much less 
 was it en accord with their gentility and politeness. 
 A great deal depended on the humour which prevailed 
 with the meditative philosopher. He could be kind 
 and affable in manner, and occasionally make his 
 reception of strangers agreeable, and their introduc- 
 tion to the Johns family worthy of the jocular strain 
 of M. Biot ; at other times he seemed to forget the 
 ordinary courtesies of life, as is shown in the following 
 paragraph. 
 
 A few intimate friends were drinking an early tea 
 with Dalton at the Rev. Mr Johns' when some dis- 
 tinguished French savans, members of the French 
 Academy, were announced as having come to see the 
 great chemist. Dalton, by nature a silent and re- 
 served man, and disliking in any way/to be called out, 
 was, after the introduction, barely civil to the talka- 
 tive foreign gentlemen, and scarcely spoke a word 
 during the interview. When tea was over, he quietly 
 got up from table, and called to the old servant for 
 his lantern, and silently withdrew, walking across, as 
 was his wont, to his laboratory at the Society's rooms. 
 Mr Johns then asked one of the French Academicians 
 what he thought of the great philosopher. " Ah ! " he 
 replied, " Monsieur Dalton a une simplicity" admirable" 
 
Honoured by Oxford. 271 
 
 Though not one of the original promoters of the 
 British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
 he was present at its first meeting, held in York in 
 1831, and as long as his health permitted, continued 
 to take great interest in its proceedings. On the 
 occasion of the second meeting, at Oxford in 1832, 
 the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon 
 him and three most worthy compeers, Dr Michael 
 Faraday, Sir David Brewster, and Robert Brown. 
 Dalton was apparently proud of his Doctor's red 
 gown, as he perambulated the halls and gardens of 
 Oxford, and cared not to be quizzed about his scarlet 
 robing, inasmuch as its colour differed not from the 
 green foliage of the trees shadowing him and his 
 companions on the banks of the Isis. 
 
 To the eminent Mr Charles Babbage is due the 
 credit of having been the first person to moot the de- 
 sirability of an annual pension being granted to Dr 
 Dalton, in a letter he addressed to Dr Henry, senior, 
 of Manchester, as early as the year 1829. He also 
 laboured zealously at headquarters to obtam the 
 acquiescence of the Government to his proposal, and 
 found no small support to his application in the able 
 statement furnished by Dr Henry ; portions of which 
 deserve quoting, not less for the noble sentiments it 
 contains than the just estimate conveyed to us of 
 the character of Dr Dalton : 
 
 Mr Dalton never had, nor was ever given to expect, any 
 reward or encouragement whatsoever from Government, and 
 having been in habits of unreserved communication with him 
 for more than thirty years, I can safely aver that it never 
 occurred to him to seek it. He has looked for his reward to 
 purer and nobler sources ; to a love of science for its own sake ; 
 to the tranquil enjoyments derived from the exercise of his 
 
272 John Dalton. 
 
 faculties in the way most congenial to his tastes and habits, 
 and to the occasional gleams of more lively pleasure, which 
 have broken in upon his mind, when led to the discovery of 
 new facts, or the deduction of important general laws. By the 
 moderation of his wants and the habitual control over his 
 desires, he has been preserved from worldly disappointments ; 
 and by the calmness of his temper and the liberality of his 
 views, he has escaped those irritations that too often beset men 
 who are over-anxious for the possession of fame, and are im- 
 patient to grasp prematurely the benefits of its award. For a 
 long series of years he bore neglect, and sometimes even con- 
 tumely, with the dignity of a philosopher, who though free from 
 anything like vanity or arrogance, yet knows his own strength, 
 estimates correctly his own achievements, and leaves to the 
 world, generally although sometimes slowly just, the final 
 adjudication of his fame. Among the numerous honours that 
 have since been conferred on him by the best judges of scientific 
 merit in this and other countries, not one has been sought by 
 him. They have been, without exception, spontaneous offerings, 
 prompted by a warm and generous approbation of his philoso- 
 phical labours, and by the desire to cheer him onward in the 
 same prosperous career. Deeply as he has felt these distinc- 
 tions, they have never carried him beyond that sober and well- 
 regulated love of reputation, which exists in the purest minds, 
 and is one of the noblest principles of action. 
 
 In perfect consistency with Mr Dalton's intellectual qualities 
 are the moral features of his character, the disinterestedness, 
 the independence, the truthfulness, and the integrity which 
 through life have uniformly marked his conduct towards others. 
 Nor is it on the atomic theory only that his reputation must 
 rest. It has a broader basis in his beautiful and successful 
 investigations into the subject of heat ; into the relations of air 
 and moisture to each other ; and into a variety of other topics 
 intimately connected with the stability and advancement of 
 chemical philosophy. I therefore agree with you that Mr 
 Dalton has strong claims upon the national respect and 
 gratitude, and contend for his title to reward, even though he 
 may not have accomplished anything bearing strictly upon the 
 improvement of those arts and manufactures which are the 
 
Dr Henry's Appeal on Behalf of Dalton. 273 
 
 chief sources of our national wealth. For, let it be remembered, 
 that every new truth in science has a natural and necessary 
 tendency to furnish, if not immediately yet at some future time, 
 valuable rules in art. 
 
 It would surely be unworthy of a great nation to be governed 
 J n rewarding or encouraging genius by the narrow principle of 
 a strict barter of advantages. With respect to great poets and 
 great historians, no such parsimony has ever been exercised. 
 They have been rewarded, and justly, for the contributions they 
 have cast into the treasury of our purely intellectual wealth. 
 And do not justice and policy equally demand that a philosopher 
 of the very highest rank, one who has limited his worldly views 
 to little more than the supply of his natural wants, and has 
 devoted for more than forty years the energies of his powerful 
 mind to enlarging the dimensions of science, should be cherished 
 and honoured by that country which receives by reflection the 
 lustre of his well-earned fame ? It is most desirable, then, that 
 the British Government, by extending its justice to another not 
 less illustrious, should be spared the deep reproach, which 
 otherwise assuredly awaits it, of having treated with coldness 
 and neglect one who has contributed so much to raise his 
 country high among intellectual nations, and to exalt the 
 philosophical glory of the age. 
 
 The admirable letter just quoted was brought 
 under the notice of Earl Grey's Government, and 
 Lord Brougham professed himself "very anxious to 
 obtain some provision for Dalton, but that it was 
 attended with great difficulty." * After much writ- 
 ing, and protocoling and canvassing of the parlia- 
 
 * Lord Brougham could see no difficulty in appointing his brother a 
 Master of Chancery, when he himself had already prepared a bill to 
 extinguish the office, and with the view of compensating the retiring 
 masters with the pretty sum of ^"2200 a year for a few months of the 
 most trifling service. Talleyrand, or some other equally wide-awake 
 Frenchman, who had carefully studied our institutions, maintained 
 that England was the very paradise for priests. Had he known of the 
 
 S 
 
274 John Dalton. 
 
 mentary economists, it was not till June 1833 that 
 anything got done. The mountain had been in 
 labour for three or four years, and then crept out the 
 little mouse in the shape of a paltry sum of 150 a 
 year, to be bestowed by the richest nation on earth 
 on the most gifted of persons, and the chief scientific 
 leader of his epoch. 
 
 It was deemed advisable to announce the fact of 
 the pension to Dalton at the meeting of the British 
 Association held at Cambridge in 1833 ; and Lord 
 Monteagle, just before the meeting, requested Pro- 
 fessor Sedgwick, the President, to allude to it in his 
 introductory address. The words in which the learned 
 professor, without notes or preparation, offered his 
 "fervent heartfelt homage to the genius of Dalton," 
 are marked by a rare eloquence, worthy of the high- 
 est master of the art. They were as follows : 
 
 They had all read a highly poetical passage of a sacred pro- 
 phet, expressed in language, to the beauty of which he had never 
 before been so forcibly awakened as at that moment " How 
 beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth 
 good tidings." If he might dare to make an adaptation of 
 words so sacred, he would say that he felt himself in the position 
 here contemplated of one who had the delightful privilege of 
 announcing good tidings, for it was his happiness to proclaim 
 to them what would rejoice the heart of every true lover of 
 science. There was a philosopher sitting among them, whose 
 hair was blanched by time, whose features had some of the 
 lines of approaching old age, but possessing an intellect still in 
 
 above instance of naked nepotism, and lawyer fattening lawyer, he 
 would have found two parties in the English paradise ; and that a 
 fourth-rate barrister, almost briefless, was estimated in the year of grace 
 1833, and a reformed Parliament in England (in the proportion of 
 ^2200 to ^150), at fourteen times the value of the greatest man of 
 science born to England since the days of Newton. 
 
Dr Sedgwick's Eulogium on Dalton. 275 
 
 its healthiest vigour a man whose whole life had been devoted 
 to the cause of truth ; he meant his valuable friend Dr Dalton- 
 Without any powerful apparatus for making philosophical 
 experiments with an apparatus, indeed, many of them might 
 almost think contemptible and with very limited external 
 means for employing his great natural powers, he had gone 
 straightforward in his distinguished course, and obtained for 
 himself, in those branches of knowledge which he had cultivated, 
 a name not perhaps equalled by that of any other living philoso- 
 pher of the world. From the hour he came from his mother's 
 womb, the God of Nature had laid His hand upon his head, and 
 had ordained him for the ministration of high philosophy. But 
 his natural talents, great as they were, and his almost intuitive 
 skill in tracing the relations of material phenomena, would 
 have been of comparatively little value to himself and to society, 
 had there not been superadded to them a beautiful moral 
 simplicity and singleness of heart, which made him go on 
 steadily in the way he saw before him, without turning to the 
 right hand or to the left, and taught him to do homage to no 
 authority before that of truth. Fixing his eye on the highest 
 views of science, his experiments had never an insulated 
 character, but were always made as contributions towards some 
 important end were among the steps towards some lofty 
 generalisation. And with a most happy prescience of the 
 points towards which the rays of scattered experiments were 
 converging, he had more than once seen light, while to other 
 eyes all was yet in darkness ; out of seeming confusion had 
 elicited order, and had thus reached the high distinction of 
 becoming one of the greatest legislators of chemical science. 
 
 While travelling among the highest mountains of Cumberland, 
 and scarifying the face of Nature with his hammer, he (the 
 President) had first the happiness of being admitted to the 
 friendship of this great and good man, who was at that time 
 employed, day by day, in soaring among the heavens, and 
 bringing the turbulent elements themselves under his intellectual 
 domination. He would not have dwelt so long on these topics, 
 had it not been his delightful privilege to announce for the first 
 time (on the authority of a minister of the Crown who sat near 
 him), that his Majesty King William the Fourth, wishing to 
 
276 John Dalton. 
 
 manifest his attachment to science, and his regard for a character 
 like that of Dalton, had graciously conferred on him, out of the 
 funds of the civil list, a substantial mark of his royal favour. 
 The announcement was received with long-continued applause. 
 
 Such a eulogium as Professor Sedgwick pro- 
 nounced in the Senate House of Cambridge, to a 
 crowded audience of scientific men gathered from all 
 corners of the civilised globe, could not fail to reach 
 the inmost heart of Dalton, who, if his memory of 
 the past served him in that hour of trial and triumph, 
 would probably recall his humble parentage and the 
 prospects of his youth offering nothing better than 
 the weaver's loom or the spade and the plough. As 
 he sat, the observed of all observers, in the midst of 
 as distinguished an assembly of savans as the world 
 could present, he could not fail to realise the senti- 
 ment so beautifully expressed by the illustrious 
 Sedgwick, that "the God of Nature had laid His 
 hand upon his head, and had ordained him for the 
 ministration of high philosophy." 
 
 Manchester, true to her commercial instincts of 
 rewarding merit where merit is due, and wishing to 
 do honour to her great chief in science, determined 
 on having a full-sized statue of Dr Dalton sculptured 
 by Sir Francis Chantrey. Accordingly Dr Dalton 
 went to London in May 1834, and gave Chantrey 
 the necessary sittings. The Chantrey statue of 
 Dalton is now in the entrance-hall of the Manchester 
 Royal Institution ; and a copy of it in bronze is 
 placed in the front of the Royal Infirmary, where are 
 also statues of the Duke of Wellingon, Sir R. Peel, 
 and James Watt. 
 
 On the year following the "royal bounty" of 150 
 
Gracing the Court of William the Fourth. 277 
 
 a year, some of Dalton's more ardent friends were 
 of opinion that he should appear at the Court of 
 William IV. It might have been, indeed was, 
 supposed by many persons that his retired habits, 
 grave demeanour, and Quakerish nature would be 
 directly opposed to a courtly ceremonial under any 
 circumstances. And so, probably, he would have 
 thought and determined in earlier life ; but he was 
 then in his sixty-eighth year, when the reputed glitter 
 and pageantry of courts may have revived in him the 
 curiosity of juvenility : baubles, sometimes becom- 
 ing a source of attraction to men when verging on 
 the " lean and slippered ' pantaloon " of age. Mr 
 Babbage has given a lively account of his efforts to 
 indoctrinate Dalton in the ways of the Court, actually 
 rehearsing for his benefit the mode of presentation to 
 royalty. The difficulty of a court dress was readily 
 obviated by Dalton appearing HI the scarlet robes* of 
 an Oxonian Doctor of Laws ; and this colour, it need 
 hardly be noted, did not disturb his drab proclivities 
 in the slightest degree ; nay, accorded so entirely 
 with them that he felt quite at home, and totally 
 unaware of the various comments made upon his 
 figure and habiliments Quaker in his nether gar- 
 
 * He had evidently gone to London unprepared beyond a good suit 
 of clothes, as in his account-book there is the entry of " a guinea paid 
 for loan of doctor's gown" a circumstance that may have influenced 
 his observations of the tailors' shops on his way to a house in the city, 
 where some friends of both sexes were waiting to hear his account of 
 the Court presentation. " Well, John, thou wilt have much to tell us," 
 said one of them. "Oh, I don't know," replied Dalton, "but I have 
 been struck on my way hither with the appropriateness of a name to 
 the vocation of a man, having seen on the signboard of a tailor, Thomas 
 Bumfit, Breeches Maker." 
 
278 John Dalton. 
 
 ments, with Church and State colouring in its 
 glaring form enveloping his person. 
 
 Dr Dalton's costume, as he appeared at Court, 
 naturally attracted attention from its novelty, and 
 whispers were heard of " who can this be ? " Some 
 looked upon him as a provincial mayor coming up 
 to be knighted ; others thought him a man of mark ; 
 and an officer was heard saying, " Who the devil is 
 that fellow whom the King keeps talking to so long ? " 
 Mr Babbage, the only person who knew Dalton, 
 enjoyed the fun arising out of this curiosity, and 
 joked the bishops standing near, by saying that he 
 had a Quaker by his side a fact calculated to call 
 forth the old cry of the " Church in danger." It is 
 said that Lord Brougham promised to enlighten the 
 King as to Dalton's character, so that he might 
 say something to the philosopher that might please 
 Manchester. Another version holds good, that 
 Dalton's figure and dress caught the King's eye, and 
 he quickly asked, "Who is this?" "This, please 
 your Majesty," said the official, as Dalton awkwardly 
 passed up, " is the great Manchester philosopher, Dr 
 Dalton." " Oh," said the King, and then turning to 
 Dalton, "Well, how are you getting on at Man- 
 chester ; all quiet I suppose ? " This remark of 
 Majesty sprang from the unpleasant recollection of 
 the Peterloo riots of 1819, and the reputed Radicalism 
 of Manchester. This, and one or two common-place 
 remarks, would appear to have been pretty nearly all 
 the notice that royalty took of a man whose name 
 will be known to the nations of the earth when that of 
 William the Fourth of England is buried in well- 
 merited oblivion. 
 
Declines Knighthood. 279 
 
 Not content with having persuaded him to go to 
 Court, some of his over-zealous friends wished to see 
 him knighted. Dr Dalton being made aware of their 
 intention, felt not a moment's hesitation in refusing 
 to accede to their proposal, and along with his 
 affirmation to that effect, declared he would not bend 
 his knee to any man on earth, neither king nor 
 potentate, for any earthly honours that might be 
 conferred upon him. Moreover, the privilege of 
 adding SIR to his name could not be viewed by 
 Dalton as any honour at all, when it was so freely 
 distributed upon every gold-stick, and fiddle-stick, 
 and groom-in-waiting about the Court. His views 
 probably accorded with those of a distinguished 
 admiral* mentioned below ; at any rate he did not 
 wish to be classified with the rank and file of 
 flunkyism. 
 
 In describing his summer holidays among the 
 mountains of Cumberland, I purposely abstained from 
 speaking of his visits to his home district of Eagles- 
 field till a more appropriate opportunity. On his 
 way to the haunts of his youth, he generally stopped 
 
 * A well-known admiral, who in former times had served with Prince 
 William Henry (Duke of Clarence), was, after the accession of that 
 prince to the throne, presented at Court. The admiral had dis- 
 tinguished himself in various ways, but especially in the survey of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, his chart and surveys being then, as now, the best 
 book of all navigators in that stormy region. His Majesty (William 
 IV.) at once recognised his old shipmate, and said, " You have done 
 good service to navigation, we must bestow some honour upon you. 
 What do you say to knighthood ? " The admiral (then a captain) said, 
 "I esteem it a much higher honour to be a captain in your Majesty's 
 service than to be a knight." The King said, " Well, but I knighted 
 
 your friend the other day." The answer was, "Your Majesty 
 
 served him right ! " 
 
280 John Dalton. 
 
 a night at the Globe Hotel, Cockermouth, where he 
 received some of his friends to supper. Next morn- 
 ing he was early astir, as if impatient to reach his 
 old home, and to shake hands with the " weel-kent 
 friends " of the hamlet. In his manners and dialect 
 he was as much a Cumbrian after forty-five years' 
 residence in Manchester, as he was on the day he 
 tramped from Eaglesfield to Kendal in his sixteenth 
 year a raw lad, whose survey of the world had been 
 confined to the borough of Cockermouth. He talked 
 about the weather and the crops, and how things were 
 done in his boyhood, or he accosted old farming 
 friends by saying, "What, ye'll be thrang wi' yer 
 hay ? " and on being invited within doors, sat down, 
 lighted his pipe, and then had what Cumbrians call a 
 " real gude crack " about old times. It was a delight 
 to Dalton to meet his early associate William 
 Alderson, and Joseph Dickinson and others, to talk 
 over the days o' auld langsyne at a cottage fire- 
 side in Eaglesfield, where old Alderson, not seeing the 
 utility or elegance of a fender, would use his clogs 
 to kick any stray cinders behind the grate. 
 
 Among those whom Dalton regularly visited was 
 his esteemed friend John Wilson Fletcher of Tarn 
 Bank, near Cockermouth. After Dalton's introduc- 
 tion to the Court, Mr Fletcher asked him how he got 
 on with William IV. and the grand folk at St James's, 
 and what passed between him and the King. Dalton 
 told him that the King said, " Ah ! Dr Dalton, how 
 are you getting on at Manchester ? " to which he 
 replied, "Well, I don't know; just middlin', I think." 
 Mr Fletcher, after a hearty laugh at John's simplicity 
 of speech, said, "Why, John, thou hardly showed 
 
A mong his Cumberland Friends. 281 
 
 Court manners in addressing the King in such com- 
 mon parlance." John Dalton's remark upon this 
 comment of his friend far surpassed his reply made 
 to the King ; it was given in broad Cumbrian dialect, 
 "Mebby sae, but what can yan say to see like 
 fowk?" 
 
 On one of his visits to his old friends in Cumber- 
 land, Dalton attended the annual examination of the 
 children at the Friends' School, Brookfield, near 
 Wigton. When the examination in grammar was 
 proceeding (Lindley Murray being the text-book of 
 the school), Mr Cook, the head-master, asked the 
 Doctor if he would like to put any questions to the 
 children. " No," said he ; " for I consider that of al 
 the contrivances ever invented by human ingenuity 
 to puzzle the brains of the young, Lindley Murray's 
 grammar to be the worst." 
 
 This sentiment, it need hardly be added, gave the 
 Doctor great popularity among the Brookfield lads, 
 who on resorting to the playground gave him three 
 hearty cheers. 
 
 An anecdote may be related which shows the trust 
 he put in arduous industry, compared with the exer- 
 cise of what the world calls genius. Entertaining Jona- 
 than and his son to supper at the Globe Hotel, 
 
 the conversation fell on education, and this led Dalton 
 to inquire into the studies and progress of his young 
 friend ; he then said to him, "Thou seems to have 
 better talents than I possessed at thy age ; but thou 
 may want the thing that I had a good share of perse- 
 verance." The doctrine that greatness in every walk 
 of life is only attained by dogged perseverance, he 
 was accustomed to maintain at all times and seasons. 
 
282 John Dalton. 
 
 Thus he wrote: "If I have succeeded better than 
 many who surround me, it has been chiefly nay, I 
 may say, almost solely from unwearied assiduity. It 
 is not so much from any superior genius that one 
 man possesses over another, but more from attention 
 to study, and perseverance in the objects before them, 
 that some men rise to greater eminence than others." 
 Like Sir Isaac Newton, Dalton did not believe in 
 such a thing as genius ; and though it be too much to 
 say that they were altogether right in their estimation 
 of the operations of the human understanding under 
 varied conditions of life, history and biography offer 
 large evidence in their favour. Little has been done 
 in the world without painstaking observation and 
 industry ; on the other hand, a true inspiration has 
 often given point and character to a subject which 
 hard-earned labour had failed to elucidate or com- 
 prehend. 
 
 In Dalton's instance, perseverance made him the 
 best scholar in Pardshaw School ; perseverance sup- 
 ported him in making 200,000 meteorological obser- 
 vations ; perseverance from his first introduction to 
 chemistry enabled him to develop the atomic theory ; 
 and the same perseverance gained him one of the 
 highest seats in the French Institute the crowning 
 distinction of European eminence. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1834, on the occasion 
 of the meeting of the British Association at Edin- 
 burgh, the Senate of the Northern University con- 
 ferred upon Dr Dalton the degree of LL.D. 
 
 In December of the same year Jonathan Dalton 
 died, leaving all his real and personal estate to his 
 brother, Dr John Dalton. With this accession to his 
 
His First A ttack of Illness. 283 
 
 own hoardings, and the pension of 150 a-year, he 
 was well-to-do in the world, and considered himself 
 rich enough to buy a full set of silver spoons for 
 dinner, dessert, and tea service. In 1836 the royal 
 bounty was augmented to .300 a-year. 
 
 The long-continued good health that Dalton 
 enjoyed was suddenly broken in upon by a paralytic 
 seizure on the 1 8th April 1837. He had on the 
 previous evening had a long and warm discussion 
 on chemical notation and symbols, and had evidently 
 got much excited. Early in June he had sufficiently 
 recovered to send to the Royal Society his " Sequel 
 to an Essay on the Constitution of the Atmosphere," 
 that was published in nis Philosophical Transactions 
 for 1837. 
 
 From a memorandum of Miss Johns' (December 
 9, 1840) it would appear that Dalton was making 
 notes of his life. On the same evening he spoke of his 
 election to the Academy of Sciences, and of Laplace 
 being the greatest man of his age, nor did he forget 
 the extraordinary powers of Cuvier. Of one of the 
 Frenchmen who fell under consideration, Dalton said, 
 " Aye, he was a nonentity, as I am now." " No, no," 
 said Miss Johns to him, "you are not a nonentity 
 yet;" but still he seemed to feel a difference from 
 what he had been. After this period Dalton's 
 memory was hardly trustworthy, and his persistence 
 in work tended materially to make his deteriorated 
 brain worse and worse. 
 
 In his latter days, when possessed of ample means, 
 John Dalton felt anxious to distribute his property 
 among his blood relations and others who had be- 
 friended his early years, and the following letter indi 
 
284 John Dalton. 
 
 cates a wish to know the relations of the Robinsons 
 of Eaglesfield to his ancestral tree : 
 
 MANCHESTER, \th of \\th month, 1841. 
 DEAR FRIEND, JOHN ROBINSON. I left Eaglesfield when 
 I was very young (about 15), and never returned but a very few 
 days ; my sojourning was 12 years at Kendal, and upwards 
 of 48 at Manchester. Of course I could not be apprised of my 
 relations ; but now when one has time to reflect on the past, 
 we are engaged to look back at our ancestors. 
 
 Thomas Fearon, my great grandfather, and Mary Gill of 
 Eaglesfield, were married at Pardsey Cragg (Pardshaw Hall), 
 in 1688. 35 witnesses. 
 
 Jonathan Dalton, shoemaker [my grandfather], and Abigail 
 Fearon of Eaglesfield, were married at Pardsey Cragg (Pard- 
 shaw Hall), in 1712. 19 witnesses. 
 
 Joseph Dalton of Eaglesfield [my father], and Deborah 
 Greenup of Caldbeck, were married at Cockermouth in 1755. 
 37 witnesses. 
 
 John Robinson was among the witnesses of Thomas Fearon 
 and Mary Gill. Samuel Robinson, Joseph Robinson, Matthew 
 Robinson, John Robinson, were amongst the witnesses of my 
 grandfather's marriage. 
 
 Betty Robinson, John Robinson, Elihu Robinson, John Rob- 
 inson, were among the Robinsons in my father's marriage ; 
 taking them in succession. 
 
 I would like to know whether Samuel Robinson, who was joint 
 co-partner for a deed of Mary Fearon, youngest sister of Abigail 
 Fearon, thou must know, I conceive, whether one of thy rela- 
 tions, or Elihu' s relation. I used to call Elihu my cousin, but 
 he seemed not to be near of kin to me. Thou must know, 
 I guess, whether Samuel Robinson was thy grandfather, or 
 not. 
 
 When I left Eaglesfield there were John Robinson, the father, 
 John Robinson (of fauld), son, I believe, of old Betty Robinson 
 (widow), and her two or three daughters, Friends ; old Isaac 
 Robinson, and young Isaac Robinson (of fauld) ; and Elihu 
 Robinson ; and not to forget Dinah Robinson ; she died some 
 time before I left. 
 
Lord Egertoris Remarks on Dalton. 285 
 
 Samuel Robinson and John Gill were appointed trustees to 
 my great grandfather, Thomas Fearon. Thomas Fearon calls 
 him, in his last will, my " brother Samuel Robinson ; " is there 
 any name Samuel of your family ? Thy assured friend JOHN 
 DALTON. 
 
 I do not forget your kind entertainment of the bidders to my 
 estate. 
 
 [This postscript refers to the sale of his property, which he 
 wished converted into money, to enable him to distribute his 
 effects equally among his relatives and friends.] 
 
 The British Association met in 1842 at Manchester. 
 Dalton's infirm state of health rendered it impossible 
 for him to fill the office of President, for which he was 
 designated ; so he acted as one of the Vice-Presidents. 
 Lord Francis Egerton filled the chair, and made 
 the following appropriate remarks : 
 
 " Manchester has, in my opinion, a claim of equal interest as 
 the birthplace,* and still the residence and scene of the labours 
 of one whose name is uttered with respect wherever science is 
 cultivated, who is here to-night to enjoy the honours due to a 
 long career of persevering devotion to knowledge, and to receive, 
 if he will condescend to do so, from myself, the expression of 
 my own deep personal regret, that increase of years, which to 
 him up to this hour has been but increase of wisdom, should 
 have rendered him, in respect of mere bodily strength, unable 
 to fill on this occasion an office which, in his case, would have 
 received more honour than it could confer. I do regret that 
 any cause should have prevented the present meeting, in his 
 native town, from being associated with the name of Dalton as 
 its president. The council well know my views and wishes in 
 this matter, and that could my services have been available, I 
 
 * Owing to Dalton's long residence of fifty years, Manchester in the 
 eyes of a vast majority of people was considered his birthplace. 
 
286 John Dalton: 
 
 would gladly have served as a doorkeeper in any house where 
 the father of science in Manchester was enjoying his just pre- 
 eminence." 
 
 With his increasing years came increased debility, 
 so that he required the constant attention of an 
 attached servant. On the 2Oth May 1844, he had a 
 slight fit ; and on the 2/th July of the same year, 
 after an effort to rise, he had fallen backwards from 
 his bed, and was found with his head on the floor 
 quite lifeless. 
 
 His body was examined by Messrs Ransome and 
 Wilson, who found " in the anterior portion of the 
 middle lobe of the brain, on the left side, above the 
 filsure of Sylvius, a firm, thick sac containing the 
 debris of an old coagulum, and softening of the brain 
 around it. The weight of the brain and membranes 
 was about 3^ Ibs." * 
 
 There was nothing in the humours of the eye (as 
 already stated in the chapter on Colour-blindness) to 
 account for his colour-blindness. A phrenologist 
 present at the post-mortem examination pointed out 
 what he considered a deficient development of the 
 convolutions of the anterior lobes resting on the 
 frontal portion of the orbitar plates, the phrenological 
 site of the " organ of colour." 
 
 No sooner had the death of Dr Dalton been 
 announced, than a universal feeling arose in the city 
 of Manchester, from the ruling powers to the hum- 
 blest citizen, to pay all honour to the memory of the 
 
 * It is to be regretted that Mr Ransome had not been more definite 
 as to the weights he used, and whether it was the brain proper or the 
 encephalon he weighed, so that some comparisons might have been 
 instituted between Dalton's brain and those of Cuvier, Blumenbach, 
 Abercrombie, and others. 
 
His Death and Funeral. 287 
 
 deceased philosopher. A public funeral was resolved 
 upon, and in imitation of the honours paid to the great 
 in State and Church, the coffin containing his remains 
 were placed in the Town Hall, in a darkened apart- 
 ment, hung with back draTpery, and illuminated by 
 artificial light. In one day upwards of 40,000 persons 
 passed through the Town Hall to gratify their 
 curiosity * by a sight of a "beautiful mahogany coffin " 
 containing the remains of the deceased. The public 
 funeral took place on Monday, August 12, and in point 
 of numbers of persons present, and private carriages 
 nearly one hundred as well as in the display of all 
 the paraphernalia of woe, such a funeral was probably 
 never witnessed in provincial England. Four hun- 
 dred of the police were on duty, each with an emblem 
 of mourning, and the funeral train was nearly a 
 mile in length. Almost every public body in the 
 towns of Manchester and Salford were represented in 
 the procession. The shops and warehouses were 
 closed ; the windows were lined with spectators, as 
 well as the roofs of the houses. The burial took 
 place in the Ardwick Cemetery. The grave is en- 
 closed and covered by a massive block of polished 
 red granite, inscribed JOHN DALTON, and in smaller 
 letters the dates of his birth and death. 
 
 At the sale of Dr Dalton's furniture and effects, in 
 October 1844, seven hundred volumes of books were 
 offered for sale, some of them of considerable value. 
 He died possessed of about 8000 personality, besides 
 
 * No wonder the Society of Friends, whose mode of interment is so 
 simple, yet so solemn and impressive, entered their protest against the 
 " lying in state " of one of their members, as they have uniformly borne 
 " a testimony against all parade and show on such occasions, and 
 against all external emblems of mourning." 
 
288 John Dalton. 
 
 the realty, which consisted of six houses, bequeathed to 
 Mr Alderman Nield and Mr Peter Clare, two of his 
 oldest friends. He made his will on December 22, 
 1841, and a codicil in June 1843. With the exception 
 of 500 to the Quaker's school at Ackworth, York- 
 shire, and ;3OO to a similar school at Brookfield, and 
 50 to the Eaglesfield and Blind Bothell School at 
 Paddle, Cumberland, he distributed his money pretty 
 equally among his relatives and friends. 
 
 A meeting was held on January 26, 1853, m ^ e 
 Town Hall, Manchester, for promoting a testimonial 
 to the memory of John Dalton ; a committee was 
 appointed to collect subscriptions for the erection of 
 a monument over his grave in the Ardwick Cemetery, 
 and of a statue in front of the Manchester Royal 
 Infirmary ; and also to found one or more scholar- 
 ships for the best original investigation in Chemistry, 
 to be prosecuted in the laboratory of the Owens' 
 College. A sum of upwards of ^4000 was devoted 
 to this latter object, and a more fitting testimonial 
 could not have been proposed. " The establishment 
 in England," sagaciously observes Professor Roscoe, 
 " of a scholarship for original research, was, twenty-one 
 years ago, a circumstance without a parallel ; but in 
 spite of the novelty of the experiment, time has fully 
 proved the wisdom of the course which its originators 
 adopted, and already a considerable number of men 
 have had the Dalton Scholarship awarded to them 
 for original work of a more or less important char- 
 acter, and are now holding high and responsible 
 positions in scientific, manufacturing, and official 
 life." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " Truth is the daughter of Time, and not of Authority " 
 
 LORD BACON. 1 
 
 BONAPARTE'S LOVE OF SCIENCE OPINIONS OF THOMSON, WOLLAS- 
 TON, HERSCHEL, GRAHAM, BERZELIUS, FARADAY, LIEBIG, ROSCOE, 
 CANNIZZARO, TYNDALL, DUMAS, AND WURTZ ON THE ATOMIC 
 
 THEORY. 
 
 [ENERAL NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 
 in his expedition to Egypt, was accom- 
 panied by naturalists, historians, and others 
 eminent in art and science, selected 
 for special services in exploring the land of the 
 Pharaohs. After the decisive battle of the Pyramids, 
 Bonaparte, stationed at Cairo, was one day riding 
 through the Uzbekeeh gardens with M. Monge,* one 
 of the Scientific Institute the General had founded 
 in Egypt, whom he thus addressed : " I find myself 
 here the conqueror of Egypt, marching in the foot- 
 steps of Alexander the Great, but I should have 
 greatly preferred following those of Sir Isaac 
 Newton." M. Monge remarked that Newton had 
 exhausted the field of discovery in physics, leaving 
 nothing to those who might follow him. "By no 
 means," was Bonaparte's reply, " Newton dealt with 
 masses of matter, and with their movements; I 
 
 * This was Gaspard Monge, who founded the Normal and Poly- 
 technic Schools of Paris, and proved himself equal to the organisation 
 of numerous schemes for the benefit of the French Empire. 
 
 T 
 
290 John Dalton. 
 
 should have sought in the atoms for the laws by 
 which worlds have been constructed." What a testi- 
 mony to the genius of the young Corsican, who, with 
 a full appreciation of the light that Newton's mind 
 had revealed of the laws of gravitation affecting the 
 great orbs, was incited by motives of ambition to 
 soar for the light that should disclose the infinitesi- 
 mal small in the worlds of atoms. Whilst the bright 
 Eastern sun was warming the lofty inspirations of 
 the soldier of France towards scientific discovery, the 
 son of a poor weaver, a humble schoolmaster and 
 man of peace, in a dingy room of smoky Manchester, 
 was preparing his balances and crude apparatus for 
 the solution of that great problem in the physics of 
 chemistry that Bonaparte longed to be master of. 
 
 Though the laws of definite, reciprocal, and multiple 
 proportions remain in their integrity as laid down by 
 Dalton, it must not be supposed that all his experi- 
 ments, much less his combining weights of elements 
 and calculations, are to be viewed as faultless. Thus, 
 more accurate experimenting than his has proved 
 that certain atoms are a little heavier, and others a 
 little lighter than he believed ; and the work of per- 
 fecting the observations of chemists is constantly 
 going on, aided very materially by improved instru- 
 ments and methods of operating. Rarely can the 
 claim be made for approximative perfection, even in 
 the arts guided by the best mechanical skill. In 
 science, it need not be said, there are greater difficul- 
 ties to contend with, inasmuch as science has to do 
 with phenomena more subtle in nature, more diversi- 
 fied in relations, than mere technological plans and 
 arrangements. Hence it may be inferred that the 
 
Not ivitheut Questioners. 29 1 
 
 exposition, if not a portion of the doctrines promul- 
 gated by Dalton, has undergone certain modifica- 
 tions, not affecting that part of his views which 
 ascribed the union of indestructible atoms to 
 chemical affinity, but rather the accuracy of his 
 balance and the relative weights of the substances he 
 treated. This is of minor import compared with the 
 great strides he made upon the ancient atomists, and 
 the more modern Cartesian philosophers, who could 
 only see the irregular and fortuitous in the arrangement 
 of atoms, and not a constant and methodical action 
 affecting all molecular arrangements. 
 
 Dalton met with opponents in his own day, and 
 there are still some to be found who object to his 
 theory; but hitherto they have not shown any 
 inconsistency in the atomic theory, nor in the con- 
 clusions to which it leads. As Professor Williamson, 
 in his able address as President of the British 
 Association at Bradford in 1873, observed on this 
 subject, that no philosopher had been able to explain 
 " the facts of chemistry on the assumption that there 
 are no atoms, but that matter is infinitely divisible/' 
 Nay more, that "when they interpret their analyses, 
 these chemists allow themselves neither more nor 
 less latitude than the atomic theory allows : in fact, 
 they are unconsciously guided by it" No doubt it 
 is by examining the combining proportions of atoms 
 that we get clear ideas of the constitution of matter 
 that great desideratum in the mental vision of 
 Napoleon le Grand. 
 
 The test of a good hypothesis is its conformity 
 with observed facts, and Daiton's theory is thoroughly 
 reconcilable with this view. The most satisfactory 
 
292 John Dalton. 
 
 theories often involve suppositions of an irreconcilable 
 character. Thus, how difficult it is to frame one's 
 notions of the force of gravity acting instantaneously, 
 between the most distant parts of the planetary 
 system ; or that a touch of electricity should be made 
 to pass along a wire of 23,000 miles in length in a 
 single second ; or that a ray of violet light should 
 consist of 700 billions of vibrations in each second : 
 yet these statements, however extraordinary in char- 
 acter, are essential to enable us to explain the 
 phenomena observed by the physicist. 
 
 The Abbe Boscovich said that we are to under- 
 stand by hypotheses " not fictions altogether arbitrary, 
 but suppositions conformable to experience or ana- 
 logy." Newton's motto of "Hypotheses non fingo" 
 heralding his " Principia," was not only called in 
 question, but treated as somewhat ironical ; so much 
 so, that Liebnitz and other philosophers on the 
 Continent repelled the Newtonian tenet, and anim- 
 adverted strongly on his re-introducing part of his 
 occult chemistry into the science of facts. 
 
 In a previous chapter of this memoir, circumstances 
 of historical note and proof were adduced to clear 
 the ground of those doubts at one time prevalent 
 regarding the originality of the discovery of the 
 modern atomic theory by John Dalton ; now it 
 behoves me to notice the manner in which the new 
 chemical doctrines were received by his contempo- 
 raries. 
 
 To Dr Thomson of Glasgow must be awarded the 
 honour of first embracing and making known to the 
 world the atomic philosophy. It was during his 
 visit to Manchester in 1804, already mentioned, that 
 
Opinions of Thomson and Wollaston. 293 
 
 he learned from Dalton's lips his new doctrine, and 
 the experimental evidence on which it reposed. Dr 
 Thomson saw at a glance the immense importance of 
 this theory, and at once cordially adopting it, became 
 and continued, during a long and brilliant scientific 
 career, its most earnest and persevering expounder. 
 He first announced its principles in the third edition 
 of his " System of Chemistry," p. 424, &c., and in 
 January 1808, brought it prominently, with praise- 
 worthy hardihood, before the notice of the Royal 
 Society. In this memoir, on " Oxalic Acid," he showed 
 the existence of two salts of oxalic acid and potash, 
 the oxalate and superoxalate, in the last of which the 
 acid was found to be " very nearly double what is 
 contained in the oxalate." He also proved that there 
 are two oxalates of strontian, and " that the first con- 
 tains just double the proportion of base contained in 
 the second." .These remarkable examples of the law 
 of multiple proportions constituted of themselves, 
 especially at the time when they were made known, 
 invaluable facts in favour of the atomic theory. But 
 Dr Thomson ventured further, at the close of his 
 memoir, to lay down distinctly and fully the doctrines 
 of Dalton, and to give the atomic weights of several 
 bodies all, it may be observed, in the gaseous state 
 which Dalton had then obtained. "This curious 
 theory," he observes, "which promises to throw an 
 unexpected light on the obscurest parts of chemistry, 
 belongs to Mr Dalton." 
 
 At the next succeeding meeting of the Royal 
 Society Dr Wollaston read his remarkable memoir on 
 " Superacid and Subacid Salts." In this he points out 
 the existence of the law of simple multiples in the 
 
294 John Dalton. 
 
 subcarbonate and carbonate of potash and soda, in 
 the supersulphate and sulphate of potash, and in the 
 three compounds of potash and oxalic acid the oxa- 
 late, binoxalate, and quadroxalate. In these last the 
 weights of acid combining with a constant quantity 
 of base are represented by the numbers I, 2, and 4. 
 He regards these facts as " but particular instances 
 of the more general observation of Mr Dalton, that in 
 all cases the simple elements of bodies are disposed 
 to unite atom to atom singly, or if either is in excess, 
 it exceeds by a ratio to be expressed by some simple 
 multiple of the number of its atoms." He adds " I 
 am further inclined to think that when our views are 
 sufficiently extended to enable us to reason with 
 precision concerning the proportions of elementary 
 atoms, we shall find the arithmetical relation alone 
 will not be sufficient to explain their mutual action, 
 and that we shall be obliged to acquire.a geometrical 
 conception of their relative arrangement in all the 
 three dimensions of solid extension/' 
 
 In a letter dated November 15, 1809, addressed to 
 Dalton by Sir H. Davy, on matters connected with 
 the Royal Institution, he writes : " I shall be very 
 glad to hear your new views of the atomic system. 
 I think it likely that there is always a regular order 
 of proportions in composition, but I doubt whether 
 we have yet obtained any elements ; and I am con- 
 vinced that there are yet great changes to be made in 
 our existing arrangements." Again, in the year 181 r, 
 Sir H. Davy expressed his matured objections to the 
 doctrines of Dalton as follows : " I shall enter no 
 further at present into an examination of the opin- 
 ions, results, and conclusions of my learned friend. 
 
Sir H. Davy and Berzelius. 295 
 
 I am, however, obliged to dissent from most of them, 
 and to protest against the interpretations that he has 
 been pleased to make of my experiments, and I 
 trust to his judgment and candour for a correction of 
 his views. ... It is impossible not to admire the 
 ingenuity and talent with which Mr Dalton has 
 arranged, combined, weighed, measured, and figured 
 his atoms ; but it is not, I conceive, on any specula- 
 tions upon the ultimate particles of matter that 
 the true theory of definite proportions must ulti- 
 mately rest." 
 
 Considering Davy's exalted position as a discoverer 
 in chemistry, his keen vision, fertile imagination, and 
 powers of induction equal to the best men of his 
 epoch, it is much to be regretted that he should have 
 shown such jealousy of his rivals approaching near 
 the throne of science, and apparently so domineering 
 a spirit. In my last volume, when treating of the 
 character of James Losh, Recorder of Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, I had occasion to point out this marked fault in 
 Davy's scientific temperament. It is more agreeable 
 to note that after a lapse of years Sir Humphrey 
 came round to Dalton's views, and, as mentioned in 
 a previous page, when presenting Dalton with the 
 fifty-guinea prize offered by George IV., spoke in 
 the highest terms of his contemporary. 
 
 It may be stated in limine that almost all the great 
 chemical writers of the present day concur, without any 
 reservation, in attributing to Dalton the fame of this 
 remarkable discovery. Thus Berzelius affirms " To 
 Dalton belongs the honour of the discovery of this 
 part of chemical proportions which we name multiple 
 
296 John Dalton. 
 
 proportions, and which none of his predecessors had 
 observed." 
 
 In the estimation of the same distinguished 
 chemist, writing in 1835, "the atomic hypothesis was 
 afterwards confirmed by numerous experiments ; and 
 we may state without exaggeration, that this is one of 
 the greatest steps which chemistry has yet made 
 towards perfection." Mitscherlich thinks " that this 
 hypothesis, like every other, must undergo changes, in 
 proportion as observations are multiplied. It is 
 possible, although highly improbable, that it may be 
 wholly superseded by another ; yet the history of 
 science can adduce scarcely any law, and certainly no 
 theory, which has conducted the inquirer to so many 
 discoveries as this hypothesis." Dr Hermann Kopp's 
 opinion coincided with those of Berzelius. 
 
 " The extreme simplicity," Sir John Herschel ob- 
 serves, " which characterises the atomic theory, and 
 which is itself an indication, not unequivocal, of its 
 elevated rank in the scale of physical truths/ had the 
 effect of causing it to be announced at once by Mr 
 Dalton in its most general terms, on the contemplation 
 of a few instances, without passing through subordinate 
 stages of painful inductive assent by the intermedium of 
 subordinate laws. . . . Instances like this, where great, 
 and indeed immeasurable, steps in our knowledge of 
 nature are made at once, and almost without intel- 
 lectual effort, are well calculated to raise our hopes 
 of the future progress of science, and by pointing 
 out the simplest and most obvious combinations, as 
 those which are actually found to be most agreeable 
 to the harmony of creation, to hold out the cheer- 
 ing prospect of difficulties diminishing as we advance, 
 
Graham , Faraday, and Liebig. 297 
 
 instead of thickening around us in increasing com- 
 plexity." 
 
 Professor Graham states "But the first foundations 
 of a complete system of equivalents, embracing both 
 simple bodies and their compounds, were laid by 
 Dalton at the same time that he announced his 
 atomic theory." Again "The laws of combination 
 and the doctrine of equivalents, which have just been 
 considered, are founded upon experimental evidence 
 only, and involve no hypothesis. The most general 
 of these laws were not, however, suggested by 
 observation, but by a theory of the atomic constitu- 
 tion of bodies in which they are included, and which 
 affords a luminous explanation of them. The partial 
 verification which this theory has received in the 
 establishment of these laws adds greatly to its interest, 
 and is a strong argument in favour of its truth." 
 
 Dr Faraday, in reply to Dr W. C. Henry's inquiries 
 as to his views, wrote, August 2, 1853 : " I do not 
 know that I am unorthodox as respects the atomic 
 hypothesis. / believe in matter and its atoms as freely 
 as most people, at least I think so." The subsequent 
 part of his letter showed great reserve of mind as to 
 the existence of "little solid particles" independent 
 of the forces of matter ; and apparently his views of 
 the ultimate constitution of matter agreed pretty 
 much with that of the Abbe" Boscovich a little 
 dreamy and uncertain. 
 
 Baron Liebig's answer to Dr Henry's application 
 was of a more definite character. He wrote : 
 
 Chemistry received in the atomic theory a fundamental 
 view; which overruled and governed all other theoretical 
 views, to which the ideas of the age respecting chemical forces, 
 
298 John Dalton. 
 
 affinity, cohesion referred themselves ; it was the bond which 
 bound together all other views. In this lies the extraordinary 
 service which this theory rendered to science viz., that it 
 supplied a fertile soil for further advancement ; a soil which 
 was previously wanting. In the most recent investigations 
 concerning the constitution of organic bases, the alcohols and 
 the acids corresponding to the alcohols, we have seen that the 
 groundwork of the Daltonian theory is equally valid for organic 
 bodies. His main law, that the properties of compounds are 
 dependent on the nature of their elements, and on the mode 
 and way of their position or arrangement, will always main- 
 tain a high value. 
 
 Professor Roscoe, as President of the Chemical 
 Section of the " British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science " in 1870, after alluding to the views 
 of Sir B. C. Brodie and Dr Odling, with which he 
 mainly agreed, and believing that we must carefully 
 distinguish between fact and theory, went on to 
 say : 
 
 I would remind you that Dalton's discovery of multiple 
 and reciprocal proportions (I use Dr Odling's word), as well as 
 the differences which we now acknowledge in the power of 
 hydrogen-replacement in hydrochloric acid, water, ammonia, 
 and marsh-gas, are facts, whilst the explanation upon the 
 assumption of atoms is, as far as chemistry has yet advanced, 
 a theory. If, however, the existence of atoms cannot be proved 
 by chemical phenomena, we must remember that the assumption 
 of the atomic theory explains chemical facts as the undulatory 
 theory gives a clear view of the phenomena of light ; thus, for 
 instance, one of the most important facts and relations of 
 modern chemistry which it appears difficult, if not impossible, 
 to explain without the assumption of atoms, is that of Isomerism. 
 How otherwise than by a different arrangement of the single 
 constituent particles are we to account for several distinct 
 substances in which the proportions of carbon, hydrogen, and 
 
Roscoe, Cannizzaro, and TyndalL 299 
 
 oxygen are the same ? Why, for instance, should 48 parts by 
 weight of carbon, 10 of hydrogen, and 16 of oxygen, united 
 together, be capable of existing as three different chemical 
 substances, unless we presuppose a different statical arrange- 
 ment of the parts by which these differences in the deportment 
 of the whole are rendered possible ? 
 
 Professor Cannizzaro of Palermo, now of Rome, 
 delivered the " Faraday Lecture" to the Chemical 
 Society, May 30, 1872. Nature of June 20 gives 
 inter alia the following as part of the professor s 
 lecture : 
 
 Whilst giving a broad sketch of the progress of modern 
 chemistry, he showed that the atomic theory had become more 
 and more intimately interlaced with the fabric of chemistry, so 
 that it is no longer possible to separate them without rending 
 the tissue, as it were, of the science, and that up to the present 
 time we have been unable to enunciate even the empirical 
 laws of chemical proportion independently of that theory ; for 
 those who employ the term equivalent, in the sense that Wol- 
 laston did, commit an anachronism. Consequently, in the expo- 
 sition of the value and use of symbols, formulae, and chemical 
 equations, not only are we unable to do without the atomic and 
 molecular theory, but it is inconvenient to follow the long and 
 fatiguing path of induction which leads up to it. By one of 
 those bold nights of the human mind we can at once reach 
 the height whence we discern at a glance the relations between 
 facts. 
 
 Professor Tyndall, who seconded a vote of thanks 
 to Cannizzaro for his lecture, said : 
 
 The chemist cannot halt at equivalent proportions he must 
 ask himself whence they arise, and the inevitable answer is 
 some form of the atomic theory. This theory, however, cannot 
 be confined to chemical phenomena. The motions of those 
 atoms and molecules underlie all our explanations of the 
 physical cause of light and heat, and it is already taking up the 
 
3 oo John Dalton. 
 
 field of magnetism and electricity. Consider, for example, the 
 heat of gases, both as regards the motion of translation of the 
 molecules which produce temperature, and the motions of 
 rotation and vibration of their constituent. atoms, which, though 
 they do not express themselves as temperature, constitute a 
 portion of the heat. 
 
 Dumas, the most distinguished of French chemists 
 ("Legons sur la Philosophic Chimique," p. 221), calls 
 Dalton "the Nestor of Chemistry;" and Wurtz 
 (" Histoire des Doctrines Chimiques," Discour pre- 
 liminaire, p. xiv.), after describing the relation 
 between combining weights observed by Wengel and 
 Richter, adds : 
 
 Mais 1'interpretation thdorique faisait encore defaut. 
 Elle ddcoule des travaux d'un savant anglais qui a dote' la 
 science de la conception a la fois la plus profonde et la plus 
 fe'conde parmi toutes celles qui ont surgi depuis Lavoisier. Au 
 commencement de ce siecle, la chimie etait professed a Man- 
 chester par un homme qui joignait a un amour ardent de la 
 science cette noble fierte' du savant qui sait pref^rer 1'inde- 
 pendance aux honneurs, et a une vaine popularity la gloire des 
 travaux solides. Ce professeur est Dalton ; son nom est un 
 des plus grands de la chimie. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 JOHN DALTON'S STATEMENT OF THE CASE IN THE 
 AFFAIR BETWIXT HIS BROTHER AND SELF. 
 
 Article 1st. That my father, in apportioning the 
 paternal inheritance to us, has made a vastly great 
 and unusual distinction betwixt my brother and self. 
 
 Article 2d. That he would have placed his children 
 upon a more equitable footing, if he had apprehended 
 it was in his power to do so, with reputation to him- 
 self. 
 
 Article 3d. That it was in his power to dispose of 
 the whole of his property according as he should 
 think best ; but from a great deficiency in the know- 
 ledge of the law, and from a want of advice suited to 
 the exigencies of his situation at the time he made his 
 will, he has not availed himself of his power. 
 
 Article 4th. That upon these considerations, I think 
 myself entitled to something more out of the paternal 
 inheritance than I have yet received. 
 
 I shall now state the facts, to the best of my knowledge, in 
 support of these articles. 
 
 Facts relating to article ist. My father's property, when his 
 verbal will was made, was a real estate, of it freehold, 
 the rest copyhold, let to farm for .41, los. p. ann. without the 
 dwelling-house, now let for 2 p. ann. Total, ^43, los. p. ann. 
 
302 Appendix. 
 
 The neat value, therefore, may be set at ^1000. His personal 
 estate was thought to be nearly sufficient to pay his debts. By 
 his will, to which E. and J. Robinson were witnesses, the whole 
 estate, real and personal, was left to brother ; but he engaged, 
 as desired, to pay my sister and self each ^50 one year after 
 father's decease, and to pay my mother ^50 also, or rather an 
 annuity of ^6 p. ann. for life : these three fifties, or ^150, were 
 expressly mentioned and considered as the value of the copy- 
 hold. The freehold was scarcely mentioned. This is the sub- 
 stance of the matter as related by my brother to me at the time 
 (for I was not present) : and the two friends, I believe, do not 
 differ materially in their relation. I should, however, except 
 the valuation of the estate at ;iooo, which is my own, and was 
 not then mentioned I presume. As the estate was not then 
 thought to be chargeable with anything but Aunt Mary's dower 
 out of the copyhold, the rate of brother's part to mine, from 
 this view of things, is as 1 8 to I nearly. 
 
 Though this appeared, at the time of father's death, to be a fair 
 estimate, yet from different circumstances the proportion of our 
 shares is much changed. The following, then, is a statement of 
 our shares at father's death, as they have really turned out to be. 
 
 Father's real estate, ^1000; 
 
 personal, 73 . . . ) *> IO 73 
 [Debts] 303 
 
 Debts 122 
 
 Sister's debts* .... 15 
 Mortgage and interest . . 166 
 
 Remr. descended to brother 770 
 
 From this .770, which brother may be said to have received 
 at father's death, we are to deduct the following, in order to get 
 the neat value of his share, viz. : Aunt Mary's dower, 3 years, 
 ^40 ; mother's do., being 8 p. ann. for life, may be estimated at 
 ;8o. Value of the copyhold, ^150, to pay at i year, being dis- 
 counted, is ^144. Total, ,264. Remains neat to brother, ^506. 
 My share, ,50, discounted for I year, is ^48. Ratio io| : I 
 nearly. 
 
 This, then, is the real proportion of the effects we received 
 immediately from our father. 
 
 N.B. With respect to legacies in a collateral relation, origi- 
 
 * N.B. My brother has included these in father's debts : the reason 
 he alleges is that father intended to have paid them on her behalf. 
 
Appendix. 303 
 
 nally out of the same estate, we are pretty much upon a par ; 
 sister dying intestate, we each received 2.1. Uncle Jona's 
 legacy to my brother is about ^15 ; to myself, ^28 : the advan- 
 tage ^13 in my favour. 
 
 Facts relating to article 2d. My father expressly told me, 
 about three months before his death, when he was at Kendal, 
 " that Jonathan being provided for, he had only to care for us 
 (meaning sister and self), that he had nothing for us but the 
 tenancy as yet, but that he would be as frugal as might be, in 
 order to accumulate something more for us ; that as for the 
 entailed estate he would not touch it." 
 
 This is the purport of his words, and I apprehended at the 
 time it was a true statement of the case, and therefore made 
 little, if any, remark upon it to him. Upon this idea the settle- 
 ment was afterwards made, and J. Robinson says that he asked 
 my father sometime after the settlement was made, whether he 
 continued satisfied with it, and he answered in the affirmative. 
 From the above I am persuaded that my father thought it out 
 of his power, or at least, that he had no business to meddle with 
 the entailed estate. However, as others may not be so, con- 
 sidering I am witness in my own cause, I should therefore direct 
 them to reason upon the following facts, which no one will 
 deny. viz. 
 
 ist, That my father had as much common sense as men at a 
 medium have. 
 
 2d, That he had, or might have had, near ^icoo value to 
 dispose off by will, from a moderate computation of his effects, 
 as circumstances then appeared to him. 
 
 3d, That he left one son, as appeared then, near 18 times as 
 much as the other. 
 
 4th, That he was never heard to express the least inclination 
 to cut off the entail, nor to regret at last that he had not cut it 
 off; but, on the contrary, that he was quite easy and satisfied 
 with what he had done. 
 
 5th, That there is no person who ever heard him say that he 
 could cut off the entail when he thought fit, or words to this 
 import. 
 
 6th, That he was never known to manifest any partiality for 
 
304 Appendix. 
 
 one of his children more than for another, except this be an 
 instance. 
 
 Now, I appeal to any one who is acquainted with human 
 nature, whether these facts, together with those that are related 
 to have taken place at the time of the settlement, are better 
 accounted for on the one supposition or the other ; on the 
 supposition that he knew very well he could cut off the entail 
 at pleasure without meriting any just censure or on the sup- 
 position that it was not in his power to do so, nor his business 
 to meddle with it. 
 
 Facts relating to article 3d. Every one who is acquainted 
 with the laws of landed property in this country, knows that an 
 entail may be defeated by the tenant in possession. Nothing 
 more is required than to fee a few persons in office, who will, 
 after a sham process, sufficiently guarantee the tenant against 
 the effects of the iniquitous statute. This need not be further 
 insisted upon. With respect to my father's knowledge about 
 these quirks of law, we differ very much : my brother seems to 
 think my father knew as much as the exigencies of his affairs 
 required, and I think quite contrary. It is proper we advance 
 what we have in support of our opinions. I believe father 
 never read a printed page on law in his life. He seems to have 
 had no idea of the difference of an estate tail and an estate for 
 life, and the whole of his transactions and opinions seem to 
 have been formed on the supposition of the estate being his for 
 life only ; I have no doubt that my grandfather designed Uncle 
 Tona to have the estate for life only, and that father, if he sur- 
 vived, should have it fee-simple ; however, father, when in 
 possession, finding he had it not fee-simple, concluded the next 
 descent would make it such, and told my brother so, who told 
 it to me not many years ago. Now it is evident that he must 
 have had a very imperfect idea of the tenure of an estate tail, to 
 suppose that simple descent made any difference in the tenure 
 of it. He was equally out of it in the persuasion that neither 
 Aunt Mary D. nor my mother had any claim of dower, as E. 
 and J. Robinson very well know. 
 
 I believe he refused J. Sandilands the farm of the stone 
 quarries, from an idea that he had no right to let it. All these 
 things prove him to have been greatly deficient in the knowledge 
 
Appendix. 305 
 
 his affairs required. But, notwithstanding all this, it is said he 
 knew very well he could cut off the entail. I shall now speak 
 more particularly to this point. 
 
 When father was informed Uncle Jona demanded the 
 entail deed upon paying the mortgage, he was uneasy ; he 
 procured an attested copy of it, and took it to Uncle Greenup. 
 Uncle G. rinding the estate entailed, and not/0r life, as he had 
 previously apprehended, told him there had been a flagrant 
 mismanagement in the affair, and that as it was, Uncle Jona 
 had the power to cut off the entail at pleasure, and that his 
 interference could be of no service, but might do harm ; that 
 his interest was to be quiet and make no noise or opposition 
 about the matter. I relate this to the best of my memory as he 
 told it at his return. Here it rested till Uncle Jonathan's 
 death. 
 
 Father hearing Uncle's will, concluded he had availed himself 
 of the power to cut off the entail, and that there was no ground 
 for opposition ; accordingly he wrote immediately to brother to 
 come over and settle the matter ; but being much agitated 
 with the manner in which Uncle Jona had treated him, and at 
 his open violation of grandfather's known intentions, however 
 he might be sheltered by law in so doing he thought it proper 
 to advise with J. Robinson of Greysouthen before he sent the 
 letter. J. R. told him the devise of the entailed estate was 
 invalid, as he believed Uncle Jona had not formally cut off the 
 entail ; this father added in a postscript, and countermanded 
 his former order. From the conversation betwixt my father 
 and J. R. at this time, and at some other times, the latter has 
 conceived an idea that my father knew a good deal respecting 
 the matter ; upon hearing what I have said, and reconsidering 
 the matter, I am inclined to believe he will alter his opinion a 
 little. The subsequent correspondence betwixt my father and 
 Uncle G. did little or nothing more than revive in my father the 
 idea that Uncle Jona might have cut off the entail. This, it is 
 said, is expressed in such clear and strong terms, that father 
 could not avoid understanding it ; and yet he misunderstood an 
 expression equally as plain in one letter, which was that aunt 
 Mary would be entitled to dower. 
 
 Were we, however, after all to admit that he knew he could 
 
 U 
 
306 Appendix. 
 
 bar the entail ; yet his conduct and conversation evidently 
 demonstrate that he considered it as an unjustifiable and 
 reproachful action ; this is not much to be wondered at, con- 
 sidering his ignorance in point of law, and the disagreeable 
 idea of the business Uncle Jona's attempt had made. What in 
 Uncle Jona was perhaps censurable, would have been highly 
 meritorious in my father. Is there any one who will say he was 
 sensible of this ? 
 
 Let any person who is acquainted with the nature of an 
 entail put himself in my father's circumstances, and consider 
 whether the plan he went upon was not the most inconsistent 
 imaginable a family of three children a comparatively large 
 portion of freehold a small portion of copyhold, all in one 
 estate, though under different tenures to set aside the freehold 
 entirely for one, and to carve in the copyhold for a widow and 
 two children. Would it not have been more consistent and 
 prudential, as soon as his title was fully established, to have cut 
 off the entail immediately, and then he was ready for any 
 occurrence, or else, to avoid expense, have made the next in 
 succession (my brother) enter into some provisional agreement, 
 not to take any advantage of his situation ? Father never so 
 much as hinted the least design of this sort, whether it was 
 because he was not careful for his wife and two younger 
 children, or from other causes, I leave to be determined. 
 
 E. & J. Robinson, as has been mentioned, were so obliging as 
 to be present at the time of the settlement of my father's affairs, 
 and to advise to the best of their knowledge ; whatever my 
 father knew about the entailed estate, I believe they will not 
 hesitate to say they considered it as quite out of his power to 
 devise it, either at that time, or at any other time ; and likewise 
 that no dower was claimable on my mother's behalf. Of course 
 they could not but approve the distribution then made. Had 
 they known my mother could claim dower, it seems to me they 
 would have rather advised to increase sister's portion and 
 mine, by dividing the copyhold into two instead of three 
 portions ; the debts, too, might have been laid upon the freehold, 
 especially when it is considered that a great portion of them 
 was spent in improvements and other incidental expenses to 
 the freehold. These things might have been done, even if 
 
Appendix. 307 
 
 brother had been disposed to take the utmost advantage of the 
 situation of father's affairs at the time of settlement. 
 
 Facts relating to article 4th. It appears from the nature of 
 the case that I can claim no specific sum, because father never 
 mentioned how he would have distributed his effects amongst 
 us had they been unfettered ; but if we may judge from the speci- 
 men he has given us in dividing the copyhold, his ideas have 
 not been widely different from those of others who use their 
 reason on such occasions : considering that we stood alike 
 expensive to him in education, and alike circumstanced in 
 every respect, except age, I doubt not he would have placed us 
 upon an equal footing, because the same is reasonable, regard 
 being had to the difference of our ages, by which I mean that 
 we should have been on an equality at equal ages, or that my 
 portion to brother's, taken at any given time, as at his death, 
 would have been as 10 to 13 nearly. To do this at present 
 would take above ^200 from him to add to my part ; whether 
 disinterested persons who hear all on both sides will judge my 
 right equal to this amount, or something less, or nothing at 
 all ; or that I am making all this stir through envy, or some 
 other cause, I know not ; they have a right to judge for them- 
 selves, and whatever their judgment be I shall not be greatly 
 moved with it. As for myself, when I think about the matter 
 (and who is there would not think about it, considering we 
 were left as 18 to I, or even as 10 to i) I am unavoidably led to 
 judge hardly either of my father or brother, on whatever side of 
 the matter I look. 
 
 In the one case, supposing it was my father's positive will to 
 leave us so, and that if he had possessed cash instead of land 
 he would have done just the same, I am puzzled to account for 
 his extreme caprice in placing sister and self at such a distance, 
 especially as it was so inconsistent with the general tenor of his 
 character. 
 
 In the other case, supposing his want of knowledge in the 
 different points of law to have been the cause of this great 
 distinction, it seems peculiarly uncharitable in a brother to 
 make no allowances for such a circumstance, even if not com- 
 pellable by law ; and if the former were the true case, one would 
 think he could hardly beeasy without making me some amends 
 
308 Appendix. 
 
 for the injury done me by a piece of caprice, which neither he 
 nor any one else ever pretended to account for. 
 
 ADDENDA. Having given the above statement into my 
 brother's hand, he drew up his likewise and gave it to me to 
 peruse. I have nothing to remark thereon till he comes to state 
 our respective receipts, where he calculates the value of the 
 freehold upon the supposition of an annuity for life : which 
 calculation I think merits no notice, because he allows that by 
 paying 20 the value will be increased ^300, and because he 
 would not part with the estate for the sum he has put down. 
 
 Also he places the fine on the tenancy amongst the encum- 
 brances : I supposed the estate would bring ,1000, though it 
 might cost the purchaser ^1000 and the fine : in other respects 
 we differ no otherwise in stating his receipts than that I have 
 taken round numbers. With respect to my receipts he has 
 put down ^20 that I have on the part of my mother, but do not 
 know whether I can call it my own ; it is hers if she demand 
 it : however this may be, if I be placed anything near on an 
 equitable footing with him, I shall give it up to her. 
 
 He has put our legacies from uncle and sister into the 
 account ; this appears to me unfair, because these were con- 
 tingencies which my father could not foresee, and therefore 
 could not influence his conduct to us ; and besides, if we had 
 been equal before, these would not have much disturbed the 
 equality ; we ought then to ascertain the proportions which we 
 have received from him, and which are nearly as I have stated 
 above. JOHN DALTON. 
 
 KENDAL, 12 mo. 1792. 
 
 For the arbitrators in the above-mentioned case. 
 
Appendix. 309 
 
 LIST OF DR DALTON'S PAPERS, 
 
 READ BEFORE THE MEMBERS OF THE MANCHESTER 
 LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 1. October 31, 1794. Extraordinary Facts relating 
 to the Vision of Colours, with Observations. 
 
 2. November 27, 1795. On the Colour of the Sky, 
 and the Relation between Solar Light and that derived 
 from Combustion; with Observations on Mr Delaval's 
 Theory of Colours. 
 
 3. April 7, 1798. Essay on the Mind, its Ideas, 
 and Affections ; with an Application of Principles to 
 explain the Economy of Language. 
 
 4. March i, 1799. A Paper containing Experi- 
 ments and Observations, to determine whether the 
 quantity of Rain and Dew is equal to the quantity 
 of Water carried off by the Rivers and raised by 
 Evaporation; with an Inquiry into the Origin of 
 Springs. 
 
 5. April 12, 1799. Experiments and Observations 
 on the Power which Fluids possess of conducting 
 Heat ; with Reference to Count Rumford's Seventh 
 Essay. 
 
 6. June 7, 1799. On the Colour of the Sky, and 
 the Relation betwixt Solar Light and that derived 
 from Combustion ; with Observations on Mr Delaval's 
 Theory. 
 
 7. April 1 8, 1800. Experimental Essays, to de- 
 termine the Expansion of Gases by Heat, and the 
 maximum of Steam or Aqueous Vapour, which any 
 Gas of a given Temperature can admit of; with 
 
3io Appendix. 
 
 Observations on the Common and Improved Steam 
 Engines. 
 
 8. June 27, 1800. On the Heat and Cold pro- 
 duced by the Mechanical Condensation and Rare- 
 faction of air. 
 
 9. October 17, 1800. Philological Inquiry into the 
 Use and Signification of the Auxiliary Ver]?s and 
 Participles of the English Language. 
 
 10. December 12, 1800. Review of Dr Herschel's 
 Experiments on the Radiant Heat, and the Reflec- 
 tibility and Refrangibility of Light. 
 
 11. July 31, 1801. Read Part ist of Mr Dalton's 
 Paper on the constitution of Mixed Gases, &c. 
 
 12. October 2, 1801. Read Part 2d of Mr Dalton's 
 Paper on the Force of Steam, &c. 
 
 13. October 16, 1801. Read Part 3d of Mr Dalton's 
 Paper on Evaporation, &c. 
 
 14. January 22, 1802. On the General Causes, 
 Force, and Velocity of Winds ; with Remarks on the 
 Seasons most liable to High Winds. 
 
 15. October 29, 1802. On the Proportion of the 
 several Gases or Elastic Fluids, constituting the 
 Atmosphere ; with an Inquiry into the Circumstances 
 which distinguish the Chymical and Mechanical Ab- 
 sorption of Gases by Liquids. 
 
 16. January 14, 1803. On the Spontaneous Inter- 
 course of different Elastic Fluids, in confined circum- 
 stances. 
 
 17. October 7, 1803. On the Absorption of Gases 
 by Water. 
 
 18. November 4, 1803. On the Law of Expansion 
 of Elastic Fluids, Liquids, and Vapours. 
 
 19. February 24, 1804. A Review and Illustration 
 
Appendix. 3 1 1 
 
 of some Principles in Mr Dalton's course of Lectures 
 on Natural Philosophy, at the Royal Institution, in 
 January 1804. 
 
 20. August 3, 1804. On the Elements of Chemical 
 Philosophy. 
 
 21. October 5, 1804. On Heat. 
 
 22. November 30, 1804. Review of Dr Hope's 
 Paper " On the Contraction of Water by Heat." 
 
 23. September 2, 1805. Remarks on Mr Gough's 
 two Essays on Mixed Gases, and on Mr Schmidt's 
 " On Moist Air." 
 
 24. March 7, 1806. On Respiration and Animal 
 Heat. 
 
 25. February 6, 1807. On the Constitution and 
 Properties of Sulphuric Acid. 
 
 26. October 2, 1807. On Heat. 
 
 27. October 16, 1807. On the Expansion of Bodies 
 by Heat. 
 
 28. January 22, 1808. On the Specific Heat of 
 Bodies. 
 
 29. March 18, 1808. On the Specific Heat of 
 Gaseous Bodies. 
 
 30. December 2, 1808. On the Measure of Me- 
 chanical Force. 
 
 31. December 16, 1808. On Respiration. 
 
 32. March 10, 1809. On Evaporation. 
 
 33. April 7, 1809. On the Compounds of Sulphur. 
 
 34. November 3, 1809. On Muriatic Acid. 
 
 35. December I, 1809. On Sulphuric Acid. 
 
 36. March 9, 1810. On Fog. 
 
 37. November 16, 1810. Appendix to his Remark 
 on Respiration and Animal Heat. 
 
 38. December 28, 1810. On Hygrometry. 
 
312 Appendix. 
 
 39. April 3, 1812. On Meteorology. 
 
 40. April 17, 1812. Meteorology continued. 
 
 41. October 2, 1812. On the Oxy-muriate of 
 Lime. 
 
 42. January 8, 1813. Experiments on Phospho- 
 ric Acid, and the Phosphates. 
 
 43. March 5, 1813. Experiments and Observa- 
 tions on the different compounds of Carbonic Acid 
 and Ammonia. 
 
 44. October u, 1813. On the Combinations of 
 Gold. 
 
 45. October 15, 1813. Continuation of the paper 
 on the Combinations of Gold. 
 
 46. November 12, 1813. The Combinations of 
 Platina. 
 
 47. December 10, 1813. On the Cause of Chemical 
 Proportion, being remarks on a paper by Berzelius. 
 
 48. January 7, 1814. Experiments on certain Fri- 
 gorific Mixtures. 
 
 49. March 18, 1814. Remarks tending to facilitate 
 the Analysis of Spring and Mineral Waters. 
 
 50. October 7, 1814. On Metallic Oxides. 
 
 51. December 2, 1814. On Metallic Oxides (con- 
 tinued). 
 
 52. January 27, 1815. Critical remarks on some 
 modern Chemical Phrases. 
 
 53. November 17, 1815. Remarks on Saussure's 
 Essay on the Absorption of Gases by Liquids. 
 
 54. October 4, 1816. On the Chemical Com- 
 pounds of Azote and Oxygen. 
 
 55. December 13, 1816. An Appendix to the 
 Essay on Chemical Compounds of Azote and Oxygen. 
 
 56. October 3, 1817. On Phosphurets, or the 
 
Appendix. 3 1 3 
 
 Combinations of Phosphorus, with Earths, Alkalies, 
 Metals, &c. 
 
 57. November 21, 1817. Observations on Oxides 
 and Sulphurets. 
 
 58. November 13, 1818. Observations on the 
 Quantity of Rain during the last twenty-five years ; 
 with Remarks on the Theory of Rain. 
 
 59. December n, 1818. Summary of Observa- 
 tions on the Barometer and Thermometer made at 
 Manchester for the last twenty-five years. 
 
 60. January 8, 1819. Experiments on the Force 
 of the Vapour of Ether, to show the fallacy of some 
 of Dr Ure's Statements just published in the Philoso- 
 phical Transactions. 
 
 6 1. April 1 6, 1819. On Sulphuric Ether. 
 
 62. October 15, 1819. On Alloys, particularly 
 those of Copper and Zinc, and Copper and Tin. 
 
 63. November 12, 1819. On Amalgams, and other 
 Metallic Alloys. 
 
 64. December 10, 1819. A Chemical Analysis of 
 the Mineral Waters of Buxton. 
 
 65. October 6, 1820. On Oil, and the Gases 
 obtained from it by Heat. 
 
 66. December I, 1820. On Alum. 
 
 67. January 26, 1821. On Meteorology, or Obser- 
 vations on the Weather for the years 1819 and 1820 
 in Manchester. 
 
 68. February 9, 1821. Observations on Meteoro- 
 logy, particularly with regard to the Dew Point, &c., 
 or quantity of Vapour in the Air. 
 
 69. October 5, 1821. Some Observations on the 
 Salts and Sulphurets of Iron. 
 
 70. November 30, 1821. On the Effects of Con- 
 
314 Appendix. 
 
 tinued Electrification on Compound and Mixed 
 Gases. 
 
 71. December 13, 1822. On the Saline Impreg- 
 nations of the Rain which fell during the late storm, 
 viz., December 5, 1822. 
 
 72. March 21, 1823. Appendix to an Essay on Salt 
 Rain (read December 13, 1822), with additional Obser- 
 vations on the succeeding Storms of Wind and Rain. 
 
 73. November 14, 1823. On the Nature and Pro- 
 perties of Indigo ; with directions for the valuation of 
 different samples. 
 
 74. December 26, 1823. On various Alloys of Tin, 
 Zinc, Lead, Bismuth, Antimony, &c. 
 
 75. October 15, 1824. On Associations for the 
 Promotion of the Physical Sciences, Literature, and 
 the Arts. 
 
 76. November 12, 1824. An Account of some 
 Experiments to determine the Light and Heat given 
 out by the Combustion of different Gases. 
 
 77. April 15, 1825. Results of Meteorological Ob- 
 servations at Manchester, for thirty-one years ; with 
 Remarks upon them. 
 
 78. December 30, 1825. On the Constitution of 
 the Atmosphere. 
 
 79. October 6, 1826. On the Height of the Aurora 
 Borealis above the Surface of the Earth, particularly 
 the one seen on the 2Qth March 1826. 
 
 80. November 4, 1826. An Appendix to a paper 
 read on October 6, on the Height of the Aurora 
 Borealis above the Surface of the Earth. 
 
 8 1. November 26, 1827. An Historical Sketch of 
 the Society's Library : with an account of its present 
 state. 
 
Appendix. 3 1 5 
 
 82. December 28, 1827. Observations, chiefly 
 Chemical, on the nature of the Rock Strata in Man- 
 chester and its vicinity. 
 
 83. October 17, 1828. Summary of the Rain, &c., 
 at Geneva and at the elevated station of St Bernard, 
 for a series of years, from the " Bibliotheque Univer- 
 selle" for March 1828; with observations on the same. 
 
 84. January 8, 1830. Physiological Investigations 
 deduced from the Mechanical Effects arising from 
 Atmospherical Pressure on the Animal Frame. 
 
 85. January 22, 1830. Remarks on a Statement 
 of the Amount of Rain fallen at different places on 
 the line of the Rochdale Canal. 
 
 86. March 5, 1830. On the Quantity of Food taken 
 by a person in health, compared with the Quantity 
 of the different Secretions during the same period ; 
 with Chemical Remarks on the several Articles. 
 
 87. October 15, 1830. Chemical Observations on 
 certain Atomic Weights, as adopted by different 
 Authors ; with some Remarks on the Notation of 
 Berzelius. 
 
 88. October 29, 1830. Observations on the Causes 
 of Colouring Matter. 
 
 89. November 23, 1830. Chemical Observations 
 on certain Atomic Weights, as adopted by different 
 Authors ; with Remarks on the Notation of Berzelius. 
 
 90. January 21, 1831. Meteorological Observa- 
 tions for a period of thirty-seven years ; with Theo- 
 retical Remarks. 
 
 91. February 18, 1831. On the Quantity of Oxy- 
 gen in Atmospheric Air. 
 
 92. December 2, 1831. On the Proportion of 
 Oxygen Gas in the Atmosphere. 
 
316 Appendix. 
 
 93. January 13, 1832. A Summary of Meteoro- 
 logical Observations for 1831, made in Manchester 
 and the Vicinity. 
 
 94. January n, 1833. Mr Dalton's Remarks on 
 the Meteorology of the last year. 
 
 95. March 8, 1833. Observations on the Anoma- 
 lous Vision of Colours. 
 
 96. November i, 1833. A Description of an 
 imaginary Aurora Borealis in the North of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 97. February 7, 1834. An Account of Meteorolo- 
 gical Observations at Manchester and other places in 
 the year 1833. 
 
 98. March 7, 1834. Some Remarks on Clouds; 
 their Nature, Height, &c. 
 
 99. October 17, 1834. Observations on certain 
 Liquids obtained from Caoutchouc by Distillation. 
 
 100. December 26, 1834. Observations on the 
 various accounts of the Luminous Arch or Meteor 
 accompanying the Aurora Borealis of November 3, 
 1834. 
 
 lor. February 20, 1835. Account of Meteorolo- 
 gical Observations made in Manchester and other 
 places in 1834. 
 
 1 02. October 2, 1835. Read a paper by Mr Dai- 
 ton. (Subject not named in the Journal.) 
 
 103. February 15, 1836. An Account of Meteoro- 
 logical Observations made in Manchester and other 
 places in 1835. 
 
 104. October 21, 1836. Sequel to an Essay on the 
 Constitution of the Atmosphere ; read to the Society 
 in the year 1825. Part I. 
 
 105. November 4, 1836. Second part of a paper 
 
Appendix. 317 
 
 entitled " Sequel to an Essay on the Constitution of 
 the Atmosphere." 
 
 1 06. October 2, 1838. On Arseniates and Phos- 
 phates. 
 
 107. February 5, 1839. Some Account of Meteoro- 
 logical Observations made in Manchester in the years 
 1836-38. 
 
 108. October i, 1839. On the Ammoniaco-Mag- 
 nesian Phosphate, as it was formerly called ; or the 
 Tribasic Phosphates of Magnesia and Ammonia, as 
 Professor Graham has called it And on the Phos- 
 phate of Soda and Ammonia, or Microscopic Salt, as 
 it was formerly called ; and now Tribasic Phosphate of 
 Soda and Ammonia and Water, of Professor Graham. 
 
 109. March 31, 1840. On the Quantity of Acids, 
 Bases, and Water in the different varieties of Salts ; 
 with a New Method of Measuring the Water of Crys- 
 tallisation of Water. 
 
 no. April 28, 1840. Some Account of Meteoro- 
 logical Observations made in Manchester in the year 
 1839. 
 
 in. October 6, 1840. Continuation of a paper 
 on the Quantity of Acids, Bases, and Water in the 
 different varieties of Salts. 
 
 112. January 12, 1841. Meteorological Obser- 
 vations made in Manchester and the neighbourhood 
 during the year 1840, or previously. 
 
 113. March 9, 1841. On a New and Easy Method 
 of Analysing Sugar. 
 
 114. October 5, 1841. On a Citric Acid, the Oxalic 
 Acid, the Acetic Acid, and Tartaric Acid. 
 
 115. January 10, 1843. Meteorological Observa- 
 tions at Manchester, made in the year 1842. 
 
3i8 Appendix. 
 
 1 1 6. April 1 6, 1844. On the Fall of Rain, &c., in 
 Manchester, during a period of fifty years. 
 
 Some of these were embodied in other works or 
 printed elsewhere. 
 
 In Nicholson's Journal. 
 
 New Theory of the Constitution of Mixed Gases 
 elucidated, Vol. iii., p. 26. November 18, 1802. 
 
 Letter from Mr Dalton, containing Observations 
 concerning the Determination of Zero of Heat, the 
 Thermometrical Gradation, and the Law by which 
 Dense or Non-elastic Fluids expand by Heat, Vol. 
 v., p. 34. April 20, 1803. 
 
 Correction of a mistake in Dr Curwen's Essay on 
 the State of Vapour in the Atmosphere, Vol. vi., p. 
 118. August 22, 1803. 
 
 On the supposed Chemical Affinity of the Elements 
 of Common Air ; with Remarks on Dr Thomson's 
 observations on that subject, Vol. viii., p. 145. June 
 1 6, 1804. 
 
 Observations on Mr Gough's Strictures on the Doc- 
 trine of Mixed Gases, &c., Vol. ix., p. 89. September 
 8, 1804. 
 
 Facts tending to Decide the Question at what Point 
 of Temperature Water possesses the greatest Density, 
 Vol. x., p. 93. January 10, 1804. 
 
 Extract of a Letter from Mr J. Dalton : On a 
 remarkable Aurora Borealis, Vol. x., p. 303. March 
 12, 1805. 
 
 Remarks on Count Rumford's Experiments relating 
 to the Maximum Density of Water, Vol. xii., p. 28. 
 August 17, 1805. 
 
Appendix. 319 
 
 Investigation of the Temperature at which Water 
 is of the greatest Density, from the experiments of 
 Dr Hope, on the Contraction of Water by Heat at 
 low temperatures, Vol xiii., p. 377. April 14, 1806. 
 And Vol. xiv., p. 128. May 1806. 
 
 Inquiries concerning the Signification of the word 
 Particle, as used by modern chemical writers, as well 
 as concerning some other terms and phrases, Vol. 
 xxviii., p. 8 1. December 19, 1811. 
 
 Remarks on Potassium, Sodium, &c., Vol. xxix., p. 
 129. May II, 1811. 
 
 Observations on Dr Bostock's Review of the 
 Atomic Principles of Chemistry, Vol. xxix., p. 143. 
 May 15, 1811. 
 
 In Thompsons "Annals of Philosophy." 
 
 Further Observations and Experiments on the 
 Combinations of Oxymuriatic Acid with Lime, Vol. 
 ii., p. 6. 1813. 
 
 Remarks on the Essay of Dr Berzelius, on the 
 Cause of Chemical Proportion. December 24, 1813. 
 Vol. iii. 5 p. 174. 1814. 
 
 Vindication of the Theory of the Absorption of 
 Gases by Water against the conclusions of Saussure, 
 Vol. vii., p. 215. 1816. 
 
 On the Chemical Compounds of Azote and Oxy- 
 gen, and on Ammonia, Vols. ix., p. 186, and x., pp. 
 38 and 83. 1817. 
 
 On Phosphuretted Hydrogen, Vol. xi., p. 7. 1818. 
 
 On the Combustion of Alcohol, by the lamp with- 
 out flame, Vol. xii. p. 245. 1818. 
 
 On the Vis Viva, Vol. xii., p. 444. 1818. 
 
320 Appendix. 
 
 In Phillips' " Annals of Philosophy '." 
 
 On the Analysis of Atmospheric Air by Hydrogen, 
 Vol. x, N. S. 
 
 In the " Philosophical Transactions" 
 
 On the Constitution of the Atmosphere. 1826. 
 
 On the Height of the Aurora Borealis. 1828. 
 
 Sequel to an Essay on the Constitution of the 
 Atmosphere ; with some Account of the Sulphurets 
 of Lime. 1837. 
 
 In the " Annales de Chimie^ 
 
 Sur 1'Hydrogene Phosphure* (Extract of a letter 
 addressed to the Royal Academy of Sciences), Vol. 
 
 vii. 1817. 
 
 In a Separate Form. 1840. 
 
 Essay on the Phosphates and Arseniates. 
 
 On Microcosmic Salt. 
 
 On the mixture of Sulphate of Magnesia and the 
 Biphosphate of Soda. 
 
 Essay on the Quantity of Acids, Bases, and Water 
 in the different varieties of Salts; with a New Method 
 of Measuring the Water of Crystallisation as well as 
 the Acids and Bases. 
 
 On a New and Easy Method of Analysing Sugar. 
 
 " GRAMMAR," 1801. His "METEOROLOGY," 1793. 
 
 "NEW SYSTEM OF CHEMISTRY," Part L, 1808; 
 Part II. 1 8 10, Vol. ii., Part I. 1827. 
 
 A new edition of Vol. i., Part L, appeared in 1841, 
 and a new edition of his METEOROLOGY in 1834. 
 
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